Completing the feedback loop: Creating spoken learner corpora
Completing the feedback loop: Creating spoken learner corpora

Author(s): M. Trevor Shanklin
Subject(s): Syntax, Lexis, Language acquisition, Pragmatics, Philology
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: oral proficiency; assessment; testing; learner corpora;
Summary/Abstract: This study documents the procedures put in place to create and analyze spoken learner corpora from advanced second-language speakers. The first part describes the development of CAST, an on-line proficiency test, and is followed by a report on an ESL pilot study based on spoken responses from the CAST test; criteria are examined that elucidate effective discourse – of interest were subordination, the use of the past tense and the frequency count of individual lexical items. There is a brief discussion of procedures in developing a similar review of Arabic, Persian and Japanese items; in Arabic, dialectal differences were of interest and in Japanese the examination of word frequency is extended to key words. The study ends with an outline of procedures for displaying the data for ongoing instruction and curriculum development.

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