The project studies the diagnosis of reading and writing abilities in a second or foreign language. It seeks to identify the cognitive features which predict a learner's strengths and weaknesses in those areas. The project brings together scholars from applied linguistics, psychology and assessment to engage in multidisciplinary work and to develop innovative ways of diagnosing the development of second and foreign language abilities. The main contribution of the project will be to offer novel, well-grounded theoretical insights and to develop a range of methodologies to study second and foreign language development and its diagnosis. We are exploring the causes underlying strengths and weaknesses in language development, and the relationship between literacy skills in one's first language and the development of second language abilities. The results of the project will also have practical implications by providing a sounder theoretical basis for the development of curricula, pedagogic materials and diagnostic tests. Participants of the study are - Finnish learners of English (210 4th graders, 159 5th graders, 208 8th graders, 123 9th graders and 219 gymnasium pupils) - Russian learners of Finnish (186 primary school pupils from grades 3-6 and 78 lower secondary school pupils from grades 7-9) - English teachers of the participating schools and teachers of Russian and Finnish as L2 (teachers have been interviewed about their methods of teaching reading and writing). DIALUKI will be made available at http://korp.csc.fi/. The purpose of the resource use must be outlined in a research plan. More information on the corpus: https://www.jyu.fi/dialuki

2018