French Learner Language Oral Corpora (FLLOC)

Abstract

This digital resource contains the following: - a web portal introducing the project and the contents of the database, as well as comprehensive details about the methodologies used (e.g. the CHILDES system, the tagging programme used, the organisation of each corpus etc). - A searchable database currently containing 5 corpora of instructed learners of L2 French at different levels, ranging from beginners to final year undergraduates, undertaking a range of interactive and narrative tasks. Each corpus is accompanied by a project description, and details of tasks, learners, as well as explanations about the software used (CHILDES), and any SLA specific modifications which have been added to the CHILDES transcription conventions. Each corpus can be searched according to a range of criteria (e.g. sex of learner, school year, task used etc…), and the output of searches can be downloaded for analysis. Alternatively, files can be accessed directly from each corpus. Details can be found on the project website: www.flloc.soton.ac.uk. The corpora included in the database come from diverse sources, but have all been donated for shared use by SLA researchers in the United Kingdom and in Europe. The database currently includes 1375 transcripts and accompanying soundfiles, as well as files which have been tagged morphosyntactically, as follows: - 60 learners in years 7, 8 and 9 in the UK context (age 12-14; longitudinal; range of narrative and interactive tasks – 650 transcripts) - 20 learners in each of years 9, 10 and 11 in the UK (age 14-16; cross-sectional; four tasks each, some repeated from above project – 240 transcripts) - 34 learners (age 16; UK GCSE oral examination; 26 native controls – 60 transcripts) - 12 university undergraduate learners in the UK (longitudinal; narrative and interactive tasks – 300 transcripts). - 125 Dutch learners of French (narrative task; 18-year olds – 125 transcripts) The text files may be downloaded here, but the audio files are available by request only. The data is also available from the resource creators at http://www.flloc.soton.ac.uk/ [last accessed 2011-02-11]..