UCL - Learner Corpus Research 2011 :15-17 September 2011
Learner Corpus Research 2011To mark the 20th anniversary of its creation, the Centre for English Corpus Linguistics of the University of Louvain is organizing a conference entitled “20 years of learner corpus research: looking back, moving ahead” in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) on 15-17 September 2011.
Conference themes
We particularly welcome papers that address the relevance of learner corpus research to:
Cognitive linguistics
Discourse studies
(e-)lexicography
Grammar and syntax
Language for academic/specific purposes
Language varieties
Lexicology and phraseology
Natural language processing
Second language acquisition
Second/foreign language teachingThe conference will also feature three thematic sessions, for which submissions are invited.
1. Language for Specific Purposes Learner Corpora (convenor: Magali Paquot)
The “Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) Learner Corpora” thematic session aims to bring together researchers that are particularly interested in the collection, annotation and analysis of LSP learner corpora and their practical applications.2. Learner Corpora and Cognitivism (convenor: Fanny Meunier)
The “Learner Corpora and Cognitivism” thematic session aims to bring together researchers working with learner corpora (either as their main source of data or in combination with other data types) to help account for cognitive processes at play in second language acquisition.3. Learner Corpora and World Englishes (convenor: Gaëtanelle Gilquin)
The aim of the “Learner Corpora and World Englishes” thematic session is to bring the fields of SLA and World Englishes one step closer to each other by examining the possible links and synergies between Learner Englishes and indigenised varieties of English, as they emerge from corpora.
Proposal Abstract (Uchida & Yamauchi)
Our four-year research project, which is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, aims at improving the writing ability of Japanese learners of English. The research focus of the project is on cross-linguistic influence in language learning, specifically syntactic transfer from Japanese to English, which is behind errors in learners’ interlanguages. By pointing out major syntactic traits commonly found in the production of learners, we aim to shortlist the problems caused by negative transfer that need to be addressed in college/university classrooms with urgency.
At middle-level colleges and universities in Japan, the average proficiency level of students is considerably lower than that of learners whose production data comprise the major learner corpora such as ICLE (Université Catholique de Louvain) and NICE (Nagoya University). This means that those corpora are not necessarily the right materials for the research performed in the purpose of improving proficiency of the majority of the Japanese college/university students. Rather, "personalised" corpora, consisting of data produced by special sets of learners, e.g., the students enrolled in a given course, should be collected and examined.
During the 2010 autumn semester, we set up several writing tasks for our classes using Moodle, and the students performed the tasks online outside of the classroom. The primary purpose of this pilot study was to collect data, but at the same time we intended to design our writing tasks to help motivate the students to use English online for communicative purposes and keep them engaged in productive activities, which was expected to be challenging for reasons discussed below.
This presentation will specifically address this latter issue. It will answer the following research questions: (1) How we can encourage students to get online and participate? (2) What types of topics are preferable for the learners? (3) How can feedback from the peers and teachers help to keep the activities going? These issues are significant especially in the context of teaching EFL to Japanese learners, since in Japan many non-English majors in universities have few opportunities to use English outside the classroom. For most of them writing in English is nothing but an ordeal, and very few have experience emailing, texting or social networking using English. Another factor to be considered is their lack of familiarity with computers: it is not uncommon for students, especially in their first year, to have little previous experience using computers at home. Under such circumstances writing activities outside the classroom tend to be difficult to organise and therefore careful designing of activities is prerequisite.