TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating the use of article-adjective-noun constructions in EFL writing
AU - Liu, Yingying
AU - McManus, Kevin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Editorial Board TESL - EJ. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - Recent second language acquisition research has demonstrated that language learning is in essence the learning of constructions, or form-meaning pairings. Compared to first language acquisition research, however, our understanding of how constructions in a second language (L2) emerge and develop with proficiency and/or experience is limited. Furthermore, within this developing evidence base of L2 research, investigations have predominantly focused on verb-based constructions (e.g., verb-argument constructions), understood to be a core construction category of sentences. As a result, a large part of L2 speakers’ construction inventories remains to be investigated. To address this gap, a corpus-based investigation of the “article + adjective + noun” (AAN) construction in a written corpus of Chinese-speaking learners of English was carried out. Analyses show growth in construction types and developmental changes of adjectives in AANs with increasing amounts of L2 experience, consistent with usage-based understandings of language. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed, including the extent to which previous findings for verb-based constructions apply to AAN constructions.
AB - Recent second language acquisition research has demonstrated that language learning is in essence the learning of constructions, or form-meaning pairings. Compared to first language acquisition research, however, our understanding of how constructions in a second language (L2) emerge and develop with proficiency and/or experience is limited. Furthermore, within this developing evidence base of L2 research, investigations have predominantly focused on verb-based constructions (e.g., verb-argument constructions), understood to be a core construction category of sentences. As a result, a large part of L2 speakers’ construction inventories remains to be investigated. To address this gap, a corpus-based investigation of the “article + adjective + noun” (AAN) construction in a written corpus of Chinese-speaking learners of English was carried out. Analyses show growth in construction types and developmental changes of adjectives in AANs with increasing amounts of L2 experience, consistent with usage-based understandings of language. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed, including the extent to which previous findings for verb-based constructions apply to AAN constructions.
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M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85096539559
SN - 1072-4303
VL - 24
JO - TESL-EJ
JF - TESL-EJ
IS - 2
ER -