Exploiting L1 and interlanguage corpora in the design of an electronic language learning and production environment

Abstract

This chapter briefly describes manual and semi-automatic analyses of an electronic interlanguage corpus. It outlines electronic exercises, tutorials and tools designed to address some of the infelicities in the writing of the Engligh learners exposed by these analyses. The chapter provides the supplement instruction in and exposure to the L2 by an Electronic Language Learning and Production Environment, which is meant to enhance the ability of learners to attend to lexical, grammatical and discoursal aspects of their reading and writing. It provides learners with contextualized practice in those lexico-grammatical aspects of their English which demonstrably present them with the greatest difficulty. The implementation of wide coverage, reliable grammar checkers for non-native speakers (NNSs) may be some way off yet, but there are a number of ways in which the data from the separate and comparative analyses of native speaker (NS) and NNS texts can be used now to create electronic learning experiences and writing assistants for English NNS writers.