Abstract
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).
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: The Canadian Modern Language Review / La revue canadienne des langues vivantes
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
