A corpus-based analysis of Japanese university-level leaners\u27 L2 writing development over a one-year period

This paper describes the development and analysis of a longitudinal learner corpus comprised of Japanese university students’ English writing over the period of one year. Students completed two writing tasks, a narrative and an argumentative essay, in response to the same prompts at two points in time one year apart. The resulting subcorpora are analyzed and compared with respect to fluency, lexical diversity, grammatical accuracy and use of rhetorical/cohesive devices. Gains were observed in these areas, most notably in fluency and lexical diversity. Methodological issues in analyzing grammatical accuracy and use of rhetorical/cohesive devices render interpretation of these results less conclusive. Patterns of observed developments in these four areas are discussed, followed by an acknowledgement of the limitations of the study and considerations for directions in further research