Papers by Sofie Johansson
ABSTRACT This paper reports on initial efforts to compile a corpus of course book texts used for ... more ABSTRACT This paper reports on initial efforts to compile a corpus of course book texts used for teaching CEFR-based courses of Swedish to adult immigrants. The research agenda behind compiling such a corpus comprises the study of normative “input” texts that can reveal a number of facts about what is being taught in terms of explicit grammar, receptive vocabulary, text and sentence readability; as well as build insights into linguistic characteristics of normative texts which can help anticipate learner performance in terms of active vocabulary, grammatical competence, etc. in classroom and testing settings. The CEFR “can-do” statements are known to offer flexibility in interpreting them for different languages and target groups. However, they are nonspecific and therefore it is difficult to associate different kinds of competences and levels of accuracy learners need in order to perform the communicative tasks with the different CEFR levels. To address this problem a systematic study needs to be performed for each individual language, both for “input” normative texts and “output” learner-produced texts. In this project we take the first step to collect and study normative texts for Swedish. The article describes the process of corpus compilation, annotation scheme of CEFR-relevant parameters, and methods proposed for text analysis, namely statistic and empiric methods, as well as techniques coming from computational linguistics/machine learning.
rapport nr.: Humanistdag- …, 2006
The paper describes the ongoing development of compiling and introducing a Swedish academic word ... more The paper describes the ongoing development of compiling and introducing a Swedish academic word list (SAWL), inter alia intended to be used as a lexical resource in CALL-applications in relation to higher academic studies. When it comes to language acquisition, resources like these play an important part in instructed language learning. So far, no such resource exists for Swedish. The format of SAWL has been elaborated in collaboration with the Language Support Service at the University of Gothenburg. SAWL is compiled with methods from corpus linguistics inspired by research on English academic words (Coxhead 2002). Our work includes collection and syntactic annotation of learner corpora of Swedish academic texts from a wide range of university subjects within the Faculty of Arts. The corpora are freely accessible through Sprakbanken. SAWL are designed with university students and language learners with Swedish or other linguistic backgrounds in mind. The word list and the corpora ...
CALL: Using, Learning, Knowing, EUROCALL Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-25 August 2012, Proceedings, 2012
ExLing 2019: Proceedings of 10th International Conference of Experimental Linguistics,, Nov 1, 2019
Oslo Studies in Language
This paper describes the work and methods used to compile monolingual Norwegian and Swedish acade... more This paper describes the work and methods used to compile monolingual Norwegian and Swedish academic word lists as well as a merged Norwegian-Swedish list. The resulting list is discussed with respect to similarities and especially differences between the two languages, in terms of concepts such as cognates, false friends and remote friends.
LREJ special issue
We present the Kelly project, and its work on developing word lists, monolingual and bilingual, f... more We present the Kelly project, and its work on developing word lists, monolingual and bilingual, for language learning, using corpus methods, for nine languages and thirty-six language pairs. We describe the method in some detail and discuss the many challenges encountered. We have loaded the data into an online database and made it accessible for anyone to explore: we present our own first explorations of it.
Language Resources and Evaluation, 2014
CALL: Using, Learning, Knowing, EUROCALL Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-25 August 2012, Proceedings, 2012
ABSTRACT Lexical competence constitutes a crucial aspect in L2 learning, since building a rich re... more ABSTRACT Lexical competence constitutes a crucial aspect in L2 learning, since building a rich repository of words is considered indispensable for successful communication. CALL practitioners have experimented with various kinds of computer-mediated glosses to facilitate L2 vocabulary building in the context of incidental vocabulary learning. Intentional learning, on the other hand, is generally underestimated, since it is considered out of fashion and not in line with the communicative L2 learning paradigm. Yet, work is still being done in this area and substantial body of research indicates that the usefulness of incidental vocabulary learning does not exclude the use of dedicated vocabulary study and that by using aids explicitly geared to building vocabularies (such as word lists and word cards) L2 learners exhibit good retention rates and faster learning gains. Intentional vocabulary study should, therefore, have its place in the instructional and learning context. Regardless of the approach, incidental or intentional, the crucial question with respect to vocabulary teaching/learning remains: which and how many words should we teach/learn at different language levels? An attempt to answer the above question was made within the framework of the EU-funded project titled “KELLY” (Keywords for Language Learning for Young and Adults Alike) presented here. The project aimed at building corpus-informed vocabulary lists for L2 learners ranging from A1 to C2 levels for nine languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Russian and Swedish.
This paper reports on a joint multi-disciplinary Nordic project aimed at developing three new aca... more This paper reports on a joint multi-disciplinary Nordic project aimed at developing three new academic lexical resources based on corpora consisting of texts from Swedish, Norwegian and Danish academic settings. An academic word list exists for English, but no such lists exist for the Nordic languages. Such a list would be an important resource for both L1 and L2 students in their first years of study, a period when many students struggle to cope with the demands of academia. Moreover, the word lists would be of use to students and teachers at the higher levels of secondary education. An inventory of academic words and phrases would also be a useful tool for researchers of academic language use and for test developers. The paper outlines the initial stages of work on an academic word list for Swedish. Three potential research approaches have been explored: the translation of the English list, extracting academic words from existing corpora, and the compilation of parallel academic c...
In international surveys, the results of Swedish students in natural science indicate a negative ... more In international surveys, the results of Swedish students in natural science indicate a negative trend. In TIMSS, the results have decreased between 1995-2007. The aim of the study described in this paper is to investigate the importance of language skills in the subjects of natural science, more particularly in chemistry. In order to make conclusions on students' language skills, a study on language use in grade 8 in chemistry was carried out. The study compared characteristic language features in natural science, focusing on students language related to productive skills, to language features in chemistry text books. The result of the study indicates a correlation between high-achieving students and the use of the characteristic language features.
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Papers by Sofie Johansson