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Title: A Corpus-based Study of Connectors: Research from the CAS Learner Corpus of English Essays


1
A Corpus-based Study of Connectors Research
from the CAS Learner Corpus of English Essays
  • Haiyang Ai, Gong Peng
  • Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2
Outline of the talk
  • Introduction
  • Previous Studies
  • Methodology and Corpus Building
  • Results and Discussion
  • Conclusion and Pedagogical Implication

3
Definition of connectors
  • Connectors are devices used to state the
    relationship between units of discourse (Biber et
    al, 1999)
  • Including conjunctions, some adverbs (e.g.
    firstly, namely, alternatively), and some
    prepositional phrases (e.g. in brief, in fact, of
    course)

4
Classification of connectors
  • Quirk et als (1985) framework
  • A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language
  • Adding of corroborative category - (Granger
    Tyson, 1996)- (Altenberg Tapper, 1998)

5
Quirk et als (1985) framework
listing enumerative e.g. for a star, finally e.g. for a star, finally
listing additive equative e.g. in the same way, likewise
listing additive reinforcing e.g. moreover, further
summative e.g. in sum, altogether e.g. in sum, altogether e.g. in sum, altogether
appositive e.g. for example, namely e.g. for example, namely e.g. for example, namely
resultive e.g. as a result, consequently e.g. as a result, consequently e.g. as a result, consequently
inferential e.g. therefore, in that case, otherwise e.g. therefore, in that case, otherwise e.g. therefore, in that case, otherwise
contrastive reformulatory e.g. more precisely, rather e.g. more precisely, rather
contrastive replacive e.g. better, again e.g. better, again
contrastive antithetic e.g. by contrast, instead e.g. by contrast, instead
contrastive concessive e.g. in any case, however e.g. in any case, however
transitional discoursal e.g. by the way, incidentally e.g. by the way, incidentally
transitional temporal e.g. in the meantime, meanwhile e.g. in the meantime, meanwhile
6
Connectors investigated (68 items)
  • Listing first, second, third, firstly,
    secondly, thirdly, finally, furthermore, in
    addition, moreover, lastly, last but not least,
    to begin with, for another, in the first place,
    in the second place, similarly, for one thing,
    for another
  • Summative to sum up, to conclude, in summary,
    in short, in brief, in conclusion, overall, all
    in all, altogether
  • Appositive that is, that is to say, in other
    words, for instance, for example, namely, e.g.(
    eg), i.e.( ie)

7
Connectors investigated (68 items)
  • Resultive consequently, hence, therefore, thus,
    as a result, as a consequence, in consequence,
  • Inferential otherwise, in that case
  • Contrastivehowever, although, (even) though, on
    the other hand, instead, after all, on the
    contrary, in contrast, besides, nevertheless,
    anyway, still, by contrast, nonetheless,
    alternatively
  • Transitionalmeanwhile, eventually,
    subsequently, originally
  • Corroborative actually, in fact, of course,
    indeed, apparently

8
Rationales to use corpus data
  • Corpus data are real and authentic gt empirical
    study
  • Combines intuitions of many, more objective
    (McEnergy Wilson, 2001)
  • Corpora are precious resources for testing out
    linguistic hypothesis (Meyer, 2002)
  • Learner corpus serves as the meeting point of
    corpus linguistics and SLA (Granger 1998) gt
    pioneer Sylviane Granger, ICLE

9
Research questions
  • Whats the semantic distribution?
  • Whats the top 10 most frequently used
    connectors?
  • Which connectors are overused?
  • Whats the differences and similarities compared
    with related studies, and why (universal features
    vs. transfer-related?)

10
Hypothesis
  • Hypothesis PhD students at GUCAS would overuse
    connectors in their English writings
  • Formulated based on
  • Previous studies from HK and Taiwan (Crewe 1990,
    Field Yip 1992, Milton Tsang 1993, Bolton et
    al 2002, Chen 2006)
  • The authors own observation

11
Significance
  • Systematic and corpus-based connector studies on
    PhD students writing of in GUCAS gt shed some
    light on the everlasting cohesion coherence
    problems in ESL/EFL writing
  • Quantitative analysis can provide teachers (esp.
    at GUCAS) with a better idea on what needs to be
    done
  • The construction of the CASCLEE computer learner
    corpus itself (Resources)

12
Outline again
  • Approaching Connectors
  • Previous Studies
  • Methodology and Corpus Building
  • Results and Discussion
  • Conclusion and Pedagogical Implication

13
Previous corpus-based studies
  • Milton Tsang (1993)
  • high ratio of overuse of entire range of
    connectors (HKUST vs. Brown, LOB)
  • Granger Tyson (1996)
  • 108 connectors, CIA method
  • overuse lt L1 transfer
  • Altenberg Tapper (1998)
  • timed untimed essays
  • underuse (resultive, contrastive) lt prefer less
    formal connectors









14
Previous corpus-based studies
  • Bolton et al (2002)
  • Overuse exists in both groups, ICE-HK vs.
    ICE-GB
  • Raised 3 methodological issues
  • Chen (2006)
  • Latest, published on IJCL, Taiwanese EFL Learners
  • Slightly overused connectors
  • Increase learners register differences

15
Outline
  • Introduction
  • Previous Studies
  • Methodology and Corpus Building
  • Results and Discussion
  • Conclusion and Pedagogical Implication

16
Corpus building
  • Corpus name CASCLEE - CAS Corpus of Learner
    English Essays
  • Corpus Size 494 essays, 120, 836 words, covering
    timed and untimed writings
  • Data analysis WordSmith Tool 4.0 Manual
    Extraction
  • Sampling Representativeness
  • Learner Background Register of text

17
Method CIA
  • Contrastive interlanguage analysis (Granger 1996)
  • L2 vs. L1
  • L2 vs. L2
  • Reference corpora
  • Informative Writings of BNC Sampler Corpus (L1)
  • The ICLE French Subcorpus (L2)

18
Outline
  • Introduction
  • Previous Studies
  • Methodology and Corpus Building
  • Results and Discussion
  • Conclusion and Pedagogical Implication

19
Overall frequencies (normalised)
20
Semantic distribution
21
Top 10 most frequently used connectors
Rank CASCLEE BNC Sampler-info. ICLE-French
1 first however indeed
2 second although however
3 however thus therefore
4 secondly (even) though of course
5 for example therefore moreover
6 although for example for example
7 (even) though of course for instance
8 finally indeed in fact
9 firstly instead thus
10 of course in addition on the other hand
22
Quantitative difference Overuse
  • Overused connectors
  • Group A (see Table 4)
  • Group B (see Table 5)

23
Comparing with related studies
  • Altenberg Tapper (1998)Overuse of furthermore,
    for instance, still, of course (CASCLEE also)
  • Bolten et al (2002)overuse both exist in ICE-HK
    ICE-GB
  • Chen (2006) slightly overused

24
Major findings
  • PhD students overused a whole range of connectors
    (hypothesis supported)
  • They significantly overused listing and summative
    connectors
  • Overuse of connectors exist both in CASCLEE and
    ICLE French subcorpus

25
Outline
  • Introduction
  • Previous Studies
  • Methodology and Corpus Building
  • Results and Discussion
  • Conclusion and Pedagogical Implication

26
Conclusion
  • Objectives and contributions
  • Build the CASCLEE learner corpus
  • Analyzing connectors based on Quirk et al (1985)
    framework
  • Methodology contrastive interlanguage analysis
  • L1 vs. L2 (CASCLE vs. BNC Sampler-info)
  • L2 vs. L2 (CASCLEE vs. ICLE-French)

27
Pedagogical Implication
  • Pedagogical implication
  • Focus on contrastive, resultive and appositional
    connectors, over 70
  • Listing connectors should be addressed
  • Correct forms of connectors
  • Looking forward
  • More large-scale, corpus-based studies on EFL
    learners connector usage
  • Probe into the possible causes for certain
    connector usage patterns

28
The End !
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