Title: SEMANTIC RESOURCES AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF L2 ACQUISITION: IMPLICATIONS FOR ESL TEACHERS, LANGUAGE ASSESSORS AND SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCHERS
The purpose of the current project is to provide new insights into the semantic progression of L2 writers through the identification of codal features at each stage of acquisition in a variety of contexts.
The current study is a follow-up to work carried out over the past two years on the semantic progression of L2 learners at different stages of acquisition. Tracking development in terms of metafunctional components has led to the explicit identification of the discourse structure and micro features of second language writing at various levels in English.
The data base for the current pilot project consists of a broad range of written texts from ethnic groups not previously studied1, from learners with different educational and professional backgrounds, and from non-timed extended discourse as well as timed short responses. The expanded corpus has yielded new and useful information about the linguistic features learners select to exchange meanings at different levels of proficiency.
The results of these studies will be relevant for language teachers, testers and for those in SLA research. The work explicitly identifies codal features marking stages of progression; it explicates features of student writing underlying holistic assessments and intuitive criteria of language assessors; and it complements research in SLA particularly on contrastive rhetoric by focusing on aspects of coherence and cohesion.
1. In previous work I analyzed and reported on two language groups: Somali and Hong Kong Cantonese speakers.