Corpus linguistics, applied linguistics & technology in language education
Frequency is a key determinant of acquisition because “rules” of language, at all levels of analysis from phonological, through syntax to discourse, are structural regularities which emerge from learners’ lifetime analysis of the distributional characteristics of language input.
“Language is never, ever, ever random” (Kilgarriff, 2005), not in its usage, not in its acquisition, and not in its processing. (Nick C. Ellis, 2017, p. 41) Nick C. Ellis (2017). Cognition, Corpora, and Computing: Triangulating Research in Usage-Based Language Learning. Language Learning 67(S1), pp. 40–65
Programa de Doctorado Interuniversitario en Estudios Ingleses Avanzados: Lingüística, Literatura y Cultura (IDAES) – IDAES Graduate Day References Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2018). Research methods in education. Routledge. Dornyei, Z. (2007). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. OUP. Hunston, S. (2019). Patterns, constructions, and applied linguistics. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 24(3), 324-353. Loewen, S., & … Read more
Linguists and psychologists often study sentences in isolation, which may be akin to studying animals in separate cages in a zoo. I have been guilty of this in much of my own work. Our understanding of language will undoubtedly benefit from more focus on language in its natural habitat: conversation (e.g., Du Bois et al., … Read more
An important role for competition and error-driven learning was detailed in chapter 5, offering a way for learners to overcome overgeneralizations and learn the constraints on words and constructions. As a preferred alternative becomes more familiar through repeated exposure, it will become easier to access than the dispreferred formulation through the process of statistical preemption. That … Read more
Usage-based theories of language hold that learners acquire constructions in a similar fashion—from the statistical abstraction of patterns of form-meaning correspondence in their usage experience—and that the acquisition of linguistic constructions can be understood in terms of the cognitive science of concept formation following the general associative principles of the induction of categories from experience … Read more