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Learner Corpora and Language Teaching
Edited by Sandra Götz and Joybrato Mukherjee
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 92] 2019
► pp. 219–242

The use of smallwords in the speech of German learners of English

A corpus-based study of the factors of instruction and natural exposure

| University of Freiburg

Based on data from the German component of LINDSEI and two native speaker corpora, this study investigates the consequences of language learning in an instructional setting versus additional natural exposure for the use of 18 fluency-enhancing smallwords. It thus complements previous studies of selected discourse markers in German learner English and offers a more in-depth analysis of individual differences in advanced learners’ speech in terms of frequency and appropriateness of use. Adding to earlier research, which has found that exposure to natural input is clearly beneficial to a more native-like use of discourse markers, the results of the present study also suggest that smallwords are teachable and that teaching in this area needs to be made more efficient.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous research on the use of smallwords in learner language
  • 3.Corpus data and methods
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Categories of smallwords
    • 4.2Individual variation in the use of selected smallwords
    • 4.3Functional use of selected smallwords
  • 5.Conclusions and implications for language teaching
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.92.11ros
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