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Project

Stylistic appropriateness in English as a foreign language: The acquisition of grammatical formality by translation trainees.

An important component of communicative competence is sociolinguistic competence, which is the ability to use language appropriately in communication. Despite an increasing body of research into sociolinguistic features of foreign language (L2) learning, a feature that has received relatively little and/or one-sided treatment to date is the acquisition of sensitivity to (in)formal language use in L2 learners. This project addresses that gap by investigating sensitivity to grammatical formality in L2 learners of English. By using both quantitative and qualitative data, we will map – cross-sectionally and longitudinally – the acquisition of sensitivity to grammatical formality.Quantitative data from an online revision task and qualitative data from semi-structured interviews will be integrated to acquire a more nuanced understanding of how sensitivity to grammatical formality is acquired in L2 learners of English. The results will contribute to a better understanding of how sociolinguistic competence develops in L2 learners and to facilitating sociolinguistically responsive foreign language instruction.
Date:1 Jul 2018 →  31 Dec 2019
Keywords:ENGLISH LANGUAGE, MIXED METHODS RESEARCH, GRAMMATICAL FORMALITY, COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
Disciplines:Education curriculum, Linguistics, Literary studies, Theory and methodology of language studies