Modern English Education 2025 KCI Impact Factor : 0.96
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pISSN : 1598-0782 / eISSN : 2586-6141
- https://journal.kci.go.kr/meeso
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Journal Central
Processability and Frequency in Authentic Use: English Verb Phrase Development in Virtual Exchange
- Modern English Education
- Abbr : MEESO
- 2025, 26(), pp.460~476
- DOI : 10.18095/meeso.2025.26.1.460
- Publisher : The Modern English Education Society
- Research Area : Humanities > English Language and Literature > English Language Teaching
- Received : November 6, 2025
- Accepted : December 2, 2025
- Published : December 8, 2025
Hyung-Sun Kim 1, Ung-Yong Choi 2
1조선대학교
2전남대학교
Accredited
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the development of English verb phrase (VP) constructions among Korean undergraduate learners engaged in Virtual Intercultural Exchange (VIE). Five VP types—Simple Verb, Modal/Do+V, Progressive, Perfect, and Passive—were analyzed across two asynchronous VIE sessions involving both L1 and L2 speakers. Building on Processability Theory (PT), the study extends its application from categorical emergence to frequency-based usage in authentic communication. All VP tokens were identified through dependency parsing, and group differences were assessed using chi-square and Cramér’s V. The results revealed a base-dominant distribution, with Simple Verbs accounting for over two-thirds of all tokens. However, auxiliary-based patterns showed subtle but meaningful contrasts. L1 writers consistently employed the Progressive more frequently, the Perfect remained infrequent but approached L1 usage levels, and the L2 learners’ initial overreliance on the Passive declined in the second session. Modal/Do+V patterns remained stable across groups. Overall, the findings support an extension of PT’s implicational hierarchy to frequency-based usage, suggesting that the frequency of use may be influenced by discourse mode and communicative purpose. This indicates that sustained intercultural interaction fosters selective, gradual convergence in how learners utilize tense–aspect–voice constructions during authentic language use.
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