Šarolta Godnič Vičič
Potentials and Challenges of ESP Learner Corpora: The Case of Modal Auxiliaries in
Slovene ESP Learners' Written Interlanguage
Abstract
A corpus-based approach to interlanguage analysis has been used for over a decade
now and its impacts on foreign language teaching materials and teaching practices
has been quite substantial. The approach, however, has rarely been used for studying
ESP learners' interlanguage. This paper therefore aims to address the potentials
that a small ESP learner corpus can present to ESP teachers, and determine whether
the resources available can at present support such an analysis. Based on a small
corpus of ESP student essays, central modal auxiliaries were studied with a focus
on overuse errors. The analysis revealed that providing a reliable explanation for
students' overuse errors is rather difficult given the existing corpus resources
and that these are still too few in the fields of ESP. Nevertheless, the results
can provide sufficient grounds for ESP teachers to adjust their teaching materials
to their learners' needs.
Keywords: interlanguage, overuse errors, modal auxiliaries, ESP learner corpora.
