Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition

Negation in Near‐Native French: Variation and Sociolinguistic Competence

“…Similarly, subtle differences were uncovered in the individual grammars, in that not all the nearnative speakers demonstrated sensitivity to lexicalization. At a theoretical level, the findings contribute to the debate about how consistently group patterns are reflected in individual data (Geeslin & Long, 2014;Regan, 2004). In this case, isolated examples of apparently nativelike L2 performance with respect to lexicalization were masked in the group data.…”

“…The question of ultimate attainment and near-nativeness in adult L2 continues to generate vigorous debate, for example, in recent discussions of the acquirability of linguistic interfaces (Sorace & Filiaci, 2006;White, 2011). Geeslin and Long (2014) note, however, that little is known about near-native speakers' mastery of linguistic variation. The present study, with Donaldson (2016), is a step toward addressing this research gap.…”

“…Research on the L2 acquisition of sociolinguistic competence has revealed the difficulty that learners face, especially with respect to stylistic variation (Bayley & Regan, 2004), although little work has examined the highest levels of L2 proficiency (Geeslin & Long, 2014). Classroom L2 learners often overuse formal variants and align with prescriptive recommendations (Dewaele, 2004b; R. Mougeon, Rehner, & Nadasdi, 2004).…”

Sociolinguistic Competence and Interpreting Variable Structures in a Second Language

“…Research on the L2 acquisition of variable structures covers many languages and a range of grammatical properties, extending from phonetic to morphosyntactic to lexico-semantic (see Long, 2014, andDe Vogelaer &Katerbow, 2017, for overviews). For example, while research on English (e.g., Adamson & Regan, 1991;Major, 2004) and French (e.g., Regan, Howard, & Lemée, 2009;Rehner, Mougeon, & Nadasdi, 2003) once dominated, we now see examples of research on variation in Spanish (e.g., Kanwit, 2017), Norwegian (Karlsen, Geva, & Lyster, 2016), Arabic (Raish, 2015), and Mandarin (Li, 2014), to name a few.…”

“…3 It is common for research on the acquisition of variable structures to allow that multiple options are acceptable (e.g., Geeslin, 2003;Geeslin & Guijarro-Fuentes, 2006Geeslin & Long, 2014;Kanwit, 2018). The "both" option may provide a fuller picture of the nature of the variation and allows the researcher to analyze data in light of language changes in progress.…”