A Corpus-Based Analysis of Korean EFL High School Students’ Interlanguage

The goal of this study is to characterize the interlanguages of Korean high school students paying special attention to the function words they use. In order to investigate this issue, the present study has constructed three corpora of English writing samples: samples by native English speakers (NES), samples by Korean English speakers at an intermediate level (KES1), and at an advanced level (KES2). Function words were extracted from the three corpora and were analyzed with Wordsmith. As results, the interlanguages of KES1 and KES2 have been characterized in the aspects of lexis, grammar, and style. Lexical patterns are associated with learners’ tendency to grasp for one meaning or one usage of a word. This is exemplified by the underuse of and as. Further, learners’ shortage of lexis repertoire has led to the repetition of the same word, causing overuse of a particular word such as they. In the area of grammar, learners’ general inability to construct certain grammatical structures are related to the underuse of function words such as relativizers. In the matter of style, finally, learners tend to use spoken register in written essays, causing their writing to be informal.