Call for papers for the International Journal of Learner Corpus Research 
(Benjamins):

Special issue on Cumulative knowledge building and replication in Learner 
Corpus Research

Guest editors: Tove Larsson & Doug Biber (Northern Arizona University)

Compared to other subfields of linguistics, Learner Corpus Research (LCR) has a 
relatively short history. For this and other reasons, most of the studies that 
get published in the field are exploratory in nature and focus on topics that 
have yet to receive prolonged attention. Such studies no doubt make valuable 
contributions to the field. However, LCR is arguably mature enough as a field 
to also have accumulated enough knowledge on certain topics for researchers to 
be able to instead adopt a cumulative approach.

In the cumulative approach to knowledge building, individual studies are viewed 
as building blocks, carefully pieced together to help us form an increasingly 
better understanding of a topic. There are three distinguishing characteristics 
of this approach: First, the literature review focuses on what we have actually 
learned from previous research on the topic, rather than merely cataloging 
individual studies. Second, the research ‘gap’ refers to an important missing 
element in our cumulative knowledge, rather than to a research angle that has 
not been explored yet; that is, the literature review is used to identify a 
missing piece in an existing puzzle, rather than to justify starting a new one. 
And finally, results of the new study are explicitly compared to previous 
findings, to discuss the state of our knowledge based on all studies taken 
together.  Through this big-picture thinking, we can collectively refine our 
understanding of the topic, and further our knowledge in a systematic matter. 
Put differently, this approach enables us to build a state-of-the-art in the 
field by moving beyond the results of individual studies.

With this call, we invite studies of two kinds:


  *   Empirical studies that set out to test hypotheses arrived at from an 
existing body of research with the explicit aim of adding to our knowledge on a 
given topic that has received ample attention in LCR. Examples of topics that 
may be ripe for studies of this kind include, but are not limited to, 
linguistic complexity and the formulaic nature of learner language.


  *   Empirical studies that replicate findings from an existing body of 
research and, importantly, that focus on strengthening and/or tweaking existing 
generalizations in LCR. Examples of topics include, but are not limited to, 
claims of the spoken-like nature of learners’ written production.

Timeline:

  *   August 1, 2022: Abstract and title due
  *   September 1, 2022: Authors are notified
  *   September 1, 2023: Full manuscript due

Please send submissions to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>



---

Tove Larsson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics

English Department

Northern Arizona University

https://tovelarssoncl.wordpress.com

Attachment: Call for papers IJLCR SI_Larsson & Biber (eds).pdf
Description: Call for papers IJLCR SI_Larsson & Biber (eds).pdf

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