Variation in learner English: The effect of learning context on the use of multi-word verbs
(2010) 31st International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English Conference (ICAME 31) — Location: Giessen (26.May.2010)
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- Abstract
- This study is a follow-up to another study (Gilquin & Granger 2008) investigating the use of multi-word verbs with ‘into’ in four components of the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE; Granger et al. 2009). It considers the same learner populations, namely Dutch, French, Spanish and Tswana EFL learners, but examines their use of multi-word verbs with ‘in’, a preposition which is related to – and hence often confused with – ‘into’ (cf. Swan 2005: 244). It also extends the scope of the previous study in validating the corpus results against elicitation data, which seek to approach learners’ knowledge of multi-word verbs from a different, but complementary perspective (competence, rather than performance). While the variation that emerges between the different learners and learner populations is likely attributed to a combination of several factors, the focus of this presentation will be on the environmental factors, and more precisely the effect of learning context, whose role in language acquisition should not be underestimated (see e.g. Sjöholm 1998). ‘Learning context’ will be considered here both at the macro-level and at the micro-level. By macro-level, I mean the situation in which a learner population typically acquires the target language. For some populations the acquisition occurs exclusively within the context of the classroom, and especially EFL classes, but for others input also comes from non-classroom environments (television, newspapers, etc). In this respect, the four selected ICLE components represent a sort of continuum: the Spanish learners typically receive their input from the EFL classes only; the French-speaking learners, in addition, have all the literature and linguistics courses of their English university degree taught in English; the Tswana learners are taught through the medium of English from the fifth grade in primary school; as for the Dutch learners, they receive a great deal of input outside the classroom as well, especially through undubbed TV programmes. At the micro-level, I will study the influence of individual factors such as the number of years of English at school and at university or the time spent in an English-speaking country, which are all encoded in the ICLE database and usually vary from learner to learner, even within one and the same population. The presentation will also briefly show how the corpus study can be supplemented by data from elicitation questionnaires, which aim to assess the competence of learners from the four above-mentioned L1 backgrounds. This complementary approach will make it possible, among others, to find out whether learners studying English in different environments tend to adopt different strategies in their use of multi-word verbs (avoidance, creativity, etc).
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Gilquin, G. (2010). Variation in learner English: The effect of learning context on the use of multi-word verbs. 31st International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English Conference (ICAME 31), Giessen. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/225326