'Almost people' - Quantificational NP use and misuse by Mandarin and Korean L2 English learners

Abstract

Alongside the use of indefinite / definite article NPs, one of the most frequently occurring determiner types heading NPs in argumentative essays are quantificational, such as 'more and more X', 'some X', 'lots of X', etc. However, non-native users of English often make numerous errors in their construction of such NPs (such as 'almost [all] people like shopping'), leading to incoherent NP production. This paper takes Mandarin and Korean L2 English written essays taken from the ICNALE learner corpus from CEFR A2 to B2 proficiency levels alongside native English speaker data, spanning over 400,000 words and almost 6,600 quantificational NPs, and categorises both appropriate and inappropriate usage. The results suggest a variety of developmental and L1 transfer effects in L2 quantificational NP construction both within and across L1 groupings. Consequently, a number of suggestions are forwarded as to how course materials and pedagogy can be improved to target the inappropriacy of L2 quantificational NP production, with a particular focus on how the use of both direct (i.e. in class corpus training and corpus-led revision to writing) and indirect (through data-driven materials preparation) uses of learner corpora can work to improve overall L2 literacy.