Korean Middle School Students’ Use of English Verb-Argument Constructions and Pause Patterns in L2 Speaking

L2 fluency;L2 spoken language;verb-argument constructions;pause pattern;construction grammar;grammatical competence;combinatory strength

사범대학 외국어교육과(영어전공) ;

University:서울대학교 대학원

关键词: L2 fluency;    L2 spoken language;    verb-argument constructions;    pause pattern;    construction grammar;    grammatical competence;    combinatory strength;   

Others  :  http://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/127544/1/000000004641.pdf

美国|英语

来源: Seoul National University Open Repository

【 摘 要 】

Since L2 speaking has been marked as a central language skill in CLT, the perspectives on L2 oral fluency (henceforth, L2 fluency) remain contentious. In particular, the issue of the consideration of grammatical aspects in measuring L2 fluency has been largely neglected in the theoretical and pedagogical practices. Therefore, the present study aims to examine Korean EFL learners’ fluency by analyzing their oral production in terms of verb-argument constructions (VACs), and pause patterns. Consequently, this study supposes that VACs under the framework of Construction Grammar needs to be included in L2 fluency measuring units.A total of 29 Korean middle school EFL students from Grade 1 to 3 participated in this study. They carried out three role-playing tasks and three topic-based conversation tasks in pair work. Their oral production was recorded and then transcribed by means of the general conventions from Conversation Analysis. The most frequently occurring verbs, argument structure constructions, and the islands inhabiting the core constructions were identified. L2 pause distribution, specifically at predicate (main verb) and argument position, was also analyzed.Findings from the study revealed that across proficiency levels of the participants, the VACs produced did not differ significantly in range. All levels of participants tended to turn to constrained types of VACs, such as SVC and SVO, mostly employing a narrow range of verbs and the inhabitants of the islands. Such may be attributed to the learners’ lack of knowledge in constructions as well as to the inherent demand of spoken discourse.Based on the analysis of pause pattern in terms of VACs, it was argued that the pause distribution within the predicate (main verb) and argument can be associated with the extent of participants’ knowledge about VACs. Namely, learners with higher proficiency may recognize a predicate and its internal argument as one unit. In particular, while the less proficient learners paused frequently before both a predicate and an argument, more proficient learners tended to pause mostly before a predicate. This study thus posited that learners’ ability to construct VACs, which entails learners’ recognition of the combinatory strength between the predicate and arguments, has an impact on L2learners’ pause distribution. The study is expected to contribute to a better understanding of L2 fluency by incorporating VACs to L2 fluency measuring units, especially based on the analysis of pause patterns in light of VACs. Suggestions for pedagogy and future research were also identified.