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Title: A new corpus for Spanish Second Language Acquisition Research


1
  • A new corpus for Spanish Second Language
    Acquisition Research
  • L. Dominguez, R. Mitchell, M. J. Arche (U. of
    Southampton), E. Marsden (U. of York), F. Myles
    (Newcastle U.)

2
A corpus for L2 Acquisition
  • SLA theory aims to understand the complex
    mechanisms and conditions behind learner grammars
  • Access to good quality data is crucial learner
    production data focused comprehension tasks
  • Increasing interest in the creation of electronic
    learner corpora
  • sharing data more easily
  • automatising some aspects of data analysis
    through the use of software such as
    concordancers, part of speech taggers, etc.

3
Some Existing Learner Corpora
  • CHILDES http//childes.psy.cmu.edu/
  • TALKBANK http//talkbank.org/
  • English Corpus Linguistics http//cecl.fltr.ucl.a
    c.be/Cecl-Projects/Icle/icle.htm
  • L2 FRENCH
  • FLLOC www.flloc.soton.ac.uk/
  • L2 (Written) SPANISH
  • CEDEL 2 www.ugr.es/cristoballozano/cedel2.htm

4
SPLLOC Spanish Language Learner Oral Corpus
  • 2 year ESRC funded corpus project investigating
    the development of L2 Spanish
  • Aims
  • a small scale, high quality cross-sectional
    database of spoken learner Spanish
  • topics being investigated lie at the
    syntax/discourse interface
  • Data
  • Collected - c40 hours of audio recordings
    (native/non-native)
  • - 80 written focused tests on word
    order
  • - 60 computer based tests on
    clitic comprehension
  • 95 transcribed to date!

5
Immediate Research Agenda
  • Syntax/discourse interface as conceptualised in
    generative linguistics, including
  • The acquisition of Spanish word order
  • Clitic pronouns
  • Verbal morphology
  • Development of the L2 lexicon

6
Corpus Design
  • Balance of spontaneous and focused data
    (semi-spontaneous oral tasks are complemented by
    focused judgement and production tasks)
  • Balance of genres (semi-spontaneous oral tasks
    include interview, narrative and discussion)
  • Balance of participants (20 L2 speakers from each
    of beginner, intermediate and advanced levels
    NS speakers)
  • Flexibility of computer-aided analysis (use of
    the CHILDES system, plus an XML version)
  • Free web access to all materials (anonymised
    sound files, transcripts, analysis files) for all
    bonafide research users.

7
Summary of tasks by type, elicitation method and
genre
Task Type Elicitation Genre Modern Times Loch Ness Photos Paired Discussion Clitic Production Clitic Comprehension Word Order
SEMI -SPONTANEOUS Oral Narrative v v v
SEMI -SPONTANEOUS Oral Interview v
SEMI -SPONTANEOUS Oral Discussion v
FOCUSED TASKS Oral Production v
FOCUSED TASKS Computer based Comprehension v
FOCUSED TASKS Paper Written Comprehension v
8
Some task samples
9
Loch Ness
Illustrations by Alex Brychta for A Monster
Mistake by Roderick Hunt (Oxford Reading Tree,
2003) used by permission of Oxford University
Press.
10
(No Transcript)
11
Modern Times
12
Photos task
  • Description of states
  • And
  • Description of events

13
Clitic Comprehension (computer based)
  • The learner hears a sentence with a clitic
    pronoun and has to click on the object it refers
    to.
  • 32 screens
  • Combination of number and gender (canonical and
    non-canonical) plus syntactic collocation.
  • Canonical feminine -a ending (e.g. calculadora
    calculator)
  • Canonical masculine -o ending (e.g. teléfono
    phone)
  • Non canonical no a/-o ending (e.g. lápiz)
  • Collocation Proclitic (as in coniugated verbs)
    vs. enclitic (as in infinitives).

14
Clitic Production (computer based)
  • The learner is asked a question referring to an
    object based on the sequence of pictures shown.
  • 32 slides combination of number and gender
    (canonical and non-canonical) plus syntactic
    collocation.

15
Word Order Task (paper pencil)
  • Context-dependent word order preference test
  • The learner is presented with 28 situations with
    a following question
  • Two types of questions What happened? (Broad
    focus)
  • Who did x? (Narrow focus)
  • 4 items by 7 syntactic contexts
  • 4xSVO, 4xVOS, 4xCLLD, 4xUnerg/Narrow, 4xUnerg/
    Broad, 4xUnacc/Narrow and 4xUnacc/Broad
  • Three options Inverted (VS), non-inverted (SV)
    and both.
  • You get home and your brother just tells you that
    he has got an email from your friend Sue and that
    he has very good news to tell you. You ask your
    brother Qué ha pasado? (What happened?)
  • What could he say?
  • a. Se ha comprado un coche Sue b. .Sue
    se ha comprado un coche c. Both sentences
  • (Sue has bought a car) (Sue
    has bought a car)
  • 2. Your brother is having some friends over
    for a get together at home. When your mother
    comes she sees some smoke coming out of the
    bathroom and she asks your brother Quién está
    fumando? (Whos smoking?)
  • What could you brother say?

16
Summary of subjects by task (to date)
Task Type Task Name University (Final Year) Sixth Form College (Year 13) Lower Secondary School (Year 9) Natives (all ages)
Open-ended Modern Times 20 5
Open-ended Loch Ness 20 20 20 15
Open-ended Photos 20 20 20 15
Open-ended Paired Discussion 20 20 5
Focused Clitic Comprehension 20 20 20 3
Focused Picture Sequence 20 20 20 10
Focused Word Order 20 20 19 20
17
Tools for Data Analysis
  • CHILDES (The Child Language Data Exchange System)
  • CLAN Computerised Language Analysis
  • Computer program suite for transcribing,
    searching and analysing language data
  • CHAT Codes for the Human Analysis of
    Transcripts
  • A format for notation and transcription
  • Types of Analyses
  • FREQ, MLU, COMBO, KWAL

18
Next Steps
  • Database will be available for use by the
    research community via www.splloc.soton.ac.uk (in
    spring 2008)
  • Articles conference papers (in 2007)
  • BAAL LLT SIG
  • GALA
  • BUCLD
  • HLS
  • SLRF
  • CHILDES training workshop
  • 25 January 2008, University of Southampton.

19
Acknowledgments
The SPLLOC project is supported by an ESRC
research grant (RES 000231609) We would like to
thank all the participants in the project,
including subjects, transcribers and fieldworkers
20
References
  • Domínguez, L., Arche, M.J. 2007a. Deviant
    optional forms in L2 Spanish the case of word
    order variation. Poster presentation at GALA,
    Barcelona, 6-8 September.
  • Domínguez, L., Arche, M.J. 2007b. Optionality in
    L2 grammars the acquisition of SV/VS contrast in
    Spanish. To be presented at BUCLD 32,Boston, 1-4
    November.
  • Domínguez, L., Arche, M.J. 2007c. The L2
    Acquisition of SV/VS contrast in Spanish. To be
    presented at the Hispanic Linguistic Symposium,
    Texas, 1-4 November.
  • Domínguez, L., Arche, M.J., Mitchell, R, Marsden,
    E. and Myles, F 2007. Innovations in Spanish SLA
    research methodology introducing the Spanish
    Learner Language Oral Corpus. To be presented
    at the Hispanic Linguistic Symposium, Texas, 1-4
    November.
  • Granger, S., J. Hung and S. Petch-Tyson (eds.).
    2002. Computer Learner Corpora, second language
    acquisition and foreign language teaching.
    Amsterdam John Benjamins.
  • Lozano, C. Mendikoetxea, A. (in press).
    Verb-Subject order in L2 English new evidence
    from the ICLE corpus. In Actas del XXV Congreso
    Internacional de AESLA. Universidad de Murcia.
  • Lozano, C. Mendikoetxea, A. (forthcoming 2007).
    Postverbal subjects at the interfaces in Spanish
    and Italian learners of L2 English a corpus
    analysis. In Papp, S., Díez, B. and Gilquin, G.
    (eds). Linking up contrastive and corpus learner
    research. Rodopi
  • Mitchell, R., Marsden, E., Domínguez, L., Arche,
    M. J. and Myles, F. 2007 Creation and analysis
    of a Spanish language learner oral corpus
    (SPLLOC). Poster presentation at BAAL LLT SIG
    Conference Towards a Researched Pedagogy,
    University of Lancaster, 2-3 July.
  • Mitchell, R., Dominguez, L., Arche, M.J., Myles,
    F. and Marsden, E. Developing a CHILDES-based
    corpus of L2 oral Spanish. To be presented at
    Second Language Research Forum, Urbana-Champaign,
    11-14 October.
  • Myles, F. 2002. Linguistic development in
    classroom learners of French a cross-sectional
    study (No. End of ESRC award report R000223421).
    Southampton University of Southampton.
  • Myles, F. 2005. Interlanguage corpora and second
    language acquisition research. Second Language
    Research, 21,4 373-391.
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