Coherence Awareness

Go through these extracts from learner corpora and try to understand what makes these texts less readable than they should be. If there are specific errors, try to identify their nature, as well as your own way of categorising these errors/problems. Once you have thought about this, you can check your ideas against my explanations by hovering over the highlighted structures in order to display a hint.


Extract from a German learner’s essay in the ICLE corpus (ICLE-GE-AUG-0001.1; description of girlfriend):

Her nose is of an ideal size and shape and her skin is absolutely spotless [...] In the summer time  it's more than likely to meet her at the local "Baggersee" which is only a stone's throw away from her home. [...] To sum it all up: I can't imagine a situation which she can't cope with and therefore it's more than likely to admire her.


Extract from a Czech learner’s essay in the ICLE corpus (ICLE-CZ-KRAL-0001.1):

Some people say that in our modern world there is no longer a place for dreaming and imagination. This opinion is very similar to mine. I would say that there is a place for dreaming in our world  but it still disappears. [...] Many people live in a hurry. They are swallowed up the time. [...] Everybody has its ups and downs? An escape to dreaming often seems to be a miracle or a medicament for the tender spots. [...] In my opinion everybody dreams. Somebody had a dreaming time in its childhood, especially in the mature age. Teen-agers have their heads full of dreams, their feelings are in contrary to the real world. They feel unsatisfied, disappointed, lonely and so on. We, adults know and understand that. It is natural behaviour of adolescents.


Extract from an Italian learner’s exam essay in the ICLE corpus (ICLE-IT-VER-0009.1):

In the last few years a great deal of coverage has been given to the heated debate on the issue of artificial insemination carried out by single women. [...] Some people, especially those that follow religious precepts, argue that it would be better for a child to live in a traditional family composed by two parents. Others affirm that a single mother can offer to her child the same opportunities of a married couples.