Innovation in Language Learning

Vague language (VL, e.g. I have some books on the topic), an integral part of language, has increasingly been attracting attention of linguistic researchers. The interlocutors stretch VL in discursive negotiations to achieve various communicative goals (Zhang, 2011). This paper reports a study of some used by L1 speaker and L2 speakers (Chinese and Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language CSLE and VSLE) in different academic discourses (L1 speaker: classroom setting, CSLE: English examination setting, VSLE: English speaking setting). Findings show that some and some clusters with vague meaning are used more frequently by L2 speaker than L1 speaker. It is revealed that L2 speaker uses some and some clusters elastically in different ways from L1 speaker to serve their communicative purposes. A number of factors might explain these differences: language competence, contextual dependence and cultural influences.

Due to time limitation, the presentation would only focus on the quantitative results (including Chi-square test) from three sets of data that helps to discover the different elastic uses of some and some clusters in different discourses by L1 speaker and L2 speaker.

Vague language (VL, e.g. I have some books on the topic), an integral part of language, has increasingly been attracting attention of linguistic researchers. The interlocutors stretch VL in discursive negotiations to achieve various communicative goals (Zhang, 2011). This paper reports a study of some used by L1 speaker and L2 speakers (Chinese and Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language CSLE and VSLE) in different academic discourses (L1 speaker: classroom setting, CSLE: English examination setting, VSLE: English speaking setting). Findings show that some and some clusters with vague meaning are used more frequently by L2 speaker than L1 speaker. It is revealed that L2 speaker uses some and some clusters elastically in different ways from L1 speaker to serve their communicative purposes. A number of factors might explain these differences: language competence, contextual dependence and cultural influences.

Due to time limitation, the presentation would only focus on the quantitative results (including Chi-square test) from three sets of data that helps to discover the different elastic uses of some and some clusters in different discourses by L1 speaker and L2 speaker.