ERIC Number: EJ1051023
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0957-1736
EISSN: N/A
Formulaic Language and Collocations in German Essays: From Corpus-Driven Data to Corpus-Based Materials
Krummes, Cedric; Ensslin, Astrid
Language Learning Journal, v43 n1 p110-127 2015
Whereas there exists a plethora of research on collocations and formulaic language in English, this article contributes towards a somewhat less developed area: the understanding and teaching of formulaic language in German as a foreign language. It analyses formulaic sequences and collocations in German writing (corpus-driven) and provides modern language instructors with a hands-on application of phrases to be used in writing (corpus-based). We report on a corpus-driven analysis of over 300 essays written by native speakers of German (Falko-L1) and British undergraduate students of German (WHiG), which revealed that advanced learners rely more on formulaic language than native speakers, that advanced learners prefer macro-structuring devices over micro-structuring devices used by native speakers, and that the learners in WHiG prefer impersonal and indirect stance expressions over direct ones used by native speakers in Falko-L1. Using corpus-based methods, we then present a didactic methodology for modern language instructors on how to approach five keywords that are particularly characteristic of formulaic language use in German academic writing: "Zweck" "aim", "Beispiel" "example", "Ansicht" "opinion", "laut" "according to", "Fazit" "conclusion".
Descriptors: German, Essays, Computational Linguistics, Phrase Structure, Language Teachers, Second Language Instruction, Second Language Learning, Native Speakers, Undergraduate Students, English, Writing (Composition), Teaching Methods, Language Usage, Workshops, Instructional Materials, Foreign Countries, Dictionaries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom (England); United Kingdom (Wales)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A