1,721,035 research outputs found
Teaching and learning of French verb inflections : a classroom experiment using processing instruction
No full textEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Linguistic development in L2 Spanish: creation and analysis of a learner corpus
No full textThis project had two aims: to establish a small scale, high quality database of spoken learner Spanish, and to undertake a short programme of substantive research into L2 (second language)Spanish. The data was collected from classroom learners of Spanish (with English as their first language), from beginners to advanced level, using specially designed elicitation tasks. For comparison purposes, native speakers were also recorded undertaking the same tasks. The resulting database contains digital soundfiles of learner speech, accompanied by transcripts in CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System) format which are tagged for parts of speech. The material will be made freely available for use among the Spanish second language acquisition research community, through a specially created website. The substantive research programme investigates the acquisition of central morphosyntactic properties of Spanish, such as word order, clitic pronouns, verbal morphology and wh-questions, providing a description and analysis of developmental sequences of L2 Spanish from an interface perspective. Phenomena such as the role of rote-learned formulas in instructed L2 Spanish were also studied. Research such as this enables us to better understand the processes involved in learning a second language in a classroom setting, and thus supports curriculum design for instructed L2 programmes.</span
Using CHILDES tools for researching second language acquisition
No full textThe second language acquisition research community needs datasets of oral production in order to study linguistic development. The use of digital technologies, as already seen in other areas, has the potential to improve the collection, analysis and sharing of such data. Attempts to develop uniquely SLA specific tools have been abandoned. This paper evaluates some of the CHILDES tools (MacWhinney 2002, http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/), originally developed for first language acquisition research, in the context of a project investigating linguistic development of French . The CHILDES tools are part of an active and well-funded international community of language researchers, and consequently keep pace with relevant technological developments (e.g. digitised sound and video files, XML compatible formats). Although considerable time was required to become sufficiently familiar with the tools, and some project-specific modifications were necessary in order to benefit from the recently-developed computerised French morphosyntactic analyses, we argue that the CHILDES package can offer the SLA community flexible and efficient means of data preparation, analysis and sharing. Our experience suggests that training in and use of the tools could significantly enhance current practice
The acquisition of functional categories in early French second language grammars: The use of finite and non-finite verbs in negative contexts
No full textThis cross-sectional study of first language (L1) English adolescents learning French as a second language (L2) uses their development of negatives in relation to finite and non-finite verbs to investigate the status and nature of functional categories in these learners’ emerging grammars. Analysing oral data from elicited production tasks from instructed learners, it provides evidence for a lack of functional categories in the Initial State and the earliest L2 grammars (Vainikka and Young-Scholten, 1996; Hawkins, 2001). However, the results from the study also indicate that the functional category I (or T) then emerges reasonably rapidly. The pattern of development of negation and finite and non-finite verbs in these learners’ grammars also suggests that feature values are in place for the functional categories once they are projected, as learners consistently raise the verb. The learners do use root infinitives but the properties of these root infinitives differ to those found in L1 acquisition (Pierce, 1992; Wexler, 1994; 1998), thus supporting Wexler’s maturational account of Optional Infinitives in L1 acquisition. Additionally, the rare occurrence of raised non-finite verbs would indicate that there is a problem with the realization of surface morphology in accordance with the Missing Surface Inflection Hypothesis of Prévost and White (2000a) rather than an impairment in the grammar (Meisel, 1997; Hawkins, 2000)
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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