Background

Learner Corpus Research (LCR)

Learner corpus research (LCR) allows the quantitative and qualitative analysis of numerous linguistic variables as well as the influence of extra-linguistic factors on learners’ interlanguage (Callies et al. 2014; Granger 2015). Accordingly, LCR has contributed significantly to Second Language Acquisition (SLA) across all levels of analysis, including:

In addition, cross-cutting issues have been addressed, such as the status of learner language features as errors or innovations (Rosen 2016; Deshors et al. 2018; Callies 2023) or the utility of learner corpus analyses for operationalizing and measuring paradigmatic concepts of SLA research such as processability (Bonilla 2021), transfer (Paquot 2013, 2014; Larsson et al. 2020; Werner et al. 2021), or complexity-accuracy-fluency (CAF; Biber et al. 2020; Leńko-Szymańska & Götz 2022).

Gaps in the Literature

Although LCR has contributed significantly to a better understanding of SLA processes, the full potential of LCR for the analysis of the CAF triad is yet to be realized, due to a number of challenges identified in the literature (e.g. Myles 2021, Tracy-Ventura et al. 2021). These include, among others:

(i) a neglect of task effects

As well as the underrepresentation or lack of:

(ii) beginner and lower-intermediate learners

(iii) spoken material and truly bi-modal data (i.e. data in different modes produced by the same learners)

(iv) metadata

(iv) longitudinal or quasi-longitudinal perspectives

The YGLE corpus project will address these challenges by:

(i) using the same set of tasks across the entire sampled learner population, to be supplemented with more complex tasks for older and more advanced learners

(ii) focusing on young learners

(iii) including both spoken and written tasks

(iv) gathering an extensive set of metadata

(v) creating a quasi-longitudinal corpus, with data collected in grades 5, 7, 9, and 11

References

Biber, D., Reppen, R., Staples, S. & Egbert, J. (2020). Exploring the longitudinal development of grammatical complexity in the disciplinary writing of L2-English university students. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 6(1), 38–71.

Bonilla, C. (2021). Processability theory and corpora. In N. Tracy-Ventura & M. Paquot (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Corpora (pp. 201–212). Routledge.

Callies, M. (2009). Information Highlighting in Advanced Learner English: The Syntax-Pragmatics Interface in Second Language Acquisition. Benjamins.

Callies, M. (2013). Advancing the research agenda of interlanguage pragmatics: The role of learner corpora. In J. Romero-Trillo (Ed.), Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2013 (pp. 9–36). Springer.

Callies, M., Díez-Bedmar, M. B. & Zaytseva, E. (2014). Using learner corpora for testing and assessing L2 proficiency. In P. Leclercq, A. Edmonds & H. Hilton (Eds.), Measuring L2 Proficiency (pp. 71–90). Multilingual Matters.

Callies, M. (2016). Towards a process-oriented approach to comparing EFL and ESL varieties: A corpus-study of lexical innovations. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 2(2), 229–251.

Callies, M. (2023). Errors and innovations in L2 varieties of English: Towards resolving a contradictory practice. In G. Febel, K. Knopf, C. Nolte & M. Nonhoff (Eds.), Contradiction Studies: Mapping the Field. Springer.

Cobb, T. & Horst, M. (2015). Learner corpora and lexis. In S. Granger, G. Gilquin, & F. Meunier (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Learner Corpus Research (pp. 185–206). Cambridge University Press.

Crossley, S. A., Cobb, T. & McNamara, D. S. (2013). Comparing count-based and band-based indices of word frequency: Implications for active vocabulary research and pedagogical applications. System, 41, 965–981.

Deshors, S. C., Götz, S. & Laporte, S. (Eds.). (2018). Rethinking Linguistic Creativity in Non-Native Englishes. Benjamins.

Fuchs, R., Götz, S. & Werner, V. (2016). The present perfect in learner Englishes: A corpus-based case study on L1 German intermediate and advanced speech and writing. In V. Werner, E. Seoane & C. Suárez-Gómez (Eds.), Re-Assessing the Present Perfect (pp. 297–337). Mouton de Gruyter.

Fuchs, R. & Werner, V. (2018). The use of stative progressives by school-age learners of English and the importance of the variable context – myth vs. (corpus) reality. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 4(2), 195–224.

Fuchs, R. & Werner, V. (2020). Tense and aspect in Second Language Acquisition and Learner Corpus Research. In R. Fuchs & V. Werner (Eds.), Tense and Aspect in Second Language Acquisition and Learner Corpus Research (pp. 1–21). Benjamins.

Gilquin, G. (2008). Hesitation markers among EFL learners: Pragmatic deficiency or difference? In J. Romero-Trillo (Ed.), Pragmatics and Corpus Linguistics: A Mutualistic Entente (pp. 119–149). Mouton de Gruyter.

Götz, S., Werner, V. & Fuchs, R. (2019). Temporal adverbials in the acquisition of past-time reference: A cross-sectional study of L1 German and Cantonese learners of English. In A. Abel, A. Glaznieks, V. Lyding & L. Nicholas (Eds.), Widening the Scope of Learner Corpus Research (pp. 43–70). Presses universitaires de Louvain.

Granger, S. (2015). Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis: A reappraisal. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 1(1), 7–24.

Gut, U. (2009). Non-native Speech: A Corpus-based Analysis of Phonological and Phonetic Properties of L2 English and German. Lang.


Larsson, T., Callies, M., Hasselgård, H., Laso, N. J., Van Vuuren, S., Verdaguer, I. & Paquot, M. (2020). Adverb placement in EFL academic writing: Going beyond syntactic transfer. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 25(2), 155–184.


Leńko-Szymańska, A. & Götz, S. (Eds). (2022). Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency in Learner Corpus Research.

Benjamins.


Myles, F. (2021). Commentary: An SLA perspective on Learner Corpus Research. In B. Le Bruyn & M. Paquot (Eds.), Learner Corpus Research Meets Second Language Acquisition (pp. 258–273). Cambridge University Press.

Neff-van Aertselaer, J. (2015). Learner corpora and discourse. In S. Granger, G. Gilquin, & F. Meunier (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Learner Corpus Research (pp. 255–280). Cambridge University Press.

Paquot, M. (2013). Lexical bundles and L1 transfer effects. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(3), 391–417.

Paquot, M. (2014). Cross-linguistic influence and formulaic language: Recurrent word sequences in French learner writing. In L. Roberts, I. Vedder & J. Hulstijn (Eds.), EUROSLA Yearbook (pp. 216–237). Benjamins.

Römer, U. & Berger, C. (2019). Observing the emergence of constructional knowledge: Verb patterns in German and Spanish learners of English at different proficiency levels. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 41(5), 1089–1110.


Rosen, A. (2016). The fate of linguistic innovations: Jersey English and French learner English compared. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 2(2), 302–322.

Rosen, A. (2019). The use of smallwords in the speech of German learners of English: A corpus-based study of the factors of instruction and natural exposure. In S. Götz & J. Mukherjee (Eds.), Learner Corpora and Language Teaching (pp. 219–241). Benjamins.


Tracy-Ventura, N., Paquot, M. & Myles, F. (2021). The future of corpora in SLA. In N. Tracy-Ventura & M. Paquot (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Corpora (pp. 409–424). Routledge.

Trouvain, J., Zimmerer, F., Möbius, B., Gósy, M. & Bonneau, A. (2017). Segmental, prosodic and fluency features in phonetic learner corpora. International Journal of Learner Corpus Research, 3(2), 105–117.

Werner, V. (2017). Adversative pragmatic markers in learner language: A cross-sectional perspective. Corpus Pragmatics, 1(2), 135–158.


Werner, V., Fuchs, R. & Götz, S. (2021). L1 influence vs. universal learning mechanisms: An SLA-driven corpus study on temporal expression. In B. Le Bruyn & M. Paquot (Eds.), Learner Corpus Research Meets Second Language Acquisition (pp. 39–66). Cambridge University Press.