Literaturnachweis - Detailanzeige
| Autor/in | Aguinaga Echeverria, Silvia |
|---|---|
| Titel | Building Fluency: A Contrastive Analysis of Formulaic Speech in Students of Spanish as a Second Language and Native Speakers |
| Quelle | (2018), (146 Seiten)
PDF als Volltext Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Davis |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Dokumenttyp | gedruckt; online; Monographie |
| ISBN | 978-0-4386-2887-8 |
| Schlagwörter | Hochschulschrift; Dissertation; Second Language Learning; Native Language; Language Usage; Speech Acts; Language Fluency; Language Proficiency; Contrastive Linguistics; Oral Language; Spanish; Word Frequency; Vocabulary |
| Abstract | It has long been recognized that collocations, or chunks of formulaic language, are essential and frequent in language (Henriksen, 2012; Sinclair, 2004). Therefore they are a crucial part of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Linguistic scholars Pawley y Syder (1983: 192) remark that "in order to know a language, the [second language] (L2) learner must know not only the language's individual words but also how they fit together." Wood (2015) attributed to formulaic language the improvement of temporal aspects such as rate of speech, fewer pauses and hesitations, and length of speech runs of L2 oral speech. However, collocations are often considered to be vocabulary words or expressions that are difficult to acquire due to a number of factors such as its compositional transparency but closed format, or the differences between L1 and L2 structures, among others (Jensen, 2017; Nesselhauf, 2003; Schmitt, 2000: 79). At present, we know very little about how Spanish language learners acquire formulaic language, yet these speech routines are a key component of linguistic fluency and modern measures of language proficiency. With this in mind, this dissertation carried out a contrastive analysis of the oral language production of 40 Spanish language learners (20 advanced, 20 intermediate L1 English) and 20 native speakers in order to, first, recognize the internal characteristics and roles of collocations in native language production and language acquisition to end up with a developmental picture of how L2 students acquire collocations. Two main analyses were conducted. The first focused on the lexical richness of individual words in order to have a better understanding of the corpus and genre---oral language in informal settings; the second focused on collocations and word combinations. The quantitative analysis of lexical richness is based on four measures: 1) Type-token ratio (TTR) analysis; 2) Lexical density, based on the percentage of words with semantic content (verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs), versus functional words, which lack semantic content (articles, prepositions, pronouns, and conjunctions); 3) Lexical dimension, measured to observe the gradual acquisition of lexicon; and 4) Word complexity measured through frequency; it is assumed that the more difficult a word is, the less frequent its use. The second analysis focuses on collocations and word combinations. Collocations were manually annotated and analyzed based on several parameters such as density, variety, sophistication, and type of collocational error. While the lexical richness analysis did not show deep information of vocabulary development, the results of a quantitative comparison of learners' and native Spanish speakers' collocation production showed a better understanding of such development. For instance, a gap was observed between both groups of students (intermediate and advanced students) and native speakers, showing that learners had a smaller repertoire and overused frequent combinations. However, the number of produced collocations increases with the level of linguistic competence. Therefore, collocations are not only a characteristic of the target language, but are a marker of linguistic competence: the higher the level of competence, the greater the number of collocations produced. Moreover, this study investigates the different types of analyses of collocations and addresses their limitations and benefits. One cannot assume that learners do not produce low frequency collocations; however, these collocations are not the preferred ones by the native speakers. The results show that non-native speakers choose a different collocate than NS do, and this collocate is the element whose selection is more restricted. The results of this research 1) highlight the production of formulaic language as one of the characteristics of native-like production, and 2) demonstrate that parameters such as sophistication and variety are key factors to uncover why some L2 learners reach an advanced level of linguistic knowledge, while others fall short of that level even when optimal conditions for learning are provided. Furthermore, these results help to establish a developmental baseline that can inform the creation of a new generation of pedagogical materials that put lexical-competence at the heart of L2 curricula. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.] (As Provided). |
| Anmerkungen | ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Tel: 800-521-0600; Web site: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml |
| Erfasst von | ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC |
| Update | 2020/1/01 |
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