ISAIAH YOO (SOGANG UNIVERSITY)

MIDDLE CONSTRUCTIONS IN NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH WRITING: A CORPUS-BASED STUDY : ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC/SPECIFIC PURPOSES

The present study conducted a comparative analysis of native and non-native written samples, focusing on the utilization of ergative verbs. The dataset includes the native corpus from Shin (2018) (3,130 words) and a non-native learner corpus (10,481 words), both consisting of argumentative essays on identical topics authored by freshman undergraduate students. The learner corpus was further subdivided into three proficiency levels: low (3,099 words), mid (6,689 words), and high (693 words). Utilizing concordance software AntConc (Anthony, 2020), the analysis examined the patterns of 58 selected ergative verbs (Hands, 2011) across three voice systems (active, middle, passive) and identified prevalent error patterns. The results indicate a predominant tendency towards the active voice among both native and non-native writers across all proficiency levels. High proficiency and native writers predominantly employ ergative verbs in middle constructions, such as end, rather than in the passive voice. Conversely, writers in the low and mid proficiency groups use the middle and passive voices in more balanced proportions. Error analysis reveals that morphological misformation errors involving past participles (e.g., * are start, * can be improve) are most common at lower proficiency levels, particularly within the mid group, where they constitute 160 out of 314 tokens. The study found that the usage of ergative verbs across the three voice systems varies, with a notable inclination towards the middle or passive voice. Both the native and high proficiency groups exhibit similar patterns, demonstrating a preference for the middle voice. The proportions of usage in the mid (14.3%) and low (12.6%) proficiency groups for the middle construction suggest a developmental progression in learners' understanding and application of ergative verbs. Overall, this study enhances the understanding of ergativity in both native and non-native English writing and provides valuable insights for effective language instruction.

Hyein Kim received an MA in English education from Sogang University. She has been teaching business English, conversational English and domain-specific English for the past 4 years at various companies and universities Isaiah WonHo Yoo is Professor in the Department of English Literature & Linguistics at Sogang University. His primary research focuses on how corpus linguistics informs language pedagogy. His publications have appeared in Corpora, TESOL Quarterly, the Journal of Second Language Writing, Linguistic Inquiry, and Applied Linguistics.