The Integrated Contrastive Model evaluated: The French and Dutch demonstrative determiner in L1 and L2

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of Granger's Integrated Contrastive Model for describing real language use and predicting correct and incorrect L2 productions with a detailed corpus‐based study of the structural and semantic similarities and divergences between the French and Dutch demonstrative determiner systems in L1 and their precise impact on written L2 productions. This study allows us to formulate six objective recommendations for developing pedagogical grammars and thus illustrates to what extent the combination of L1 and L2 corpora analysis should become an obligatory practical step rather than a theoretical one between primary forged linguistic analyses and the elaboration of well‐balanced and representative didactic material. Dans cet article, nous évaluons l'efficacité de l'Integrated Contrastive Model de Granger pour décrire la langue réelle et pour prédire les productions L2 correctes et erronées par le biais d'une étude de corpus détaillée des ressemblances et divergences structurelles et sémantiques entre les systèmes du déterminant démonstratif en français et en néerlandais en L1 et leur impact précis sur les productions écrites en L2. Cette étude permet de formuler six recommandations objectives pour le développement de grammaires pédagogiques et illustre, par conséquent, dans quelle mesure la combinaison d'analyses de corpus L1 et L2 devrait devenir une étape pratique obligatoire plutôt qu'une étape théorique entre les premières analyses linguistiques et l'élaboration de matériaux didactiques représentatifs.

L1 frequency in foreign language acquisition: Recurrent word combinations in French and Spanish EFL learner writing

“…Many recent learner-corpus-based studies have also put emphasis on L1–L2 frequency differences to explain patterns of overuse and underuse in learners’ texts (e.g. Demol and Hadermann, 2008; Díez-Bedmar and Papp, 2008; Gilquin, 2008; Vanderbauwhede, 2012) but none of them has targeted L1 frequency as its primary object of investigation.…”

At the interface between Contrastive Analysis and Learner Corpus Research: A parallel contrastive approach1

“…Before we outline the method emerging from the model, it should be mentioned that, while the original Integrated Contrastive Model does not necessarily rule out the comparison of different L2s (interlanguages), we have come across very few studies that do this. Exceptions include Demol & Hadermann (2008) and Vanderbauwhede (2012), which will be discussed in Section 2.2, and of which the latter comes closest to the model outlined in the present paper. Demol & Hadermann (2008) explore discourse organisation in Dutch and French in terms of parataxis and hypotaxis and the types of subordinate clauses used in the latter.…”

“…In a paper evaluating the effectiveness of the "Integrated Contrastive Model for describing real language use and predicting correct and incorrect L2 productions", Vanderbauwhede (2012) investigates the use of French and Dutch demonstrative determiners in L1 and L2 language production. In line with the ICM, a contrastive analysis on the basis of comparable and translation data is carried out to arrive at accurate descriptions of the determiner systems in the two L1s compared.…”

TCFLE-8: a Corpus of Learner Written Productions for French as a Foreign Language and its Application to Automated Essay Scoring

“…The French Interlanguage Database (Granger, 2003) contains 450,000 words. Other corpora designed for interlanguage investigation include the Learner Corpus French (Vanderbauwhede, 2012), containing 500,000 words, and the Chy-FLE/Hellas-FLE (Valetopoulos and Zaj ąc, 2012), containing 150,000 words. The Corpus Interlangue (Gaillat and Roa, 2020), a written/spoken and bilingual corpus, contains texts and interviews from 115 students.…”