Introducing the CORYL Corpus: What it Is and How We Can Use it to Shed Light on Learner Language

Hasselgreen, Angela; Sundet, Kari Telstad

doi:10.15845/bells.v7i0.1107

Cited by 5 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…11 -12 year-old learners, for example, almost exclusively used the two tenses present simple and present continuous while older learners used a wider range of verb tenses (Lasagabaster & Doiz, 2003). Hasselgreen and Sundet (2017) made a similar observation. In a brief analysis of texts from the CORYL corpus (corpus of young learner language), they found that learners at the CEFR level A1 tended to mainly use the verb 'was' to express the past tense.…”

Section: Grammar: Syntax and Morphologymentioning

confidence: 67%

“…Further cohesive devices found in the texts were, for example, temporal conjunctions (e. g. first), hyponymy (the use of specific and general words from the same semantic field, e. g. banana/fruit), adversative conjunctions (e. g. but), demonstratives (e. g. this) and comparatives (e. g. more) (Yasuda, 2019). Hasselgreen and Sundet (2017), in a corpus analysis of young Norwegian EFL learners' texts, found considerable differences regarding the use of conjunctions between 12 / 13 and 15 / 16 year-old learners. Several conjunctions and adverbial conjuncts (however, since, even if, although, even though and therefore), which were sometimes used by the older learners, almost never appeared in younger learners' texts (Hasselgreen & Sundet, 2017, p. 210).…”

Section: Coherence and Cohesionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several conjunctions and adverbial conjuncts (however, since, even if, although, even though and therefore), which were sometimes used by the older learners, almost never appeared in younger learners' texts (Hasselgreen & Sundet, 2017, p. 210). An exception was the conjunction because, which was used frequently by both groups (Hasselgreen & Sundet, 2017). For information on how cohesion was measured in this project, see chapter 3.2.1.…”

Section: Coherence and Cohesionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Empirical Study of EFL Writing at Primary School

Trüb¹

2022

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This study investigated the extent to which young learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in grade 6 are able to compose texts that fulfil a communicative function. Since many teachers raised the question of how to teach EFL writing to young learners, the study also investigated current teaching practices and the learners' perception of EFL writing, and examined different individual and educational determinants of EFL writing competence.The learners wrote two texts, an email and a story, which were rated independently by two raters. The writing scores were adjusted for task difficulty, rater severity and difficulty of the rating criteria, and aligned to the language levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Learner and teacher questionnaires and learner interviews provided additional data.The learners' EFL writing competence ranged from below A1.1 to above A2.2, with the majority of learners at levels A1.2 and A2.1. There was a statistically significant difference in EFL writing competence between the groups of learners about to enter the different educational tracks at secondary school. In order to illustrate the learners' EFL writing competence at different language levels, writing profiles with detailed descriptions of text quality were provided. Many texts displayed heterogeneity with regard to different dimensions of text quality. Two small qualitative analyses provided insight into the means used by young EFL learners to create a communicative effect, and into the quality of coherence in their texts.Many teachers reported using elements of the process approach, such as pre-writing activities, scaffolding and feedback. A few teachers reported that they applied elements of the genre approach, such as studying a sample text. Less frequently applied were elements such as collecting ideas on what to write about, discussing how to structure a text, or publishing the texts to a real audience. It emerged that, while pragmatic aspects (e. g. how to write a funny, sad or captivating story) are frequently considered when texts are assessed, they are only rarely addressed in class, and strategy instruction only plays a minor role in teaching practice. Three main factors were identified that appear to influence the learners' perception of EFL writing: motivation, resources and task demands. If motivation was high, the learners had a clear idea of what they wanted to write about; if they had enough language resources and if task

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Section: Grammar: Syntax and Morphologymentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Coherence and Cohesionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Coherence and Cohesionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Empirical Study of EFL Writing at Primary School

Trüb¹

2022

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“…They documented the development of performance descriptors and the development of an international vocabulary corpus for young EFL learners. Moreover, researchers also reported the development of regional corpora for young EFL learners (Hasselgreen & Sundet, 2017; Sundh, 2016). As young learner corpora are increasingly available, corpus-based studies are on the rise in order to understand the development of young EFL learners’ English skills (Jiang et al., 2019; Seog & Choi, 2018).…”

Section: From Infancy To Adolescence: a Burgeoning And Increasingly Diverse Fieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reflecting on assessing young foreign language learners

Timpe‐Laughlin

Cho

https:³

et al. 2021

Language Testing

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“…Very little research has been done on lower secondary pupils' (age 13-16) writing in general (cf. Hasselgren & Sundet, 2017) and on formality level in particular (but see Thomson, 2018). Also, little is known about what instructions pupils are given regarding formality level.…”

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confidence: 99%

Informal language in English L2 writing: What are pupils taught from textbooks?

Hasund¹

2019

ADNO

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Studies show that intermediate and advanced learners of English overuse informal features in their academic writing, and researchers recommend that instructional material is developed to raise learners’ awareness of this overuse. In Norway, little research has been done on younger learners’ writing, and no previous study exists of how instructional material such as textbooks deal with informality. The present article investigates how all English textbooks published for lower secondary school under the current curriculum deal with informality in writing. The findings show that eight out of nine textbooks include instruction on informality. The most frequently mentioned informal features are informal opening/closing phrases and forms of address in letters, contractions, abbreviations, slang, exclamations, and expressions of modality, evaluation and subjective stance, all of which are known from previous research and/or style manuals. The textbook instructions focus on when to use these features and, more importantly, when to avoid them. Rather unexpectedly, there is little focus on the first person pronoun as an informal feature, which is notable, considering its importance in the literature. First person pronoun usage is, however, a controversial topic, and it is possible that most textbook authors have decided to leave it for later stages. It is also possible that the textbook authors do not consider it an informal feature.The survey provides a backdrop for future research on pupils’ writing by focussing on one aspect of the school context in which this writing is produced, namely the textbooks. Keywords: informal language; English L2 writing, textbook analysis Uformelt språk i engelsk skriving: Hva sier lærebøkene? SammendragForskning viser at elever på videregående skole og universitetsstudenter bruker for mange uformelle språktrekk i sin akademiske skriving, og forskere anbefaler at det utvikles læremateriell for å heve innlæreres bevissthet om dette temaet. Det er gjort lite forskning i Norge på yngre elevers skriving i engelsk, og det finnes ingen studier av hvordan læremateriell i engelsk, slik som lærebøker, behandler temaet uformelt språk. Denne artikkelen undersøker hvordan samtlige engelske lærebøker publisert for ungdomsskolen etter Kunnskapsløftet (LK06) behandler temaet uformelle språktrekk i skriving.Analysen viser at åtte av ni læreverk inkluderer noe instruksjon om uformelt språk. De uformelle trekkene som nevnes oftest er uformelle åpnings- og avslutningshilsner og uformelle tiltaleformer i brev, sammentrukne former, forkortelser, slang, utrop, og uttrykk for modalitet, evaluering og subjektive holdninger, alle vel kjente fra tidligere forskning og/eller fra språkbruksbøker. Lærebøkenes instruksjoner fokuserer på når det er passende og upassende å bruke disse trekkene i skriftlige tekster.Noe uventet er det lite fokus på førstepersonspronomenet I som et uformelt trekk, hvilket er påfallende med tanke på hvor sentralt temaet er i forskningslitteraturen. En forklaring kan være at temaet er kontroversielt, og det er mulig de fleste lærebokforfatterne mener det er for tidlig å behandle det på ungdomsskolen. Det er også mulig at lærebokforfatterne ikke anser førstepersonspronomenet for å være et uformelt trekk.Studien bidrar med kunnskap som er relevant for framtidig forskning på elevers skriving ved at den fokuserer på ett aspekt ved skolekonteksten som denne skrivingen foregår i, nemlig lærebøkene. Nøkkelord: uformelt språk, skriving i engelsk som andrespråk/fremmedspråk, lærebokanalyse

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Introducing the CORYL Corpus: What it Is and How We Can Use it to Shed Light on Learner Language

Cited by 5 publications

References 9 publications

An Empirical Study of EFL Writing at Primary School

An Empirical Study of EFL Writing at Primary School

Reflecting on assessing young foreign language learners

Informal language in English L2 writing: What are pupils taught from textbooks?

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