This paper reports on two studies that addressed the issue of ultimate attainment by late second language learners. The aim of the studies, which included a carefully screened group of highly successful Dutch learners of English in their designs, was to determine whether or not late second language learners who had achieved a nativelike performance in the pronunciation of a second language could be identified. Speech samples provided by two groups of learners, one of which consisted of highly successful learners only, and a native speaker control group were rated for accent by native speakers of English. The ratings obtained by some learners were within the range of the ratings assigned to the native speaker controls. Such results suggest that it is not impossible to achieve an authentic, nativelike pronunciation of a second language after a specified biological period of time. Examination of the learning histories of the highly successful learners lead the authors to argue that certain learner characteristics and learning contexts may work together to override the disadvantages of a late start.

The study described in this paper was set up to investigate the effect of foreign language learners' proficiency level on compensatory strategies used by these learners to solve lexical problems. At the same time, the effect of task‐related factors on compensatory strategies was examined. The study involved three groups of Dutch learners of English at three different proficiency levels. The subjects were tested on three different tasks: a picture naming/description task, a story retell task, and an oral interview with a native speaker of English. It appeared that “proficiency level” is inversely related to the number of compensatory strategies used by the subjects: the most advanced subjects used fewer compensatory strategies than did the least proficient ones. Contrary to our expectations, however, the type of compensatory strategy chosen by the subjects was not to any large extent related to their proficiency level. Rather, the data indicate that task‐related factors play a large role in this respect. Whereas the subjects predominantly used analytic strategies in the picture naming/description task, they frequently resorted to holistic strategies and transfer strategies in the story retell task and the oral interview. To explain these differences it is suggested that in selecting compensatory strategies the subjects observed general conversational principles.

The present study investigated the retention of school-learned French language skills in Dutch students across a period of 4 years following the training period. Two training levels were investigated: 4 and 6 years of French training. The skills tested were all receptive: general receptive proficiency; listening and reading comprehension; and receptive phonological, lexical, and grammatical skills. In addition, selfassessment measures were administered.The results indicated that global skills improved, if anything, and that only lexical and, particularly, grammatical skills "attrited" during the period investigated. On the other hand, subjects' self-perception of their retention was much more negative.

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Référence électronique Marie-José Palmen, Theo Bongaerts et Erik Schils, « L'authenticité de la prononciation dans l'acquisition d'une langue étrangère au-delà de la période critique : des apprenants néerlandais parvenus à un niveau très avancé en français », Acquisition et interaction en langue étrangère [En ligne],