Corpus-based analysis of word combinations in L2 learners’ written compositions

Abstract EN

Corpus linguistics is a method conveniently used to probe the use of words and phrases in real life situations.

The method is commonly used to investigate the semantics and syntax of languages.

One of the well documented uses of corpora is the compilation of words and meanings in dictionaries.

This study attempts to use the same method for the analysis of the written productions of L2 Learners.

A corpus of L2 learners* written productions was gathered from 22 Saudi university students majoring in English with the aim of investigating word combinations.

A concordancing computer programme was used to identify all the two-word combinations.

The study examined these combinations in terms of structural and collocation correctness.

The results indicated clearly that corpus- based analysis can give useful insights into the semantic competence of L2 learners.

However, no quantification could be made because the size of the corpus used in this study was small.

With a larger corpus, we could identify the general problem areas in L2 Learners' semantic competence.

In addition, the utility of this approach transcends theoretical issues to L2 pedagogy.