A corpus‐based analysis of Hong Kong EFL learners' use of existential constructions

Abstract

In ESL/EFL contexts, learners' errors are often an area of interest among teachers as identifying recurring and grave errors may inform teachers about the difficulties faced by the learners (Xie, 2019), hence offering insights on teaching activities and materials. In Hong Kong, previous studies have investigated various language structures produced by the learners, including articles (e.g., Chan, 2019), connectives (e.g., Cheng & Tsang, 2022), relative clauses (e.g., Gisborne, 2000). To better understand the language use by EFL learners, the present study focused particularly on the existential construction in English, which seems to be a less explored structure. This brief reports on the use of existential structures in EFL secondary school learners' writing to identify the challenges faced by the learners when acquiring this construction.1. There are many customers in the shop. 2. There is a bird singing outside the window.

Developing engineering students’ engagement in academic writing classes using corpus-based instruction

“…The activities are designed from the corpus data that are assembled. Recently, researchers (e.g., Birhan, et al, 2021;Casan-Pitrach & Calvo-Ferrer, 2015;Huang, 2012) studied the impact of Birhan and Nurie Asian. J.…”