Canadian French Research Articles

Effects of phonemic variability and language dominance on Canadian French-English bilinguals’ perception of French vowels in various phonological contexts

Phonemic variability can cause productions within a category of one language to be mapped onto multiple categories in a different language [Escudero (2009)]. For example, French productions of /ε/ are labeled both as /e/ and /ε/ by monolingual English listeners, likely due to spectral variability in production of French /ε/ [Strange et al. (2009)]. The present study examines how phonemic variability in Canadian French (CF) affects the perceptual tendencies of bilingual Canadian French-English listeners with varying levels of language dominance. Vowel productions by monolingual CF speakers were used in a modified identification task [Law (2011)]. The vowels were word-final in several phonological contexts (preceded by labial, coronal, and back consonants; followed by labial and coronal consonants) in real and nonwords embedded in carrier phrases. A subset of these vowels /e-ε-i-y/ was analyzed for duration, vocalic midpoint, and formant trajectories to examine the relationship between phonemic variation (as a function of phonological environment) and the perception results by bilinguals dominant in either CF or Canadian English (CE). We predict that the performance of CE-dominant listeners will vary in terms of speed and accuracy based on how similar each token is to CE vowel category expectations.

Articulatory phonetics of coronal stops in monolingual and simultaneous bilingual speakers of Canadian French and English

Previous studies of bilingual speech production have relied on individuals whose age of acquisition of their second language varies. In the proposed research, we take advantage of the unique multilingual environment of Montreal and examine speech production in individuals who have acquired two languages from birth and compare the results to monolingual speakers. Electromagnetic recordings of single-word productions were carried out on three groups of female Canadian speakers (French monolingual, English monolingual, French-English simultaneous bilingual). Spectral moment and formant transition analyses of coronal burst segments showed cross-linguistic differences across vowel contexts. Tongue place of articulation and shape likewise indicated cross-linguistic differences in static articulatory positions. Kinematic analyses further identified language-specific movement patterns that helped clarify certain results from the acoustic analyses, namely that spatiotemporal characteristics of coronal articulation help enhance vocalic dimensions important to the respective language. Similar patterns were observed among the bilingual subjects, with the notable exception that acoustic and kinematic spaces narrowed considerably, resulting in reduced overlap between languages. It appears that simultaneous bilingual speakers not only follow language-appropriate articulatory and acoustic patterns, but further minimize areas of cross-linguistic convergence otherwise found among monolingual speakers.

Token-to-token variability and anticipatory coarticulation as indicators of maturity of speech motor control in 4-year-old children

Children’s gestures do not appear to be executed with the same dexterity as adults’. Studies of arm movements have shown that young children’s gestures are less accurate, more variable and slower than those of adults. This difference in behavior can be explained by a lack of experience with the sensory consequences of motor acts and still-developing forward models for the control of those acts. The hypothesis of immature and incomplete sensori-motor representations for speech in 4-year-old native speakers of Canadian French is addressed here through the analysis of ultrasound recordings of tongue contour kinematics and the speech signal from a corpus of isolated vowels and vowel-consonant-vowel sequences. Special attention is devoted to the analysis of vowel variability from two perspectives. Variability across repetitions in a single context provides information about the accuracy of the control. Contextual variability provides insights into the planning process as reflected in anticipatory coarticulation. Analysis of the observed lingual gestures will lead to improved understanding of the development of speech motor control and refinement of sensori-motor representations of speech. [Work supported by FQRNT project N° 147877 and ANR project ANR-08-BLAN-0272.]

Perception of Canadian French rhotic vowels

Some speakers of Canadian French produce words such as pneu, un, and coeur with rhotic-sounding vowels similar to English /ɹ/ (Dumas 1972). Articulatory imaging [Mielke (2011)] shows that they are produced with bunched and retroflex tongue postures and low F3, much like English /ɹ/. Nevertheless, native speakers typically are completely unaware of the difference, even when it is pointed out to them. We report a preliminary perception study of rhotic vowels. 7735 words with mid front round vowels were coded as “rhotic,” “non-rhotic,” or “ambiguous” by two listeners: a French-English bilingual from eastern Ontario and an American English speaker. The bilingual coded 0.3% as rhotic (vs. 10.0% for the anglophone) and 7.3% as ambiguous (vs. 8.9%). Logistic regressions show that the anglophone relied on F3 to distinguish rhotic+ambiguous tokens from non-rhotic tokens, while the bilingual weighted several cues about equally, including F1 cues to diphthongization, which can co-occur with rhoticity. Results will be presented from an ongoing AX discrimination task experiment involving rhotic, non-rhotic, and ambiguous vowel tokens, with francophone, bilingual, and anglophone listeners from the Ottawa-Gatineau region, Paris, France, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Creative in finding creativity in the curriculum: the CLIL second language classroom

AbstractModern education is often characterized by a tension between learning and creativity (Connery et al. in Vygotsky and creativity: A cultural-historical approach to play, meaning making, and the arts, 2010). “The Arts”—if attended to at all—is often positioned as a distinct element of the broader curriculum, and separate from teaching and learning within other curricular domains. Yet, despite being largely neglected within contemporary social constructivist literature, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of mind (Vygotsky in Mind in society, 1978; Vygotsky in The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 1: Problems of general psychology, 1987)) has as its core a fundamental concern for creativity, affect, and emotion as the basis for human development. This paper argues that Vygotsky’s understanding of catharsis—in particular, the transformative potential of emotion—gives cause to rethink the qualitative nature of pedagogy, and especially the importance of “mundane creativity” (Holzman in Vygotsky and creativity: A cultural-historical approach to play, meaning making, and the arts, 2010, p. 27) at the core of teaching and learning. This, in turn, opens up new possibilities for conceiving of how creativity might be understood and realized within and across different dimensions of the curriculum more broadly. For an empirical example to explore these constructs, the paper considers data from a “content and language integrated learning” (CLIL) context. Emerging in the mid-1990s as a European response to the success of the Canadian French immersion method for teaching languages (Johnson and Swain in Immersion education: International perspectives, 1997), CLIL sets out several guiding principles for integrating second language (L2) with content to develop both simultaneously. With a focus on how Japanese mediates a unit of work on Geography, the study highlights how the integrated language/content focus affords a space for creative pedagogical engagement in terms of learners making their own creative choices on what language to use, and how it could be used, to facilitate the learning of both language and content (Bachman and Palmer in Language assessment in practice: Developing language assessments and justifying their use in the real world, 2010; Mahn and John-Steiner in The gift of confidence: A Vygotskian view of emotions, 2002).

Compliment strategies and regional variation in French

The present study examines differences and similarities in the realization of compliments (on skills) in Cameroon and Canadian French. The data were collected by means of discourse completion tasks (DCT) administered to 55 participants in Yaoundé (Cameroon) and 39 respondents in Montréal (Canada). The 277 compliments obtained were analyzed according to the following three aspects: a) head act strategies (direct and indirect compliments), b) lexico-semantic and syntactic features of complimentary utterances, and c) external modification. With regard to head act strategies, the results show a preference for double head acts by the Cameroonian participants, while the Canadians more frequently employed single head acts. It was also found that indirect realizations of head acts occurred only in the Cameroonian data. Positive evaluation markers (e.g. adjectives, adverbs, verbs) and syntactic devices appearing in the compliments varied in type and frequency in the two varieties of French under investigation. The analysis of external modifications reveals that participants of both groups used many speech acts to externally modify their compliments. Overall, interjections, address forms, greetings, self-introductions and apologies were used as pre-compliments, with some speech acts, namely greetings and self-introductions, occurring only in the Cameroonian data.

Methodologies for Investigating Item- and Test-Level Measurement Equivalence in International Large-Scale Assessments

In this study, the Canadian English and French versions of the Problem-Solving Measure of the Programme for International Student Assessment 2003 were examined to investigate their degree of measurement comparability at the item- and test-levels. Three methods of differential item functioning (DIF) were compared: parametric and nonparametric item response theory and ordinal logistic regression. Corresponding derivations of these three DIF methods were investigated at the test-level to examine both differential test functioning (DTF) and the correspondence between findings at the item-level with those at the test-level. Item-level findings suggested consistency in DIF detection across methods; however, differences in effect sizes of DIF were found by each method. Test-level results revealed a high degree of consistency across DTF methods. Discrepancies were found between item- and test-level comparability analyses. Item-level analyses suggested moderate to low degrees of comparability, whereas test-level findings suggested a higher degree of comparability. Findings also indicated the direction of DIF was mixed as some DIF items favored English-speaking students and others favored French-speaking students, suggesting that DIF cancellation may explain why item-level incomparability was not detected at the test-level.

Langues, identités et francophonie chez des étudiants universitaires issus de l’immersion française à Vancouver, au Canada

Abstract:Canada's federal policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework (1971) means that in British Columbia French remains a modern language with a certain degree of privilege. While in BC only 1.3% of the population describe their first language as French (Statistics Canada, 2006), French immersion education is growing, with 7.6% of children studying in French immersion schools between kindergarten and grade 12 (BC Ministry of Education, 2010). Many studies have analyzed the learning of French in Canadian French immersion schools (Cummins, 1983; Dagenais & Day, 1999; Dagenais & Moore, 2008; Heller, 2001, 2006; Swain, 1974, 2000). However, there has been a lack of research into the language and literacy practices of French immersion graduates enrolled in anglophone universities. We address this issue by presenting data from an ongoing three-year longitudinal study, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, into the language and literacy practices of French immersion graduates studying at an English-medium university in Vancouver, Canada. In this context, the study focuses on the complex interaction between language practices, processes of identity construction, and discourses around the French language which the participants in the study encounter in their social and educational spaces.

Effects of Culture on Musical Pitch Perception

The strong association between music and speech has been supported by recent research focusing on musicians' superior abilities in second language learning and neural encoding of foreign speech sounds. However, evidence for a double association—the influence of linguistic background on music pitch processing and disorders—remains elusive. Because languages differ in their usage of elements (e.g., pitch) that are also essential for music, a unique opportunity for examining such language-to-music associations comes from a cross-cultural (linguistic) comparison of congenital amusia, a neurogenetic disorder affecting the music (pitch and rhythm) processing of about 5% of the Western population. In the present study, two populations (Hong Kong and Canada) were compared. One spoke a tone language in which differences in voice pitch correspond to differences in word meaning (in Hong Kong Cantonese, /si/ means ‘teacher’ and ‘to try’ when spoken in a high and mid pitch pattern, respectively). Using the On-line Identification Test of Congenital Amusia, we found Cantonese speakers as a group tend to show enhanced pitch perception ability compared to speakers of Canadian French and English (non-tone languages). This enhanced ability occurs in the absence of differences in rhythmic perception and persists even after relevant factors such as musical background and age were controlled. Following a common definition of amusia (5% of the population), we found Hong Kong pitch amusics also show enhanced pitch abilities relative to their Canadian counterparts. These findings not only provide critical evidence for a double association of music and speech, but also argue for the reconceptualization of communicative disorders within a cultural framework. Along with recent studies documenting cultural differences in visual perception, our auditory evidence challenges the common assumption of universality of basic mental processes and speaks to the domain generality of culture-to-perception influences.

Raising language awareness in peer interaction: a cross-context, cross-methodology examination

In this paper, both a cognitive and a sociocultural theoretical perspective are used to bring together findings from two studies that investigated the effects of instruction designed to enhance the potentially positive effect of peer interaction on L2 development. Despite differences between the studies’ learning contexts, participants’ age, and research design, a comparative examination of their findings promotes our overall understanding of whether and how instruction that teaches students to engage in reciprocal L2 learning can be effective. In Study 1, Japanese university students were taught how to provide corrective feedback to each other during communicative peer interaction activities. Pre- and post-tests were administered and statistical analyses were conducted on the change in frequency of corrective feedback and self-initiated modified output as well as in overall accuracy of spontaneous production. In Study 2, Grade 3 and 4 Canadian French immersion students were given strategy instruction to collaborate on task- and language-related problems. Their audio-recorded interactions were qualitatively analysed for contextual factors affecting peer corrective feedback. Based on the combined findings, it is concluded that language awareness can be enhanced through peer interaction but a reciprocal mindset among learners plays a significant role in deciding its outcome.

An international measure of awareness and beliefs about cancer: development and testing of the ABC

ObjectivesTo develop an internationally validated measure of cancer awareness and beliefs; the awareness and beliefs about cancer (ABC) measure.Design and settingItems modified from existing measures were assessed by a working...

The Canadian French Young Schema Questionnaire: Confirmatory factor analysis and validation in clinical and nonclinical samples.

The Canadian French Young Schema Questionnaire: Confirmatory factor analysis and validation in clinical and nonclinical samples.

Another icon of language contact shattered

Ouh que c'est laid! “Oh this is ugly!” is one of the comments among the 11,800 hits on Google for the sequence “la fille que je sors avec” [the girl I go out with]. Often the comments include the idea that the whole expression has been taken from English as a direct calque. The authors of the present keynote article, Poplack, Zentz and Dion (Poplack, Zentz & Dion, 2011, this issue), argue convincingly that this type of preposition stranding in Canadian French cannot be ascribed to language contact with English. Using sound and accountable methodology, derived from the research paradigm of variationist sociolinguistics, they manage to disprove the hypothesis of a direct causal link between the expression in Canadian French and its supposed earlier use in English. Thus, an icon of language contact, both in popular perception and in many not-so-well-informed academic sources, has been shattered.

On the distinction between preposition stranding and orphan prepositions

Poplack, Zentz and Dion (PZD; Poplack, Zentz & Dion, 2011, this issue) examine the often unquestioned assumption that the existence of preposition stranding (PS) in Canadian French is linked to the presence of a contact situation with English in the North American context. Although this issue has been the topic of previous research from a syntactic perspective (Bouchard, 1982; Vinet, 1979, 1984), to my knowledge, it has never been explored using variationist sociolinguistic methods applied to a large corpus of spontaneous speech, with emphasis on code-switchers as potential agents of contact-induced change.

Preposition stranding and orphaning: The case of bare prepositions in French

In their keynote contribution, Poplack, Zentz & Dion (henceforth PZD; Poplack, Zentz & Dion, 2011, this issue) propose an interesting “scientific test of convergence” (under section heading: “Introduction”) which contains criteria to check whether a particular feature in a given language in contact with another one is due to language contact or not. This is a valiant endeavor with a laudable goal. It is valiant because the answer to this question requires a complex investigation of the languages at issue. It is laudable since it is commonly believed that a given feature of a language in contact with another one is the result of convergence. This belief however is, in general, only a mere conjecture due to superficial similarities of the features at issue, for which no empirical evidence is provided. Yet, there is no doubt that PZD accomplish their endeavor in an outstanding manner. Based on a thorough study of substantial data from Canadian French and Canadian English, they demonstrate in a convincing way how it is possible to reveal whether a given feature is contact-induced or not.

Benchmark varieties and the individual speaker: Indispensable touchstones in studies on language contact

The authors of ‘Phrase-final prepositions in Quebec French: An empirical study of contact, code-switching and resistance to convergence’, Poplack, Zentz & Dion (2011, this issue), henceforth cited as PZD, make a strong case for showing that, in spite of surface similarities, preposition stranding in Canadian French relative clauses cannot be qualified as a case of grammatical convergence due to language contact with English, but that it rather turns out to be a result of analogical extension of a native French strategy, preposition orphaning, to a new context. The application of a particularly sound and accountable methodology, the comparative method of variationist sociolinguistics (Poplack & Meechan, 1998; Tagliamonte, 2002), allows them to invalidate the hypothesis of a causal relationship between contact and the phenomenon under study.

Cross‐cultural validation of the CHO‐KLAT and HAEMO‐QoL‐A in Canadian French

Multi-site studies are necessary in the field of haemophilia to ensure adequate sample sizes. Quality of life (QoL) instruments need to be harmonized across languages and cultures to facilitate their inclusion. The purpose of this study was to adapt the Canadian Haemophilia Outcomes - Kids Life Assessment Tool (CHO-KLAT(©)) and HAEMO-QoL-A(©) to French for Canada. The CHO-KLAT and the HAEMO-QoL-A are haemophilia-specific measures of QoL for boys and men respectively. Both measures originated in English, were translated into Canadian French by clinicians with expertise in haemophilia care, back-translated by expert translators and harmonized by a multi-disciplinary team. The harmonized versions were evaluated through a cognitive debriefing process with 6 boys with haemophilia, their parents and 10 men with haemophilia. The final versions were validated in a sample of 19 boys with haemophilia, 19 parents, and 22 men with haemophilia along with a generic QoL scale: the PedsQL for children; and the SF-36 for adults. The translation and cognitive debriefing processes resulted in a preliminary version that maintained the intent of the original questions. The validation study estimated the mean score for the child-reported CHO-KLAT at 71.9 (SD 10.4), and the adult-reported HAEMO-QoL-A at 79.1 (SD 21.3). The CHO-KLAT correlated 0.64 with the PedsQL and the HAEMO-QoL-A correlated 0.78 with the SF-36 physical component summary score. The French-Canadian version of the CHO-KLAT and HAEMO-QoL-A are valid. These measures are available for use in multi-site haemophilia trials and clinical practices to capture QoL data from French Canadians.

When inferring lingual gestures from acoustic data goes wrong: The case of high vowels in Canadian French

Canadian French (CF) is distinguished from other dialects partly by the presence of lax high vowel allophones in closed syllables (Walker, 1984). Acoustically, tense high vowels are characterized by a lower F1 than their lax counterparts, which could be the result of tongue root advancement, tongue body raising, or both (Ladefoged & Maddieson, 1996). High vowel allophony in CF therefore represents a case in which articulatory gestures cannot reliably be inferred from acoustic data alone. Nevertheless, the literature discussing the phonetic properties of high vowels in CF commonly assumes tongue root position to be the parameter that distinguishes between tense and lax vowels, despite an absence of empirical evidence. The purpose of this experiment is to test this assumption and provide articulatory evidence using ultrasound imaging to examine tongue position during speech production by CF speakers. Results indicate that an advanced tongue root gesture is not used to distinguish between high vowels in CF; no significant difference in tongue root position was found between tense and lax allophones. Rather, tongue body height was found to be the distinguishing feature. These findings contribute to our knowledge of the typology of articulatory gestures used to distinguish between so-called tense and lax vowels.

Perception of Canadian French word-final vowels by English-dominant and French-dominant bilinguals

Self-identified English-dominant and French-dominant bilinguals from Montreal participated in a modified vowel identification task. Group differences in accuracy and speed for identifying experimental vowels /e, e, o, u, y, ⊘/ were investigated relative to control vowels /i, a/, expected to be easiest and fastest to identify by both groups. Of interest was the performance on front-rounded /y-⊘/ (non-phonemic in English) and /e-e/ (phonologically contrastive in both languages, but // is disallowed word-finally in English). Both groups performed well overall in identifying experimental vowels although the French-dominant group was comparatively more accurate and faster. The English-dominant group was slower than the French-dominant group in identifying /y/ and /e/. Mouse cursor movements captured trial-by-trial revealed that both groups often moved the cursor toward the response button for /u/ before correctly identifying /y/. Results showed that English-dominant participants demonstrated less-automatic per...

An ultrasound study of Canadian French rhotic vowels

Some speakers of Canadian French produce the vowels /o// and /œ/ with a rhotic perceptual quality, leading pneu, docteur, and brun to sound like /pnr/, /dOktarR/, and /bRr/. English /r/ can be produced with a variety of tongue shapes (including bunched and retroflex variants; Delattre and Freeman 1968, etc.), raising the question of whether French rhotic vowels are also produced with categorically different tongue shapes. Mid-sagittal ultrasound video was recorded for three native speakers of Canadian French producing words containing /œ/, /œR/, and /o// in a carrier phrase. Acoustic analysis of rhotic- and non-rhotic-sounding vowels reveals that the rhotic perceptual quality is associated with a low third formant, which is an important acoustic cue for English /r/. Two of the subjects produced rhotic vowels with a tip-down bunched tongue shape closely resembling Delattre and Freeman's type 4 and one subject produced them with a retroflex tongue shape. The study provides articulatory data on retroflex vowels, which are typologically rare, and on bunched-retroflex variation in a language other than English. The parallel cases of articulatory variability in French and English raise opportunities for investigating articulatory-acoustic mapping in bilinguals.