Understanding Development and Proficiency in Writing (Paperback)

Philip Durrant

ISBN 10: 1108725805 / ISBN 13: 9781108725804

Published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2021

About this Item

Paperback. Quantitative corpus research on written language development has expanded rapidly in recent years, assisted by the ever-increasing power and accessibility of software capable of reliably analysing huge collections of learner writing. For this work to reach its full potential, it is important that researchers have a strong understanding of its methodological foundations and of the existing empirical evidence base on which it can build. This book provides the most comprehensive discussion to date of research in this area. Covering both first and second language learning contexts, it sets out a coherent theoretical framework and systematically reviews studies published over the last seventy years in order to establish what such research has taught us about written language development, what it hasn't taught us, and what we should do next. Timely and original, this is an essential reference work for academic researchers and students of first and second language writing. Through detailed discussion of around 250 studies, this book reviews seventy years of corpus linguistic research into how language develops in first and second language writing. It establishes a theoretical basis for this research, discusses what conclusions can be drawn from the existing literature and sets priorities for future research. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781108725804

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Understanding Development and Proficiency in Writing (Paperback)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108725805
• ISBN 13: 9781108725804
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Quantitative corpus research on written language development has expanded rapidly in recent years, assisted by the ever-increasing power and accessibility of software capable of reliably analysing huge collections of learner writing. For this work to reach its full potential, it is important that researchers have a strong understanding of its methodological foundations and of the existing empirical evidence base on which it can build. This book provides the most comprehensive discussion to date of research in this area. Covering both first and second language learning contexts, it sets out a coherent theoretical framework and systematically reviews studies published over the last seventy years in order to establish what such research has taught us about written language development, what it hasn't taught us, and what we should do next. Timely and original, this is an essential reference work for academic researchers and students of first and second language writing.

About the Authors

Phil Durrant is Associate Professor in Language Education at the University of Exeter. He has been a language teacher and researcher for over twenty years, working at schools and universities in both the UK and Turkey. He has published widely on corpus linguistics, vocabulary learning and academic writing.

Mark Brenchley is Senior Research Manager at Cambridge Assessment, with a particular focus on writing, grammar, automarking, and corpus-based methodologies. With Phil Durrant, he co-built the Growth-in-Grammar corpus, a unique database of L1 student writing. He has published on linguistics in various media, including co-writing the Times Educational Supplement's Grammar Bites column.

Lee McCallum is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Exeter and has extensive teaching experience from Europe and the Far and Middle East. She is co-editor of The Assessment of L2 Written English across the MENA Region (2020).