Contrastive metalinguistic representations: The case of ‘Very French’ learners of English

Abstract

The paper is based on experimental research. It deals with some of the linguistic and metalinguistic transfers that arise when French students learn comprehension and production in English. It analyses how part of the metalinguistic (more or less adequate) knowledge they have of French (imparfait, passe compose, passe simple) is transferred into the metalinguistic knowledge of English they are building, especially concerning simple preterite vs preterite + be + ing. These transfers do not play the same role in L2 comprehension and production. The paper analyses what kind of L1 and L2 ‘grammar’ is taught, the role of L1 as a linguistic and metalinguistic structuring filter, the nature of learners’ different metalinguistic activities, the degrees of awareness they reveal, their transferability, their fossilisation. The inefficient and often nonsensical language activity represented by the learners’ actual use of memorised metalinguistic cliches should be replaced by an accurate and comprehensible contrastiv...