No abstract

Arguing that the introduction of corpus linguistics in teaching materials and the language classroom should be informed by theories and principles of SLA, this paper presents a case study illustrating how corpus-based findings on reported speech can be integrated into a form-focused model of instruction. After overviewing previous work which compares ESL grammar textbooks descriptions and real language use, and promotes the use of corpus-based findings to inform L2 textbook descriptions, we outline the results of a survey of the presentation of reported speech in current popular textbooks. The survey findings are contrasted with the patterns of use found in two corpus-based cross-register studies of reported speech, showing how textbooks neglect important information on the use of this structure in real language. The frequency patterns of use that emerged in the corpus studies are then used to identify 10 principles that should inform the design of L2 materials and classroom instruction of reported speech. In the second part of the paper we illustrate how corpus-based findings can be fruitfully implemented in a form-focused model of instruction through the use of structure-based tasks and selected principles of focus-on-form.

In prior sociolinguistic research, speaker age has been considered the principal correlate of language change, but it ‘has not yet been explicitly studied as a sociolinguistic variable’ (Eckert 1997: 167). Consequently, little is known about how language varies across the life span. The present study employs key word analysis on a large corpus of casual conversation in American English to explore age‐based linguistic variation in spontaneous conversation. Analyses of the key words point to two major patterns of age‐based lexico‐grammatical variation: use of slang, and use of stance and involvement markers. Younger speakers' talk is characterized by an unusually frequent use of slang and swear words, and by a marked use of features indexing speaker's stance and emotional involvement, including intensifiers, stance adverbs, discourse markers, personal pronouns, and attitudinal adjectives; older speakers favor modals. These patterns are suggestive of functional differences in the discourse of youth and adults. It is argued that the expression of personal stance is more explicit and plays a key role in younger speakers' discourse.

This article investigates the effect of the external variables speaker age and sex on the use of the quotatives be like, go, be all, and say in present-day spoken American English. The study is based on a large computerized corpus of naturally-occurring conversation collected from a wide range of speakers across the United States. The results show that there are striking differences in the way that men and women under the age of forty use these quotatives. Young women are in the lead in the use of be like, but the use of this quotative decreases dramatically among women in their late 20s and in their 30s. In contrast, the use of be like increases among men in their late 20s. The patterns of use described here represent a departure from previous findings and suggest that the effect of speaker's age and sex on quotative use is more complex than has been posited so far.

This article investigates quotative use in American English in apparent and real time. The use of quotativebe like,goandsayin a corpus of conversation in American English dating 2004 / 2005 is compared with use in a similar corpus dating 1995 / 1996 (Barbieri 2007). Findings show that in present-day American Englishbe likeis the favorite choice for all speakers below age 40, and is extremely popular among young teenagers. The real time comparison reveals that speakers who in the mid-1990s were in their teens to mid-20s have not only maintained, but considerably increased use ofbe likeover time; women aged 27–40 have also maintained use ofbe likeover time.Such findings provide evidence of generational change, as well as of “lifespan change” (Sankoff 2005). Overall, the present findings indicate thatbe likeis a true case of change in progress — a change still led by women; however they do not point to one particular type of change, suggesting that generational and communal change may operate simultaneously in the advancement of change.