Linguistic Development Corpus
Description: Linguistic development in classroom learners of French: a cross-sectional study
This ESRC-funded one year project ran from October 2001 to September 2002 (ESRC grant R000234754). The project director was Florence Myles and the other team members were Emma Marsden, Rosamond Mitchell and Sarah Rule. For further details and a comprehensive listing of outputs, see www.esrc.ac.uk, or contact Florence.Myles@ncl.ac.uk. The main objectives of the project were three-fold:
- To provide a database of learner language for years 9, 10 and 11 of secondary
education in the UK context (ages 13-14; 14-15; 15-16 respectively), in
order to complement the database already collected for years 7, 8 and beginning
of 9 (Mitchell and Dickson 1997; ESRC grant R000234754; see Progression Project).
- To analyse linguistic progression in French in the years leading to GCSE
at age 16, and to investigate the development of a range of morphosyntactic
features, and of the relationship between rote learning and creative construction
at this level.
- To inform current theoretical debates about linguistic development in second language learners, in terms of the different learning mechanisms available to classroom learners (e.g. innate or learnt), and in terms of the impact of classroom instruction on development (comparison with naturalistic learners; role of formulaic language).