First steps in assigning proficiency to texts in a learner corpus of computer-mediated communication
This chapter presents a new method for assigning proficiency levels to texts in a
learner corpus of computer-mediated communication (CMC). The CMC comes
from learner comments on news articles that form part of an English language
course for university students in Japan. The rationale for using the CMC discourse
as the basis of a learner corpus will be discussed, followed by a justification
of using a text-centred approach of assigning proficiency. The use of binary
decision trees to account for the complexity, accuracy and fluency evident in
the texts will be described, followed by a snapshot of the results from using the
method so far. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that while some of the
details may need refining, in principle the method could be of use in categorizing
the proficiency of texts in other learner corpora.
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Wisniewski, Katrin
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Empirical Learner Language and the Levels of the Common European Framework of Reference.
Language Learning 67:S1
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