Grammar competition has been proposed as a model for second language (L2) acquisition. Variational Learning provides a framework within which to investigate the idea of grammar competition as the model requires a marriage of quantitative properties of the input with Universal Grammar. A diachronic variational model of grammar competition is…

The primary goal of this study is to identify intra-textual linguistic variation in university classroom talk, applying corpus-based techniques to the analysis. First, based on the automatically identified vocabulary patterns in classroom talk a large number of class sessions are segmented into smaller units of analysis. Second, the co-occurring…

An analysis of differences in lexical usage among children of different socio-cultural milieux. This study uses other sociological and linguistic studies. It includes twenty-three tables, and presents in conclusion the results obtained, differentiation of the groups and the problems posed by isolation of only one variable. (Text is in French.)…

Discusses the description of English discourse for teaching purposes, drawing on new information from analysis of CANCODE (Cambridge/Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English). Concludes that language teaching should be based on regularities and patterns, not rules, and that exposure to real, informal language of native speakers, with its…