Genres in young learner L2 English writing: A genre typology for the TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language) corpus

In learner corpus research, it is well known that one should control for genre when collecting and analysing written L2 (second language) English data, as genre is one factor that has been shown to account for language variation. This article presents a genre typology for annotating learner texts from the lower secondary level in Norway (ages 13-15, school years 8-10). The data are drawn from TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language), a new learner corpus currently under compilation. As the TRAWL corpus will be openly available for research, it is important that the typology is clearly described, which is the primary aim of the present study.
 Little research has been carried out on yo…

Uformelt talespråk

Det uformelle talespråket er noe av det som forandrer seg mest og raskest i språket. De mest aktive endringsagentene her er ungdommene. De bringer nye ord inn i språket i form av slang, og de utvider bruksmåten til eksisterende småord, som for eksempel liksom og bare. Dette kapittelet beskriver hvordan ord og uttrykk i det uformelle talespråket oppstår, utvikler seg og i noen tilfeller forsvinner igjen. Både slang og banning sier mye om generelle utviklingstendenser i samfunnet i sin helhet. Utviklingen av slang viser i stor grad hvilke språk og kulturer som har innflytelse på ungdommer i ulike perioder, og banning gir et innblikk i hvilke emneområder som oppfattes som tabu til ulike tider.…

"Your mum! "Teenagers’ swearing by mother in English, Spanish and Norwegian

Konfliktråd i fengsel : rapport fra et prosjekt 2003/2004

Rapport fra prosjektet "Konfliktregimer" ”Hvorfor var det ingen som fortalte meg om Konfliktrådet da jeg var 15 år?” Den unge mannen var ganske oppgitt. Han var dømt for flere forhold og satt nå inne for tredje gang. Ut fra Konfliktrådet i Agder har vi over et år truffet flere innsatte i fengselet og pratet med dem om deres egne konflikter og deres behov for å benytte seg av megling. Etter avsluttet prosjekt, kan vi oppsummere med flere meglede saker, mange gode samtaler og gode erfaringer i samarbeidet med fengselet1. Arbeidet kan ses som en videreføring av erfaringer fra prosjektet ”Megling i voldssaker” som ble igangsatt av Justisdepartementet i årene 2001-2004. Den nye straffegjennomfør…

“Heaven and Hell on Earth” A critical discourse analysis of religious terms in Norwegian autobiographies describing personal experience of mental health problems

This article explores the use of religious terms in six Norwegian autobiographies written between 1925 and 2005 by people who themselves have been patients in the mental health services. Through a critical discourse analysis, we discuss the functions of religious discourse in the texts and its position in contrast to the medical discourse predominant in today's mental health services. It was found that religious (predominantly Christian) terms were used to varying degrees in all autobiographies as a means to capture the immensity and inherent ambivalence characteristic of mental health problems. Despite the “medical turn” in professional mental health discourse, there is no clear evidence o…

Design and construction of the Tracking Written Learner Language (TRAWL) Corpus: A longitudinal and multilingual young learner corpus

This article describes the design and construction of the Tracking Written Learner Language (TRAWL) Corpus. The corpus combines several features that are all rare for learner corpora: it is longitudinal, following individual pupils over several years; it has data from young learners from school years 5 to 13 (ages 10–18); it is multilingual, containing learners’ texts in several L3s (French, German and Spanish), L2 English and L1 Norwegian; and it includes teacher comments on a number of the texts. In addition, some of the texts exist in both a first and a second revised version, all tied to a rich set of meta-data. Not only does such a corpus offer new possibilities for research on languag…

Informal language in English L2 writing: What are pupils taught from textbooks?

AbstractStudies show that intermediate and advanced learners of English overuse informal features in their academic writing, and researchers recommend that instructional material is developed to raise learners’ awareness of this overuse. In Norway, little research has been done on younger learners’ writing, and no previous study exists of how instructional material such as textbooks deal with informality. The present article investigates how all English textbooks published for lower secondary school under the current curriculum deal with informality in writing. The findings show that eight out of nine textbooks include instruction on informality. The most frequently mentioned informal featu…