To be or not to be...? Analysis of misuses with be in a learner corpus in an online environment

Abstract

Learner corpora provide teachers with a rich source of real learners’ productions in a given language. In fact, teachers from a foreign or second language (FL or L2) can have an immense source of contributions, either written or oral, for analyzing certain linguistic patterns in their students. In this paper, we are aware of this situation and will pay attention to some structures, commonly produced as a misuse: the use, or absence, of the verb to be in certain structures such as born and agree. The learner corpus compiled for this study is formed by written productions of higher-education students whose mother tongue is Spanish and that are enrolled in some non-linguistic subjects using English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI subjects). Therefore, some literal translation, very closed to the main term in Spanish, will be found and described in this study.