Research on L2 Writing Assessment Based on a'Learner Corpus

• Project/Area Number: 17520394
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Tokyo International University
• Principal Investigator: NARITA Masumi Tokyo International University, School of Language Communication, Professor (50383162)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SUGIURA Masatoshi Nagoya University, Graduate School of International Development, Professor (80216308) ; HARADA Yasunari Waseda University, School of Law, Professor (80189711) ; ISAHARA Hitoshi National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Computational Linguistics Group, Group Leader (20358881)
• Project Period (FY): 2005 – 2007
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2007)
• Budget Amount: ¥3,490,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000); Fiscal Year 2007: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000); Fiscal Year 2006: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000); Fiscal Year 2005: ¥1,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000)
• Keywords: Learner Corpus / Writing Ability / Assessment Criteria / Development Index

Research Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to explore significant rating criteria and development indices that could be used for assessing L2 (a second language) writing abilities appropriately. As a first step, argumentative essays in English produced by Japanese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) college students were collected and compiled as a learner corpus. These essays were all analytically rated by two native speakers of English.
Two kinds of correlation analyses were then performed using rating scores: 1) a correlation analysis between the total scores and their analytical sub-scores in the corpus and 2) a correlation analysis between the total scores and some quantitative values (such as the essay length, average sentence length, and average word length) automatically computed from the essay data. Our findings show that analytic scales "Content" and "Language Use" are significantly correlated with the total score of the essay and that the essay length is also significantly correlated with the total score of the essay. The significantly positive correlation between the total score of the essay and the student's English proficiency was also observed.
Since the size of our newly-developed corpus is small, the findings we obtained are not generalizable across all Japanese EFL learners. However, the present research seems to point to a new line of learner corpus-based L2 writing assessment research. The findings from future research are expected to provide some useful insights into classroom teaching of L2 writing.

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Changes in Japanese EFL Writing through a Native English Reader's Feedback (2008)
  • Author(s): Narita, Masumi
  • Journal Title: 東京国際大学論叢-言語コミュニケーション学部編 第4号 Pages: 57-73
  • NAID: 40016041306
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Journal Article] Changes in Japanese EFL Writing through a Native English Reader's Feedback (2008)
  • Author(s): Narita, M
  • Journal Title: The Journal of Tokyo International University, The School of Language Communication No. 4 Pages: 57-73
  • NAID: 40016041306
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Journal Article] Changes in Japanese EFL Writing through a Native English Reader's Feedback (2008)
  • Author(s): Narita, Masnmi
  • Journal Title: 東京国際大学論叢-言語コミュニケーション学部編 4 Pages: 57-73
  • NAID: 40016041306
• [Journal Article] The Use of Adverbial Connectors in Argumentative Essays by Japanese EFL College Students (2006)
  • Author(s): Narita, M.and Sugiura, M.
  • Journal Title: 英語コーパス研究 第13号 Pages: 23-42
  • NAID: 40015224220
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] ライティング指導とその効果-英語接続表現の使用に見られる変化- (2006)
  • Author(s): 成田 真澄
  • Journal Title: 東京国際大学論叢-言語コミュニケーション学部編 第2号 Pages: 225-235
  • NAID: 40015199345
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Journal Article] The Use of Adverbial Connectors in Argumentative Essays by Japanese EFL College Students (2006)
  • Author(s): Narita, M., Sugiura, M
  • Journal Title: English Corpus Studies No. 13 Pages: 23-42
  • NAID: 40015224220
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Journal Article] EFL Writing Instruction and Its Effectiveness : Effects on Students' Usage of Logical Connectors (2006)
  • Author(s): Narita, M
  • Journal Title: The Journal of Tokyo International University, The School of Language Communication No. 2 Pages: 225-235
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Journal Article] The Development of the CHILDES-Based Language Developmental Score for Japanese (DSSJ) (2006)
  • Author(s): Miyata, S., Hirakawa, M., Kanagy, R., Kuriyama, Y., MacWhinney, B., Minami, M., Murakami, K., Nisisawa, H., Oshima-Takane, Y., Otomo, K., Shirahata, T., Sirai, H., Shirai, J., Shirai, Y., Sugiura, M., Terada, H.
  • Journal Title: Studies in Language Sciences 第5号 Pages: 75-89
• [Journal Article] 自律的学習を促す学習者主体の英語学習環境の構築に向けて (2006)
  • Author(s): 原田康也, 前坊香菜子, 河村まゆみ, 前野譲二, 楠元範明, 鈴木陽一郎, 鈴木正紀
  • Journal Title: 大学英語教育学会全国大会要綱 第45回 Pages: 135-136
• [Journal Article] 大学英語授業でのグループ活動による自律的相互学習の効果検証を目指して (2006)
  • Author(s): 原田康也, 楠元範明, 前野譲二, 鈴木正紀, 鈴木陽一郎
  • Journal Title: 平成18年度大学教育・情報戦略大会抄録 Pages: 244-245
• [Journal Article] The Use of Adverbial Connectors in Argumentative Essays by Japanese EFL College Students (2006)
  • Author(s): Narita, M., Sugiura, M.
  • Journal Title: 英語コーパス研究 第13号 Pages: 23-42
  • NAID: 40015224220
• [Journal Article] ライティング指導とその効果-英語接続表現の使用に見られる変化- (2006)
  • Author(s): 成田真澄
  • Journal Title: 東京国際大学論叢(言語コミュニケーション学部編) 第2号 Pages: 225-235
  • NAID: 40015199345
• [Journal Article] 学習者コーパスからの表現バリエーションの抽出と言い換えストラテジー指導への利用 (2005)
  • Author(s): 和泉絵美, 内元清貴, 井佐原均
  • Journal Title: 自然言語処理 12・4 Pages: 193-210
  • NAID: 130004101398
• [Journal Article] エラータグ付き学習者コーパスを用いた日本人英語学習者の主要文法形態素の習得順序に関する分析 (2005)
  • Author(s): 和泉絵美, 内元清貴, 井佐原均
  • Journal Title: 自然言語処理 12・4 Pages: 211-225
  • NAID: 130004101399
• [Presentation] Effects of Short-term Explicit Writing Instruction (2007)
  • Author(s): Narita, M.and Carreia, M.J.
  • Organizer: The 33rd JALT International Conference on Language Teaching
  • Place of Presentation: 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター
  • Year and Date: 2007-11-24
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] Effects of Short-term Explicit Writing (2007)
  • Author(s): Narita, M., Carreira, M. J
  • Organizer: The 33rd International Conference on Language Teaching
  • Place of Presentation: National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, Tokyo
  • Year and Date: 2007-11-24
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Presentation] Employing an Online Concordancer for Learning English Adverbial Connectors in the EFL Writing Classroom (2007)
  • Author(s): Narita, M.and Sugiura, M.
  • Organizer: Symposium on Second Language Writing
  • Place of Presentation: 名古屋学院大学
  • Year and Date: 2007-09-16
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] Employing an Online Concordancer for Learning English Adverbial Connectors in the EFL Writing Classroom (2007)
  • Author(s): Narita, M., Sugiura, M
  • Organizer: Symposium on Second Language Writing
  • Place of Presentation: Nagoya Gakuin University
  • Year and Date: 2007-09-16
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Presentation] A Discriminant Analysis of Non-native Speakers and Native Speakers of English (2007)
  • Author(s): Sugiura, M., Narita, M., Ishida, T., Sakaue, T., Murao, R.and Muraki, K.
  • Organizer: Corpus Linguistics 2007
  • Place of Presentation: 英国バーミンガム大学
  • Year and Date: 2007-07-30
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] A Discriminant Analysis of Non-native Speakers and Native Speakers of English (2007)
  • Author(s): Sugiura, M., Narita, M., Ishida, T., Sakaue, T., Murao, R., Muraki, K
  • Organizer: Copus Linguistics 2007
  • Place of Presentation: University of Birmingham
  • Year and Date: 2007-07-30
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Presentation] 日本人大学生による英語接続語句の使用に関する研究 (2005)
  • Author(s): 成田 真澄、杉浦 正利
  • Organizer: 英語コーパス学会
  • Place of Presentation: 昭和女子大学
  • Year and Date: 2005-10-22
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Presentation] The Usage of English Logical Connectors by Japanese College Students (2005)
  • Author(s): Narita, M., Sugiura, M
  • Organizer: The 26th Conference of Japan Association for Corpus Linguistics Studies
  • Place of Presentation: Showa Women's University
  • Year and Date: 2005-10-22
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Book] 自然言語処理 (2007)
  • Author(s): 天野 真家、石崎 俊、宇津呂 武仁、成田 真澄、福本 淳一
  • Publisher: オーム社
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Book] What is a Corpus (2007)
  • Author(s): Narita, M
  • Publisher: In Amano, S., Ishizaki, S., Utsuro, T., Narita, M., and Fukumoto J. Natural Language Processing(Ohmsha, Ltd.)
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Book] 自然言語処理 (2007)
  • Author(s): 天野 真家・石崎 俊・宇津呂 武仁・成田 真澄・福本 淳一
  • Total Pages: 182
  • Publisher: オーム社
• [Book] 言語の事典 (2005)
  • Author(s): 中島 平三編集(成田 真澄、井佐 原均, 他35名)
  • Publisher: 朝倉書店
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
• [Book] Language and Computer (2005)
  • Author(s): Narita, M., Isahara, H
  • Publisher: In Nakajima, H. (ed. )Gengo no Jiten(Asakura Publishing Co., Ltd. )
  • Description: 「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
• [Book] 言語の事典(「言語とコンピュータ」の章を共同執筆) (2005)
  • Author(s): 成田真澄, 井佐原均
  • Total Pages: 20
  • Publisher: 朝倉書店
• [Remarks] 「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
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• [Remarks]
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