An Analysis of Learner Language With Reference to Spoken English
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Date
1997-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In this study a group of first year university students were asked to comment on their
own recorded oral texts which they had produced by performing tasks that involved face-toface
interactions in the L2. Transcribed, the texts and comments were described, analyzed,
interpreted and compared in terms of form and content. The aim of the study was to identify
important discourse level and system specific features of the processes of the interactions.
Analyses of the learners' language show that some loan words which were borrowed by the
L 1 from the L2 with semantic modifications appeared in the learners' L2 with the same
modifications. They also show that whole moves were wasted maybe because listeners failed
to attend when they were deeply engrossed planning more responses to earlier moves made
by speakers. Where three languages spoken by a learner, L1, L2 and L3 were concerned,
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equivalent errors made in the learner's L2 and L3 were hypothesized to have a common source
in the learners L1. This could be done even when the researcher did not know the learner's L1.
Considering the co-operative nature of face-to-face interaction, Grice's Co-operative Principle
has been suggested as an alternative guide for marking student texts.
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Keywords
Learner Language