Towards Linguistically-informed Representations for English as a Second or Foreign Language: Review, Construction and Application

TL;DR

This paper introduces a linguistically-informed, annotated ESFL resource based on constructivist theories, capturing ESFL phenomena and demonstrating its utility in SLA research.

Contribution

It proposes a novel, knowledge-intensive syntactico-semantic resource for ESFL, grounded in constructivist theories, with practical applications in SLA.

Findings

Created a gold-standard ESFL syntactico-semantic resource with 1643 sentences.

Demonstrated the resource's utility by testing the Linguistic Niche Hypothesis.

Highlighted limitations of existing ESFL resources.

Abstract

The widespread use of English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESFL) has sparked a paradigm shift: ESFL is not seen merely as a deviation from standard English but as a distinct linguistic system in its own right. This shift highlights the need for dedicated, knowledge-intensive representations of ESFL. In response, this paper surveys existing ESFL resources, identifies their limitations, and proposes a novel solution. Grounded in constructivist theories, the paper treats constructions as the fundamental units of analysis, allowing it to model the syntax--semantics interface of both ESFL and standard English. This design captures a wide range of ESFL phenomena by referring to syntactico-semantic mappings of English while preserving ESFL's unique characteristics, resulting a gold-standard syntactico-semantic resource comprising 1643 annotated ESFL sentences. To demonstrate the sembank's practical utility, we conduct a pilot study testing the Linguistic Niche Hypothesis, highlighting its potential as a valuable tool in Second Language Acquisition research.