“Well, I think that my argument is…,” or modality in a learner corpus of English

Abstract

Linguistic modality is the expression of the speaker’s subjectivity including possibility, probability, necessity, obligation, permission, prohibition, and desire. This paper analyses a learner English corpus collected at two Spanish universities, paying special attention to which linguistic devices (e.g., modal verbs, adjectives, adverbs or nouns) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students make use of when providing for and against arguments in their assignments. Applying a corpus-based methodology not only enabled comparisons to be made with other native and non-native data but also facilitated both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The findings show remarkable similarities and differences, and leave several issues at stake: the relationship between the degree of assertiveness of a text and (1) the student’s gender, (2) their command of the Foreign Language (FL), and (3) their familiarity with the genre they are expected to write in.

A corpus-driven analysis of certainty stance adverbs: Obviously, really and actually in spoken native and learner English

“…Corroborating previous studies (Biber & Staples 2014, Bartley & Hidalgo-Tenorio 2016, our results show that this adverb was only used frequently by the NS group, very infrequently by Germans and very rarely by Spanish and Chinese LINDSEI speakers (see Table 2). This finding is of interest as the word itself is categorised as B1 by both the Vocabulary English Profile and the English Grammar Profile and this is arguably a level well below the communicative competence of LINDSEI speakers.…”

“…This pattern of use seems to indicate that the difference in the use of certainty adverbs does not take place only between NSs and NNSs, but also among the three groups of NNS. This finding questions previous analyses which have limited comparisons to NSs vs NNSs (Author, 2010;Zhang & Sabet, 2014), while corroborating previous research indicating there are differences among NNSs (Bartley & Hidalgo -Tenorio, 2016).…”

“…More recently, Zhang and Sabet (2014) have argued that epistemic stance is expressed in different ways by NSs and NNSs. Bartley and Hidalgo-Tenorio (2016) have also reported differences in the frequency of occurrence of probability and certainty adverbs between NNSs and NSs, but have pointed out there were also differences between school and university NSs, and among NNSs with different L1.…”

Corpus-Based Lexical Development of EFL Writing

“…The findings indicate that the use of motion verbs is significantly influenced by the first language: Turkish learners use more motion verbs of manner and demonstrate a greater variety in terms of vocabulary choice. Bartley & Tenorio (2016) explore the use of model verbs in a learner corpus; they assert that the certainty of stand-taking is closely related to gender, language proficiency and familiarity with the genre at hand. Previous studies on lexical items provide us with specific detailed information on the actual use of learner language; however, an overall holistic description of learner language and its development is also needed, which facilitates our general understanding of the developmental features and dynamics of learner language.…”