Relative Clause Use in Korean L2 English Essays: Effects of Proficiency and Genre

• 발행기관: 한국영어학학회
• 저자명: Hyeson Park
• 간행물 정보: 『영어학연구』제31권 2호, 1~26쪽, 전체 26쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2025.05.31

국문 초록

This study aims to explore the use of relative clauses (RCs) in English essays written by Korean L2 learners, with a focus on how RC usage varies by proficiency level and text type. Using data from the Yonsei English Learner Corpus, the analysis examined patterns of both common and less frequent RC types, including headless, zero relativizer, and non-restrictive constructions. The results showed that more proficient learners employed RCs with greater frequency and structural variety. Genre effects were also evident: narrative essays favored finite RCs and relativizers such as that and the zero form, while argumentative essays contained more non-finite reduced RCs, reflecting norms of academic writing. The findings question the universal applicability of the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy and highlight the importance of research methods, as different methods were found to yield different results. The results suggest that RC instruction should incorporate both syntactic and discourse-level features to enhance learners’ grammatical accuracy and communicative competence across genres.

목차

1. Introduction

2. Review of Relevant Research

3. Data and Methods

4. Results and Discussion

5. Conclusion

References

키워드

relative clauses L2 corpus L2 proficiency text genre