Take+noun sequences in Turkish efl learner's interlanguage: A corpus based study

Availability of electronic data enables learner corpus to be the focus of the language learners and teachers since it enables to search for interlanguage characteristics of learners. The purpose of this corpus-based study is to compare the use of the high-frequency verb take by both English language native speakers and Turkish EFL learners' multiword sequences, mainly on collocations. The Turkish EFL learner's performances will be analyzed from the perspective of what sequences they prefer to use significantly more or less than native speakers within the framework of Contrastive Analysis. This study aims at finding out the use of the high-frequency verb take by comparing English language native speakers and Turkish EFL learners across four proficiency levels, B1-B2; C1-C2, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for language (CEFR) (Council of Europe 2001). Collocations are a crucial part of language usage, which enable learners to be authentic, according to Barnbrook et al. (2013). Having collocational knowledge is crucial in achieving native-like fluency (Bahn, 1993; Lewis, 2000; Nesselhauf, 2003). Collocations are challenging to produce for foreign language learners, and the nature of collocations causes learners to make errors in their productions (Lewis,2000; Peters, 2015; Yamashita and Jiang, 2011; Li,2017). To investigate take+noun sequences of Turkish learners, TICLE, which includes argumentative essays of Turkish learners, is used as the non-native corpus in this study. This corpus is comparable to the reference Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS). Keywords: learner corpus, contrastive interlanguage analysis, collocations.