Over-Indulgence and Under-Representation in Interlanguage: Reflections on the Utilization of Concordancers in Self-Directed Foreign Language Learning

Abstract

In line with proponents of data-driven learning, it is argued that concordancers are superior to traditional grammar books, dictionaries and coursebooks, because they allow easy access to huge amounts of ‘real’ language in use, foster the learners’ analytical capacities, promote their explicit knowledge of the L2, facilitate critical language awareness, and support the development of learner autonomy. It is also suggested that with the help of concordancers ‘contrastive’ analyses should be undertaken based on comparisons between the L1 and the L2 or between different genres/varieties of the L2 (e.g. Hecht, 1994). Such investigations are supposed to sensitize learners to the observed differences, which in turn should help them avoid developing false analogies, for instance, or produce texts more appropriate to a given purpose, channel, etc. The paper concludes its arguments by pointing out that language learners investigating their own interlanguage and contrasting it with native speaker usage with the help of concordancing tools will benefit from such an exercise, because they will try to bridge the gap between their own performance and that of native speakers, and heed the linguistic item in future text productions.