Research project Conjunctive relations in adult learner’s written production in L2 Swedish at beginner level
The purpose of the research project is to increase knowledge about the development and use of connection in written production among adult learners of Swedish at beginner level.
Project description
Swedish learner language in adults has been highlighted from different points of view, but cohesion, more specifically, conjunctive relations in written production has not received enough attention. This is surprising given that a number of models of communicative competence point to cohesion as an important part of L2 learners' discursive competence.
The aim of the project has therefore been to increase the knowledge of the development and use of conjunctive relations among adult learners of Swedish at beginner level. Previous studies in instructed second language acquisition and language teaching, have shown that conjunctive relations affect the assessment of a text's quality. It has also been established that the teaching of writing mainly focuses on grammar at the sentence level and vocabulary at the expense of explicit teaching about cohesion.
The results of the project showed that beginners in Swedish who have already mastered other foreign languages (especially English) and who are characterized by advanced literacy in their mother tongue(s) and English, primarily use additive conjunctive relations in their writing. Surprisingly, the learners used a high proportion of comparative conjunctives that are usually associated with higher levels of second language proficiency. In comparison to previous studies, non-target-like conjunctives were rare.
Our main conclusion is that temporal conjunctives are a challenge for learners and that learners tend to activate their English rather than their mother tongue(s) when learning Swedish. We also believe that the ability to use conjunctives is underestimated in learners with advanced literacy in other languages.
Project members
Project managers
Dorota Lubinska
Senior lecturer
