Creating a database of French and Spanish as a second/foreign language: French Learner Language Oral Corpora / Spanish Learner Language Oral Corpora

The FLLOC (www.flloc.soton.ac.uk) and SPLLOC (www.splloc.soton.ac.uk) websites are the outcome of a series of research projects which promote research relating to the acquisition of French and Spanish as a second/foreign language in UK schools and universities.

The two databases were collected to produce an overview of the development of the language system of instructed learners of French and Spanish in a range of domains, including vocabulary, syntax, morphology, and discourse. Research such as this enables us to better understand the processes involved in learning a second language in a classroom setting, and thus supports curriculum design for second language education, as well as exploring fundamental theoretical questions in second language acquisition.

The contents of the two databases are freely available to the research community, in the form of digital sound files and related transcripts formatted using standardised CHILDES tools. The CHILDES software enables datasets to be readily accessible on the web and can then be downloaded and worked on by researchers, who can have instant access to learners at different levels performing a range of tasks. A search facility is also provided which enables researchers to select the sound files and transcripts they wish to download from the site.

The latest French project is currently documenting the development of linguistic competence among young classroom learners of French at three different starting ages (5, 7 and 11), in primary and early secondary school classrooms. Through this evidence, the project will contribute to theoretical understandings of second language acquisition among young learners, and consequently inform current primary language initiatives and educational practices in the UK and abroad.

People

• Dr Laura Domínguez
• Professor Rosamond Mitchell