Integrating fluency and prosody into multidimensional analysis

Abstract

Investigation of the characteristics of spoken learner language has increased in recent years but has been primarily limited to the investigation of one linguistic level (e.g., lexico-grammar), which gives a limited picture of learners’ overall linguistic competence (e.g., Skarnitzl & Rumlová, 2019). In this study, we investigate lexico-grammar, fluency, and prosody in LINDSEI (German, Czech, and Spanish) alongside British and American English comparable corpora, using multidimensional analysis, a statistical procedure that identifies co-occurring linguistic features and leads to functional interpretation of the discourse. Results show significant differences between L1 and L2 groups on four of six dimensions and reveal novel patterns of co-occurrence. Dimension 1, for example, identifies correlates of informationally driven discourse on all three linguistic levels under investigation. These findings show the importance of including multiple linguistic levels in the analysis of learner discourse and have implications for a more holistic and functionally based approach to language instruction.