Contribution of learner corpora to SLA
Amaya Mendikoetxea, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
The aims of this discussion are (i) to evaluate the impact of learner corpus research
in recent SLA theory, (ii) to evaluate the contribution of the SPLLOC project to this
area of inquiry and (iii) to point out future challenges for corpus-based SLA
research.
The starting point in this discussion is the fact that much current SLA research
favours experimental and/or introspective data and tends to be dismissive of the type
of natural language use data like that in learner corpora (Granger 2002). I will point
out some reasons why elicitation techniques are favoured in SLA research and will
then mention what learner corpora can contribute to SLA research as a method for
data gathering. I will then evaluate some recent studies within the area of inquiry
known as learner corpus research. These studies are mostly descriptive focusing on
differences between the language of native speakers and those of learners, as
observed in the written performance of advanced learners from a variety of L2
backgrounds (see e.g. Granger 2002, 2004 and Myles 2005 for a similar evaluation
of corpus-based SLA research). It is within this context that I will move on to
analyse in some detail the key principles that have guided the creation of SPLLOC.
Special attention will be paid to the choice of a spoken, rather than written, corpus,
to the notion of ‘semi-naturalistic’ speech, and to the types of tasks employed to
elicit learners’ speech. This is followed by a brief review of the papers presented in
this workshop by SPLLOC team members. My presentation concludes with an
analysis of future challenges for corpus-based SLA. Participants are welcome to
engage in the debate at any point during my presentation.