DOCSLIB.ORG

Aspect in Learner Writing : a Corpus-Based Comparison of Advanced Bulgarian and German Learners' Written English

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Aspect in Learner Writing : a Corpus-Based Comparison of Advanced Bulgarian and German Learners' Written English Aspect in Learner Writing: A Corpus-Based Comparison of Advanced Bulgarian and German Learners’ Written English Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Philosophie des Fachbereiches 05 der Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen vorgelegt von Svetlomira Rogatcheva aus Sofia 2014 Gutachter: 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Magnus Huber 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee Tag der Disputation: Table of Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Aim and motivation of the study ...................................................................................... 3 1.2. Terms and Concepts ........................................................................................................ 4 1.3. Preview ............................................................................................................................ 6 2. Aspect in English: Theoretical, Quantitative and Contrastive Perspectives .................. 7 2.1. Approaches to Aspect ...................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1. Situation Aspect vs. Viewpoint Aspect .................................................................. 10 2.1.2. Tense vs. Aspect ..................................................................................................... 16 2.1.3. The Progressive ...................................................................................................... 20 2.1.4. The Perfect – Aspect, Tense or neither? ................................................................ 22 2.2. Aspect in Recent Empirical Grammars of English ....................................................... 24 2.2.1. The Progressive in Recent Studies of English: Meanings and Frequency Distribution ....................................................................................................................... 26 2.2.2. The Perfect in Recent Studies of English: Meanings and Frequency Distribution 35 2.3. Contrastive Remarks on Aspect: German vs. English .................................................. 42 2.4. Contrastive Remarks on Aspect: Bulgarian vs. English ............................................... 47 2.5. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 52 3. Second Language Acquisition of Aspect in English: a Review ...................................... 54 3.1. L2 Acquisition of Temporality ...................................................................................... 54 3.2. Concept-Oriented Approach to the Acquisition of Aspect ........................................... 55 3.3. Form-Oriented Approach to the Acquisition of Aspect ................................................ 60 3.3.1. The Morpheme Order Studies ................................................................................ 60 3.3.2. Recent Perspectives to the Form-Oriented Approach ............................................ 64 3.3.3. The Aspect Hypothesis ........................................................................................... 68 3.3.4. The Discourse Hypothesis ...................................................................................... 75 3.4. L1 Influence on the Acquisition of Aspect ................................................................... 80 3.5. Summary ....................................................................................................................... 83 4. Corpus-Based Approaches to Aspect in Learner Language .......................................... 84 4.1. Corpora in the Study of Grammar ................................................................................. 84 4.2. Learner Corpora ............................................................................................................ 88 4.3. Learner Corpus Research on the Progressive and the Perfect ....................................... 95 4.4. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 102 5. Data and Method .............................................................................................................. 104 5.1. Research Framework ................................................................................................... 104 5.2. Software Tools ............................................................................................................ 106 5.3. Learner Corpus Data Design: ICLE ............................................................................ 109 5.4. The Bulgarian and the German Components of ICLE ................................................ 112 5.5. Native Corpus Data Design: LOCNESS, FLOB and FROWN .................................. 117 5.6. Methodology I: Quantitative Analysis ........................................................................ 121 5.6.1. Frequency Measurement and Retrieval of Aspect Forms .................................... 122 5.6.2. Frequency Comparison of Aspect Forms and Statistical Tests ............................ 127 5.7. Methodology II: Qualitative Analysis ......................................................................... 130 6. Aspect Use in Learner and Native Writing: Quantitative Results .............................. 140 6.1. Frequency Distribution of the Finite Verb Phrases in Learner and Native Writing ... 140 6.2. Frequency Distribution of the Progressive in Learner and Native Writing ................ 144 6.3. Frequency Distribution of the Perfect in Learner and Native Writing ........................ 149 6.4. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 154 7. Lexicogrammatical Variation in the Use of Aspect in Learner and Native Writing . 156 7.1. The Progressive and the Influence of Inherent Lexical Aspect .................................. 156 7.2. The Perfect and the Influence of Inherent Lexical Aspect .......................................... 161 1 7.3. Distribution of the Progressive and the Perfect across Clause Types ......................... 167 7.4. Adverbial Modification of the Progressive and the Perfect ........................................ 174 7.5. Distribution of Contracted Auxiliary Forms with the Progressive and the Perfect .... 180 7.6. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 182 8. Misuse of Aspect in Bulgarian and German EFL Writing........................................... 184 8.1. Approaching Advanced EFL Learners’ Misuse: New Tendencies and Old Problems 184 8.2. Classifying Misuse of the Progressive and the Perfect ............................................... 188 8.3. Learner Misuse of the Progressive Aspect .................................................................. 188 8.3.1. Overgeneralisation of the Progressive Aspect ..................................................... 189 8.3.2. Undergeneralisation of the Progressive aspect ..................................................... 198 8.4. Learner Misuse of the Perfect Aspect ......................................................................... 202 8.4.1. Overgeneralisation of the Perfect Aspect in Non-Perfect Contexts ..................... 203 8.4.2. Undergeneralisation of the Perfect Aspect ........................................................... 207 8.5. Measuring Bulgarian and German EFL learners’ Aspect Misuse: Issues of Misuse Quantification ..................................................................................................................... 211 8.6. Summary ..................................................................................................................... 218 9. Discussion .......................................................................................................................... 220 9.1. Aspect Variation Patterns in Learner Writing: Some Remarks .................................. 221 9.2. L1 Influence on the Use of Aspect in Bulgarian and German EFL learners’ English: Tracing the Untraceable? ................................................................................................... 229 9.3. Further Factors: L2 Proficiency, Writing Expertise, Exposure and Transfer of Training ............................................................................................................................................ 238 9.4. Towards a Model of Analysing Aspect Use in EFL Writing ...................................... 242 10. Conclusion and Prospects for Future Research .......................................................... 248 References ............................................................................................................................. 251 Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 268 A1 Tables and Frequencies ................................................................................................ 268 A2 German Summary ......................................................................................................... 290 Kapitel 1. Thema und Forschungsfrage ................................................................................. 290 Kapitel 2. Theoretischer Rahmen: Aspekt im Englischen ....................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Linguistic Stereotypes
    RFFZEM, 32-33(22-23)(1992/93,1993/1994) D. ŠKARA: LINGUISTIC STEREOTYPES:... • LINGUISTIC STEREOTYPES: CROSSCULTURAL ANALYSIS OF PROVERBS DANICA ŠKARA UDK/UDC: 801 Filozofski fakultet u Zadru Izvorni znanstveni članak Faculty of Philosophy in Zadar Original scientific paper Primljeno : 1994-03-30 Received The aim of this paper is to analyse proverbs as linguistic stereotypes from a semantic point of view. The sample of proverbs is randomly chosen from 3 national collections: Croatian, English and Italian. The results of the analysis show that quite a small number of proverbs (about 10%) reflect traditional values and customs which are specific to one culture only. It seems that their universal character makes an ethnocentric approach nearly unacceptable. A high percentage of proverbs (90%) share a very strong mutual resemblance, despite all the differences stemming from ethnic, geographic, historical and language factors. The prevalence of equivalent, synonymous proverbs over specific ones is evident. They differ only in their immagery, in local realia and concepts, but the logical formula of their content is identical. The most frequent sentence structure of the proverbs with universal distrubution is the quadripartite structure and its main feature is symmetry. Does it mean that such sentences can be considered as some kind of kernel sentences? This question asks for additional research. Finally, we can make a conclusion that the universality and transferability are the most prominent features of the proverbs. 1. Introduction It is generally accepted that proverbs represent the smallest verbal folklore genre, but they can be viewed as linguistic units, too. They are used in everyday conversation, journalistic writing, advertising, speeches of all types, in sermons, literature, slogans, songs, and other forms of human communications.
    [Show full text]
  • Development of an Online Tense and Aspect Identifier for English
    Development of an online tense and aspect identifier for English John Blake1 Abstract. This article describes the development of a tense and aspect identifier, an online tool designed to help learners of English by harnessing a natural language processing pipeline to automatically classify verb groups into one of 12 grammatical tenses. Currently, there is no website or application that can automatically identify tense in context, and the tense and aspect identifier fills that niche. Learners can use the tool to see how grammatical tenses are used in context. Finite verb groups are automatically identified,and the relevant words in the verb group are highlighted and colorized according to the tense identified. The latest deployed system can identify tenses in simple, compound, and complex sentences. False positive results occur when there is ellipsis of auxiliary verbs or when the tagger assigns the incorrect part-of-speech tag. The user interface of the tense identifier is a web app created using the Flask framework and deployed from the Heroku platform. The tool can be used for inductive and deductive teaching approaches, or even to check for tense consistency in a thesis. Keywords: tense, aspect, iCALL, visualization. 1. Introduction Basic internet searches identify websites that explain the form and function of tenses, and numerous examples of each tense can be found. However, when teachers or learners want to identify the tense and aspect in a particular sentence, no online tool was discovered that could automatically identify the grammatical tense of sentences submitted by users. 1. University of Aizu, Aizuwakamatsu, Japan; [email protected]; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3150-4995 How to cite: Blake, J.
    [Show full text]
  • Serial Verb Constructions Revisited: a Case Study from Koro
    Serial Verb Constructions Revisited: A Case Study from Koro By Jessica Cleary-Kemp A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Associate Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair Assistant Professor Peter S. Jenks Professor William F. Hanks Summer 2015 © Copyright by Jessica Cleary-Kemp All Rights Reserved Abstract Serial Verb Constructions Revisited: A Case Study from Koro by Jessica Cleary-Kemp Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics University of California, Berkeley Associate Professor Lev D. Michael, Chair In this dissertation a methodology for identifying and analyzing serial verb constructions (SVCs) is developed, and its application is exemplified through an analysis of SVCs in Koro, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea. SVCs involve two main verbs that form a single predicate and share at least one of their arguments. In addition, they have shared values for tense, aspect, and mood, and they denote a single event. The unique syntactic and semantic properties of SVCs present a number of theoretical challenges, and thus they have invited great interest from syntacticians and typologists alike. But characterizing the nature of SVCs and making generalizations about the typology of serializing languages has proven difficult. There is still debate about both the surface properties of SVCs and their underlying syntactic structure. The current work addresses some of these issues by approaching serialization from two angles: the typological and the language-specific. On the typological front, it refines the definition of ‘SVC’ and develops a principled set of cross-linguistically applicable diagnostics.
    [Show full text]
  • Aktionsart and Aspect in Qiang
    The 2005 International Course and Conference on RRG, Academia Sinica, Taipei, June 26-30 AKTIONSART AND ASPECT IN QIANG Huang Chenglong Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology Chinese Academy of Social Sciences E-mail: [email protected] Abstract The Qiang language reflects a basic Aktionsart dichotomy in the classification of stative and active verbs, the form of verbs directly reflects the elements of the lexical decomposition. Generally, State or activity is the basic form of the verb, which becomes an achievement or accomplishment when it takes a directional prefix, and becomes a causative achievement or causative accomplishment when it takes the causative suffix. It shows that grammatical aspect and Aktionsart seem to play much of a systematic role. Semantically, on the one hand, there is a clear-cut boundary between states and activities, but morphologically, however, there is no distinction between them. Both of them take the same marking to encode lexical aspect (Aktionsart), and grammatical aspect does not entirely correspond with lexical aspect. 1.0. Introduction The Ronghong variety of Qiang is spoken in Yadu Township (雅都鄉), Mao County (茂縣), Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture (阿壩藏族羌族自治州), Sichuan Province (四川省), China. It has more than 3,000 speakers. The Ronghong variety of Qiang belongs to the Yadu subdialect (雅都土語) of the Northern dialect of Qiang (羌語北部方言). It is mutually intelligible with other subdialects within the Northern dialect, but mutually unintelligible with other subdialects within the Southern dialect. In this paper we use Aktionsart and lexical decomposition, as developed by Van Valin and LaPolla (1997, Ch. 3 and Ch. 4), to discuss lexical aspect, grammatical aspect and the relationship between them in Qiang.
    [Show full text]
  • Anchor Tense in Japanese Narrative
    愛知教育大学研究報告, 52 (人文・社会科学編), pp.51~61, March, 2003 Anchor Tense in Japanese Narrative Midori INABA Department of Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, Aichi University of Education, Kariya 448-8542, Japan 1. PURPOSE AND BACKGROUND A proficient narrative has consistency in anchoring favored tense. This consistency is considered one of the criteria for the development of child language in narrative discourse. Generally narrators can choose either past or present tense in recounting events. Another factor in evaluating proficient narrative is appropriate tense shifting1in narrative discourse. The present study investigated the way Japanese children learn to use grammatical tense in narrative discourse. It centered on the developmental changes of temporal marking in Japanese narratives from two respects: a dominant tense and tense shifting. The research on dominant tense involved examining what tense Japanese children and adults favored for tellingthe story, and to what extent they are consistent in reliance on thisform - either present or past - as an "anchor" for the narrative as a whole in a larger set of Japanese narratives. Tense shiftingwas discussed with the dominant tense, displaying how they switch past and present tense in accordance with the demands of a thematically organized and cohesive narrative. Prior research conducted by Berman and Slobin (1994) demonstrated that younger children do not always manage to adhere to a single grammatical tense, but older children and adults maintained consistently a favored tense throughout the narration. The developmental change occurs from "perceptually-motivated" choice of tense/aspect forms to "narratively-motivated" choice. In the course of development, the childlearns to use the expressive options of a particular native language to carry out narrative-discourse functions.
    [Show full text]
  • Describe Simple Present Tense
    Describe Simple Present Tense Is Dirk acerb or overhanded after bedaubed Hakim rescind so temporizingly? Nick usually reoccupying lopeprenatal dramatically or mewl fortunatelyas unsolvable when Skyler Algerian accessorizes Enoch abetted thematically sluttishly and and enables together. cloudlessly. Lesley is grapier and What the initial verb to describe a simple present tense to The simple present. It is simple tense describes two different article to describe an independent clause can use either a cup. What is an excellent explanation, describe a specific time can be able to learn me of! Here for simple present describe? As present simple present is described by adding a narrative style might have a dependent clause is historical present tense describes something that. Which type of simple present describe physical characteristics, a verb describing its intended to make similar to avoid making this! What tense describes an event or present describe? Once you may need even: tense with the most commonly used to describe an implicature, it more contemporary and. Thank you will begin to separate paragraph, just had written in! Earlier in simple tenses are used for this is appropriate choice unless you requested could go to make sure you? Click on classic literature and present tenses are an office at the cat loved to perpetual or does he walks to work. Click the present describe a short actions referred to succeed in the teacher sat and describes events within narrative based on. Most appropriate in present describe the same way: he go to deliver the time with more words to complete the! It started sometime before the! Finch in tense describes what we describe physical characteristics, tenses and is described.
    [Show full text]
  • Tenses Rules with Examples Pdf
    Tenses Rules With Examples Pdf When Billie huts his Boyle divinized not dogmatically enough, is Shlomo scathing? Prosecutable and unchained Garrett feezes her barton read transcendentalized and deputizes round. Salomone remains unscaled after Giordano depicturing affluently or regulate any negotiatresses. Simple tenses rules with pdf exercises on Introduction to tenses pdf Stevino. All Tense anchor Chart and ramp in PDF SlideShare. You will often as in latin, rules for closed events and which tv and communication, i bet it! The present progressive tense how often overused by non-native speakers of English It also only. They are examples pdf format and writing; an index from all of. She wants to have two examples pdf rules well then you will he write a rule is at the sentence below so, modal verbs conjugated in. In examples with example, in that man was shopping in front of. Your learning english. Simple Present Simple dish and attitude Perfect Tenses This is indicate list of Irregular Verbs I find read the thin form the circle past error and second past participle of. You like ielts exam, the past morpheme at lf position of 있다 is taking more confident about how to sit in pdf rules of new dress for. Jun 26 2020 All else Rule Chart and kitchen in PDF Free download as PDF File pdf Text File txt or read online for free You can find mustard all a rule in. Grammar Rules of Verb Tenses A & O Support Services for. He has just mentioned in pdf rules with example: present tense rule regards any mistakes? ACTIVE AND PASSIVE TENSES CHART.
    [Show full text]
  • T P C C U I F D by Tomohiro Yokoyama a Thesis Submitted In
    The Person Case Constraint Unconditional Interfaces and Faultless Derivations by Tomohiro Yokoyama A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto © Copyright 2019 by Tomohiro Yokoyama Abstract The Person Case Constraint Unconditional Interfaces and Faultless Derivations Tomohiro Yokoyama Doctor of Philosophy Department of Linguistics University of Toronto 2019 This thesis advances a theoretical move toward a grammatical model devoid of interface conditions by proposing a novel feature-based structure-building mechanism. In the standardly assumed architecture of grammar, ungrammaticality is often explained in terms of a violation of some condition on an output of the syntactic module. However, some recent research in lin- guistics has attempted to move away from such an approach to ungrammaticality and proposed to reinterpret ungrammaticality as non-generability. In this approach, ill-formed structures are construed not as defective but as impossible to generate with the available syntactic operations. In order to advocate for the latter approach to ungrammaticality, this thesis examines an in- terface condition called the Person Licensing Condition (PLC), which was proposed to account for a linguistic phenomenon known as the Person Case Constraint (PCC). It is shown in the thesis that the PLC fails to capture cross-linguistic variation in the PCC patterns and in the way illicit structures are remedied. It is further argued that previous, Agree-based accounts of the PCC variation, also reliant on an interface condition, cannot fully explain all the patterns and that they obscure the source of the variation. This thesis proposes an alternative account of the PCC, which involves a version of Merge that is constrained by feature valuation, and what is known as articulated person features.
    [Show full text]
  • Unity and Diversity in Grammaticalization Scenarios
    Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios Edited by Walter Bisang Andrej Malchukov language Studies in Diversity Linguistics 16 science press Studies in Diversity Linguistics Chief Editor: Martin Haspelmath In this series: 1. Handschuh, Corinna. A typology of marked-S languages. 2. Rießler, Michael. Adjective attribution. 3. Klamer, Marian (ed.). The Alor-Pantar languages: History and typology. 4. Berghäll, Liisa. A grammar of Mauwake (Papua New Guinea). 5. Wilbur, Joshua. A grammar of Pite Saami. 6. Dahl, Östen. Grammaticalization in the North: Noun phrase morphosyntax in Scandinavian vernaculars. 7. Schackow, Diana. A grammar of Yakkha. 8. Liljegren, Henrik. A grammar of Palula. 9. Shimelman, Aviva. A grammar of Yauyos Quechua. 10. Rudin, Catherine & Bryan James Gordon (eds.). Advances in the study of Siouan languages and linguistics. 11. Kluge, Angela. A grammar of Papuan Malay. 12. Kieviet, Paulus. A grammar of Rapa Nui. 13. Michaud, Alexis. Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical tones and morphotonology. 14. Enfield, N. J (ed.). Dependencies in language: On the causal ontology of linguistic systems. 15. Gutman, Ariel. Attributive constructions in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. 16. Bisang, Walter & Andrej Malchukov (eds.). Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios. ISSN: 2363-5568 Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios Edited by Walter Bisang Andrej Malchukov language science press Walter Bisang & Andrej Malchukov (eds.). 2017. Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios (Studies in Diversity Linguistics
    [Show full text]
  • The Semantics of Progressive Aspect: a Thorough Study MOUSUME AKHTER FLORA & S.M
    The Semantics of Progressive Aspect: A Thorough Study MOUSUME AKHTER FLORA & S.M. MOHIBUL HASAN Abstract In English grammar, verbs have two important characteristics--tense and aspect. Grammatically tense is marked in two ways: Present and Past. English verbs can have another property called aspect, applicable in both present and past forms of verbs. There are two major types of morphologically marked aspects in English verbs: progressive and perfective. While present and past tenses are morphologically marked by the forms verb+s/es (as in He plays) and verb+d/ed (as in He played) respectively, the morphological representations of progressive and perfective aspects in the tenses are verb+ing (He is/was playing) and verb+d/ed/n/en (He has/had played) respectively. This paper focuses only on one type of aspectual feature of verbs--present progressive. It analyses the use of present progressive in terms of semantics and explains its use in different contexts for durative conclusive and non-conclusive use, for its use in relation to time of reference, and for its use in some special cases. Then it considers the restrictions on the use of progressive aspect in both present and past tenses based on the nature of verbs and duration of time. 1. Introduction ‘Aspect’ has been widely discussed in English grammar with respect to the internal structure of actions, states and events as it revolves around the grammatical category of English verb groups and tenses. Depending on the interpretations of actions, states, and events as a feature of the verbs or as a matter of speaker’s viewpoint, two approaches are available for aspect: ‘Temporal’ and ‘Non-temporal’.
    [Show full text]
  • Grammatical Gender and Linguistic Complexity
    Grammatical gender and linguistic complexity Volume I: General issues and specific studies Edited by Francesca Di Garbo Bruno Olsson Bernhard Wälchli language Studies in Diversity Linguistics 26 science press Studies in Diversity Linguistics Editor: Martin Haspelmath In this series: 1. Handschuh, Corinna. A typology of marked-S languages. 2. Rießler, Michael. Adjective attribution. 3. Klamer, Marian (ed.). The Alor-Pantar languages: History and typology. 4. Berghäll, Liisa. A grammar of Mauwake (Papua New Guinea). 5. Wilbur, Joshua. A grammar of Pite Saami. 6. Dahl, Östen. Grammaticalization in the North: Noun phrase morphosyntax in Scandinavian vernaculars. 7. Schackow, Diana. A grammar of Yakkha. 8. Liljegren, Henrik. A grammar of Palula. 9. Shimelman, Aviva. A grammar of Yauyos Quechua. 10. Rudin, Catherine & Bryan James Gordon (eds.). Advances in the study of Siouan languages and linguistics. 11. Kluge, Angela. A grammar of Papuan Malay. 12. Kieviet, Paulus. A grammar of Rapa Nui. 13. Michaud, Alexis. Tone in Yongning Na: Lexical tones and morphotonology. 14. Enfield, N. J. (ed.). Dependencies in language: On the causal ontology of linguistic systems. 15. Gutman, Ariel. Attributive constructions in North-Eastern Neo-Aramaic. 16. Bisang, Walter & Andrej Malchukov (eds.). Unity and diversity in grammaticalization scenarios. 17. Stenzel, Kristine & Bruna Franchetto (eds.). On this and other worlds: Voices from Amazonia. 18. Paggio, Patrizia and Albert Gatt (eds.). The languages of Malta. 19. Seržant, Ilja A. & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.). Diachrony of differential argument marking. 20. Hölzl, Andreas. A typology of questions in Northeast Asia and beyond: An ecological perspective. 21. Riesberg, Sonja, Asako Shiohara & Atsuko Utsumi (eds.). Perspectives on information structure in Austronesian languages.
    [Show full text]
  • The Marking of Aspect in the Past Tense in French: the Role of Languaging Abstract Grammatical Concepts
    The marking of aspect in the past tense in French: The role of languaging abstract grammatical concepts Carl Andrew Ord BA (Hons), BCom A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2014 School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies i Abstract Current second language (L2) learning research indicates a positive relationship between producing language to mediate cognitive activity, or ‘languaging’ (Swain, 2006a), and a deeper understanding of abstract grammatical concepts (e.g., Gánem-Gutiérrez & Harun, 2011; Negueruela, 2003; Swain, 2007; Swain, Lapkin, Knouzi & Brooks, 2009; Brooks, Swain, Lapkin, Knouzi, 2010). Abstract grammatical concepts (e.g., aspect, mood, voice) are scientific concepts, relating specifically to language, which “represent the generalisations of the experience of humankind” (Karpov, 2003, p. 66). This thesis aims to add to the current research by firstly exploring the relationship between languaging and learners’ understanding of the grammatical concept of aspect in French and English. Secondly, it will investigate the role of grammatical concepts in L2 development to determine how learners use concepts to mediate L2 production and how it influences their ability to communicate meaning in an L2. In this longitudinal study, five English speakers enrolled in an advanced-intermediate French course at an Australian university attended four one-on-one sessions with the researcher over seven weeks. Participants were given information about the grammatical concept of aspect in French and English as part of the languaging task (Swain et al, 2009) in the second session and their explanations of the concept at each stage of the study were analysed to determine their level of understanding.
    [Show full text]