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Learner Corpora in Language Testing and Assessment
Edited by Marcus Callies and Sandra Götz
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 70] 2015
► pp. 163–190

Article use and criterial features in Spanish EFL writing

A pilot study from CEFR A2 to B2 levels

This pilot study uses a combination of frequency measures and an accuracy measure to explore article use in the writing of Spanish learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Following Bickerton’s (1981) and Huebner’s (1983) publications, the uses of the definite, indefinite and zero articles are analysed and (error-)tagged in a learner corpus containing texts at the A2, B1 and B2 levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Three criterial features, more concretely positive linguistic features, are observed in the learner corpus at CEFR B2 level: the higher mean of correct uses of the zero article in non-referential contexts, their effective use and selection, and their accurate use. The chapter also analyses the patterns in the accuracy of use order at the three CEFR levels and provides examples of article errors.

Published online: 9 April 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.70.07die
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