Clausal Complements in Native and Learner Spoken English

This study deals with the frequency and use of clausal complementation in the oral production of two different Spanish learner groups (i.e. Galician/Spanish learners and Spanish learners) as compared with a further learner group (i.e. German learners) and with native speakers (British students). By using corpus and learner linguistic approaches, this research aims to find out and explain the similarities and differences regarding the use of clausal complementation structures in the oral English of several groups of non-native and native speakers. In addition, this study also depicts the process of collection of the oral corpus VICOLSE, which contains transcripts of spoken English data produced by bilingual Galician/Spanish learners. The identification of variation in the use of clausal complementation across the data sheds light on the particular characteristics of spoken learner language syntax/structuring.

Author Biography

Beatriz Tizón-Couto holds an MA (English Language and Literature) and PhD (English Linguistics) from the University of Vigo. From 2005 to 2009 she taught English at the Centre of Modern Languages at the same university. She worked as a research assistant in the Language Variation and Textual Categorization research unit in Vigo in 2008 and 2009. Currently, Beatriz Tizón-Couto works as a teacher of English at the Official School of Languages in Vigo.