Learner Language, Discourse and Interaction
A Corpus-Based Analysis of Spoken English
Published on 23. January 2025
Book
Hardback
332 pages
978-1-009-20895-6 (ISBN)
Description
How do language learners interact with those who already speak the language they are learning? It is more than just a question of learning vocabulary and grammars - learners also need to learn how to put together conversations in their new language and to vary the way they interact across different contexts. This book shows, using millions of words of data, how this happens. It is the first large scale, corpus-based exploration of the discourse macro-structures in conversational interaction between L1 and L2 speakers, and explores three corpora to show, in spoken interaction with L1 speakers across a range of tasks, the dynamics of discourse construction. Considering factors including cultural background, task and proficiency, it characterises the repertoire of discourse functions used in these interactions and shows how they vary according to a range of variables. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
636 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-009-20895-6 (9781009208956)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Tony McEnery is Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University and Advisory Professor at Shanghai International Studies University. He is the author of Corpus Linguistics (with Hardie, CUP, 2011) and Fundamental Principles of Corpus Linguistics (with Brezina, CUP, 2022). He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Isobelle Clarke is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellow at Lancaster University. Isobelle has developed three methodologies for the analysis of short texts. Gavin Brookes is Reader and UKRI Future Leader Fellow in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University. His recent books include Corpus Linguistics for Health Communication (with Collins, 2023) and Obesity in the News (with Paul Baker, 2021). He is a Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Content
List of Figures; List of Tables; Acknowledgements; 1. Exploring Learner Discourse: Context, Data and Methods; 2. Testing Short Text Multi-Dimensional Analysis - Approaching Learner Corpus Data at the Micro-structural Level; 3. Investigating Discourse Units - Approaching Learner Corpus Data at the Macro-structural Level; 4. Exploring Discourse Units and Interaction - Context, Co-operation and Scaffolding; 5. Comparing L1 and L2 Production in the Trinity Lancaster Corpora; 6. Describing Discourse Functions in General Spoken Conversation; 7. Understanding L1 Speech, L2 Speech and Context of Production; 8. Beginning the Study of Narrative; 9. Exploring Narratives in Learner Language; 10. Summing Up and Looking Ahead; References; Appendix A: The Feature Sets and Decisions for Pooling; Appendix B: The Full Tagset.