Acquisition of the internal and external constraints of variable schwa deletion by French immersion students

Urițescu, Dorin; Mougeon, Raymond; Rehner, Katherine; Nadasdi, Terry

doi:10.1515/iral.2004.42.4.349

Cited by 25 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…In several studies time spent abroad was a key predictor of target-like omission of /l/. Other socio-and morpho-phonetic variables that have been recently studied include a comparison of the deletion of central vowel schwa by Canadian French native speakers and students of French immersion students (Uritescu et al 2004) and liaison, subject-verb agreement and the negative particle ne (Mougeon et al 2002;Thomas 2004;Howard 2006). Oral data were collected through a semi-directed test of oral expression and a reading of two texts.…”

Section: Phonological Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Recent research (2000–2006) into applied linguistics and language teaching with specific reference to L2 French

Evans

2007

Lang. Teach.

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The large and wide-ranging body of research in French as a second language has contributed significantly to the development of several branches of the broad discipline of applied linguistics. However, there have to date been few attempts to provide a comprehensive account of this literature as a distinct, language-specific body of knowledge. The present overview summarises a large number of studies published since the year 2000 under the twin broad categories of research in L2 French acquisition and research in L2 French teaching and learning. The overview of the studies, representing different epistemological approaches and targeting different research objectives, provides an up-to-date account of the main concerns of L2 French researchers working in different countries. The article also draws out salient themes that link this work (such as insights gained from analysis of the impact of different L1 backgrounds on L2 French acquisition) and highlights differences in L2 French research trends (such as different emphases and perspectives adopted in anglophone and francophone studies).

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Section: Phonological Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Recent research (2000–2006) into applied linguistics and language teaching with specific reference to L2 French

Evans

2007

Lang. Teach.

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“…• ne deletion -il comprend pas vite ('he doesn't understand quickly'), versus ne retention (Rehner & Mougeon, 1999) • je vas -je vas partir ('I'm going to leave'), versus je vais • on usage -on arrive ('we are coming'), versus nous • schwa deletion -sam'di ('Saturday'), versus schwa retention (Uritescu, Mougeon, Rehner, & Nadasdi, 2004;Uritescu, Mougeon, & Handouleh, 2002) One possible explanation for this finding, at least as far as ne and schwa deletion are concerned, is that these variants occur quite frequently in spoken discourse and hence the students are bound to have been exposed to them via their teachers' speech, even though the dialogues in the teaching materials (both in the textbooks and in the accompanying cassettes) make almost no use of them. Another explanation is that ne 8 deletion may be viewed as partly the result of morphosyntactic simplification, whereby the students use only one negator instead of two.…”

Section: Informal Variantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning to Speak Everyday (Canadian) French

Nadasdi¹,

Mougeon²,

Rehner³

2005

The Canadian Modern Language Review

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This article examines the sociolinguistic competence of French immersion students. We first present an overview of the range of variation found in L1 speech and make a distinction between vernacular, informal, formal, and hyper-formal variants. We then compare the use of these forms in the speech of Canadian francophones and Grade 9 and 12 students enrolled in a French immersion program. Our analysis shows that the immersion students' sociolinguistic competence is lacking in that they rarely or never use vernacular and informal variants and overuse forms that are formal or hyper-formal. In order to address this shortcoming, we propose a pedagogical methodology for improving students' sociolinguistic competence, concentrating in particular on the need to increase students' use of informal variants (e.g., ne deletion and /l/ deletion) and to decrease their use of hyper-formal ones (e.g., the verb habiter and subject pronoun nous).Résumé : Cet article porte sur la compétence sociolinguistique des étudiants inscrits dans un programme d'immersion française. Dans un premier temps, nous présentons un survol des variantes utilisées par les francophones au Canada et identifions quatre catégories de variantes, à savoir les variantes vernaculaires, informelles, formelles et hyperformelles. Par la suite, nous comparons l'emploi de ces différents types de variantes, dans le contexte d'une entrevue enregistrée, par les francophones canadiens et par des étudiants de 9e et 12e année d'un programme d'immersion française. Cette comparaison démontre que la compétence sociolinguistique des étudiants diffère considérablement de celle des francophones dans la mesure où les étudiants font un emploi minime des variantes vernaculaires et informelles et surutilisent les variantes formelles et hyperformelles. Afin d'améliorer la compétence sociolinguistique des étudiants, nous proposons une approche pédagogique qui a pour but d'amener les élèves à augmenter leur emploi des variantes informelles (par exemple, l'effacement de ne et l'effacement de /l/) et à diminuer leur emploi des variantes hyperformelles (par exemple, le verbe habiter et le pronom sujet nous).

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“…Recent work in variation has examined how and to what extent L2 learners acquire the linguistic variation patterns of native speakers (NSs). Work done by researchers such as Mougeon and Rehner (2001), Rehner and Mougeon (1999), Rehner, Mougeon, and Nadasdi (2003), and Uritescu, Mougeon, Rehner, and Nadasdi (2004) indicates that L2 learners can acquire native‐speaker patterns of different variants but that the extent and rate with which variants are used are mitigated by factors such as immersion in the first language (L1) community, social class, gender, instruction, linguistic contexts, and L1 transfer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there is a growing research base on the acquisition of L1 variation by L2 learners of French (see Dewaele, 2004; Mougeon & Rehner, 2001; Regan, 1995, 1996, 2004; Rehner & Mougeon, 1999; Rehner et al, 2003; Uritescu et al, 2004) and Spanish (Geeslin, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005; Geeslin & Guijarro‐Fuentes, 2006, 2007), fewer studies (see Adamson & Regan, 1991; Bayley, 1996; Bayley & Langman, 2004; Major, 2004; Wolfram, 1985) have examined this phenomenon for L2 English, despite linguistic variation being well documented for NSs of English.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deletion of /t, d/ and the Acquisition of Linguistic Variation by Second Language Learners of English

Edwards

2011

Language Learning

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This study investigated second language (L2) learners' acquisition of English /t, d/ deletion patterns in word-final consonant clusters, (a) focusing on how constraints such as grammatical conditioning and phonological environment affect deletion of /t, d/ in L2 acquisition and (b) determining the extent to which these L2 learners had acquired native-speaker-like patterns of deletion in ways that may be similar to patterns attested for first and second language acquisition in previous research. Seven native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, all graduate students at a Midwestern university in the United States, participated in the study. Findings indicate that the participants had not yet acquired targetlike use of /-t, -d/ deletion patterns for all constraints. Following the linguistic environment, possibly due to the influence of sonority, appeared to be the easiest constraint to acquire. Other linguistic constraints, such as preceding linguistic environment and grammatical conditioning, appeared to be more difficult to acquire, probably due to the effects of first language transfer.

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Acquisition of the internal and external constraints of variable schwa deletion by French immersion students

Cited by 25 publications

References 19 publications

Recent research (2000–2006) into applied linguistics and language teaching with specific reference to L2 French

Recent research (2000–2006) into applied linguistics and language teaching with specific reference to L2 French

Learning to Speak Everyday (Canadian) French

Deletion of /t, d/ and the Acquisition of Linguistic Variation by Second Language Learners of English

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