L2 French Research Articles

Lexical frequency and target language input in the primary languages classroom

ABSTRACT This paper presents an exploratory study of L2 input in the primary languages classroom. Teacher talk in 33 videorecorded lessons taught to Year 3 French beginners by a specialist teacher of French was analysed, in order to document the extent and nature of L2 vocabulary input. Further analyses compared the lexis of teacher talk in this primary setting with high-frequency wordlists derived from two reference corpora designed to support the teaching of L2 French. Results showed that children were exposed to c 45,000 words (tokens) of French, reflecting a teacher vocabulary of c 650 lemmas. Intentionally taught lexis such as foods or animal names typically received massed practice, not always supplemented by distributed practice. The teachers’ partial but consistent use of French for classroom management contributed to a well-balanced distribution of word classes. There was considerable overlap with both reference wordlists, and divergence could largely be explained by the teacher’s choice of topics, and incidental use of French to personalise and engage childrens’ individual interests, as well as for classroom management purposes. In discussion, the need for careful planning and management of vocabulary instruction is highlighted, as well as the significant potential of L2 classroom management to enrich lexical input.

Teaching methods emphasizing phonological forms enhance L2 vocabulary learning

The present study aims to measure the effects of the teaching of second language (L2) phonological forms on L2 receptive vocabulary learning. Two teaching methods were compared in a pre- and delayed post-test to evaluate their impact on L2 word learning. Participants ( n = 127; mean age = 12;6, i.e. 12 years and 6 months) were randomly divided in two groups that followed either an explicit teaching method focused on L2 phonological forms, or a communicative teaching method focused on meaning, in which L2 phonological forms were taught implicitly. The teaching methods in the two groups aimed to foster the skills and the learning of phonological forms involved in the development of receptive vocabulary. The two teaching methods trained the same skills and relied on the same vocabulary. They both targeted the phonological forms of two difficult phonemic contrasts in French as a foreign language. The two teaching sequences took place during mandatory lessons in French as a foreign language for six weeks (12 lessons), in a Swiss state school. Generalized mixed models were fitted to the data to test for differences across teaching methods in their impact on L2 word learning. Overall, the results indicate that participants made significant progress in word learning, with no significant differences between the two teaching methods. Pronunciation, discrimination, retention in verbal working memory, and the mastery of phoneme–grapheme correspondences are significant factors of vocabulary learning in French as foreign language. The teaching of L2 phonological representations and the training of their processing facilitated the learning of words in L2 French. However, the teaching of vocabulary in French as a foreign language rarely involves a focus on phonological representations.

Vocabulary of reading materials in English and French L2 textbooks: A cross-lingual corpus study

Foreign language (L2) textbooks and specifically the reading materials they are constructed around constitute an essential source of input for learners. However, many questions remain about the lexical characteristics of L2 textbook reading materials. This study assesses (1) their vocabulary demands by means of vocabulary loads, (2) the representation of higher- and lower-frequency words, and (3) the extent to which words are repurposed across texts. A corpus was compiled containing the reading materials from three English and three French textbook series used across all six grades of Flemish secondary education to determine whether widely observed differences in learners’ out-of-school exposure (which is high for English but low for French) somehow impact the lexical characteristics of the materials. To analyse the corpus, a custom lexical profiling system was built in Python. Results show (1) a fairly consistent build-up in vocabulary loads in the English materials but not in the French materials, (2) the absence of 20–30% of the 5000 most frequent words (flemmas) in the English and French materials, respectively, and (3) limited potential in both L2s for reencountering words across texts, with ca. 50% of all introduced lexical items being used exclusively in one text.

The impact of a mid-season FIFA World Cup™ on injury occurrence and patterns in French professional soccer clubs

ABSTRACT This study retrospectively compared the effect of holding the 2022 FIFA World Cup™ (WC) mid-season (season 2022/23) on injury rates and patterns in French Ligue 1 soccer clubs. Epidemiological data in 17 clubs were prospectively recorded by their physicians. Time-loss injuries (injuries leading to a player being unable to fully participate in play over the following 72-hour period) were compared with those reported during a regular season (2021–22). In the WC season, an increase of approximately 23% (training + match-play) was observed for both the total number of injuries and knee, ankle and muscle injuries combined. Incidences for match-play injury overall and for the knee, ankle and muscle regions combined and the hamstrings and calf regions specifically also rose significantly (range: p < 0.05-p < 0.01). These results suggest that injury occurrence and patterns in French L1 soccer clubs were substantially affected during the 2022/23 season when a mid-season WC was held.

Mondialisation des engagements d’Équité, Diversité et Inclusion à l’université et intégration d’une posture anti-raciste dans un cursus de français L2

In recent years, faculty members have heard numerous calls to review their research, teaching and administrative practices from the perspective of a mission known as Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, or under the acronym EDI, to which the terms Decolonization and Social Justice are sometimes associated. These calls have found a varying support depending on the disciplines, institutions and countries, where teachers and researchers have undertaken to integrate these objectives into their work. In Canada, following the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015), universities developed initiatives which claimed to decolonize and indigenize the curriculum. This article questions the impact of a higher education course, which studied the media coverage of racialized activists in France, as taught in this context. After a brief presentation of the institutional use of the word 'decolonization' and its critiques, the article describes the parameters of the development of this course and its implications in terms of engagement and allyship. It then questions the dimension of the latter considering that the course is taught in L2 French, a language whose presence around the world finds its origins in a colonial and imperialist history and in the discrimination of indigenous, creole, regional and vernacular languages. Finally, I present the argument that positionality is a crucial part of the decolonial reflection and the critical and anti-racist pedagogy, for which epistemological points of view must be openly presented and historicized.

Alignment in ASR and L1 Listeners’ Recognition of L2 Learner Speech: French EFL Learners &amp; Dictation.Io

This study is an extension of Inceoglu et al.’s (2023) study on Google Voice Typing as a pronunciation learning tool. We used the Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) tool on the dictation.io website (Agarwal, 2022), and our participants were L2 English learners of a different L1, but similar proficiency level. Twelve L1 English listeners assessed the L2 English from four L1 French speakers in terms of intelligibility and comprehensibility, measured by word transcription and Likert scale ratings respectively. Their scores were compared to ASR output. The goal was to determine how accurate the tool is, and to what extent its accuracy correlates with human listeners. The results were generally consistent with those of Inceoglu et al. (2023), with few exceptions which we discuss in the current study.

Examining language and racial attitudes in an L2 French learning context

ABSTRACT This is a quantitative study on language and racial attitudes among learners of French in the English-dominant context of British Columbia (Canada). Such attitudes matter because they can have an impact on students’ learning outcomes in and outside the classroom and they reflect linguistic and racial ideologies that exist in society. A verbal guise test was used to gather data from 83 participants who were taking intermediate and advanced French courses at the University of British Columbia (UBC) at the time of this study. Five varieties of French (from Montreal, Moncton, Vancouver, Abidjan and Paris) and two races (Asian and White) were included. The objectives were to investigate the effect of accent and race on the participants’ language attitudes. The results revealed a clear preference for European French and Quebec French, but these findings can be challenged by the participants’ difficulty in distinguishing among the different varieties. Interestingly, L2 French was evaluated more positively than the L1 varieties from Moncton and Abidjan – a finding that points to the importance of having exposure to non-standard accents in order to enhance positive attitudes. Finally, the participants also demonstrated a preference for the accents of Asians (compared with Whites) in evaluating spoken French.

Embodying intercultural communicative competence in French L2 video reflections: Illustrating skills, knowledge, and attitudes

Research has long touted and recently confirmed the importance of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) — the ability to appropriately communicate with those from diverse sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds — in second language (L2) teaching and learning. Additionally, while multimodal course materials have contributed to learners’ ICC, the link between students’ embodied modes (gestures, facial expressions, body movements) and ICC remains under-explored. Building on ICC and the social semiotic theory of multimodality, this study blends multimodal transcription and conversation analysis to examine how 73 university undergraduate learners of L2 French used embodied modes in 188 asynchronous video reflections and how these modes accompanied demonstrations of ICC skills, knowledge, and attitudes. Findings indicate that gestures and facial expressions indicated students’ demonstrations of the ICC skills of observing, analyzing/interpreting, evaluating, relating, listening, questioning, researching, and problematizing. Further, embodied modes demonstrated students’ retrieval and communication of cultural and sociolinguistic knowledge. This study has implications for online language learning and enhancing ICC through virtual multimodal assignments.

Can L2-L3 cognates affect L3 vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension? – evidence from Chinese learners of L3 French

ABSTRACT Cognate awareness is the ability to recognise cognate relationships in languages, which requires activation of vocabulary knowledge in both languages. Different types of cognates may have various degrees of contributions to vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Few studies have explored the role of different cognate types in vocabulary knowledge and reading across languages, especially in the L3 learner population. To this end, the present study examined the role of different facets of cognate awareness in L3 vocabulary and reading acquisition. Chinese college students of L2 English and L3 French (N = 121) participated in the study, all of whom had learned L2 English for over nine years and L3 French for at least one semester in classrooms. They were required to complete a researcher-developed English-French cognate test, a French vocabulary test and a French reading test. The English-French cognate test contained three types of cognates (same, similar, and false types). The French vocabulary test consisted of a vocabulary size subtest and a Word Associates subtest to measure breadth and depth knowledge. Results of path analysis revealed indirect effects of two types of cognate awareness (similar and false types) on L3 French reading comprehension via the mediation of vocabulary knowledge.

Interaction between levels of text representation and working memory during L2 reading comprehension: What about it?

AbstractThe relationship between L2 reading comprehension and working memory has been studied for years, and previous studies highlight the existence of a correlation between the two. However, to our knowledge, no previous study used Kintsch's Multilevel Comprehension Model to operationalize reading comprehension in the investigation of its relationship with working memory. More specifically, according to Kintsch's model, comprehension consists of three text representation levels—the surface level (the literal wording of the text), the textbase (which includes inferences made by the reader), and the situation model (the integration of explicit and implicit text information with readers’ background knowledge). Therefore, the study reported in this paper examined the contribution of working memory, the short‐term retention of information and its manipulation, to different text representation levels during L2 reading comprehension. To do so, fifty‐five (N = 55) adult L2 learners of French completed L2 reading comprehension task tapping into three levels of text representation and a numerical complex working memory task. The results showed, on the one hand, a significant contribution of working memory to L2 reading comprehension and, on the other hand, that this relationship was specifically observed with the situation model.

Verb placement in L3 French and L3 German

Abstract This article explores cross-linguistic influence and the relationship between surface structure and underlying syntactic structure in L3 acquisition of verb placement in L1 Norwegian L2 English learners of L3 German or French, respectively. In these languages, verb placement varies systematically. Previous research has found transfer from both L1 and L2 in similar language combinations. Using an acceptability judgment task, we tested verb placement in non-subject-initial and subject-initial sentences. Findings indicate that L3 French learners performed better on non-subject-initial sentences compared to subject-initial sentences, whereas the opposite was the case in L3 German. We argue that our findings can be explained by a generative account of verb movement and are compatible with an analysis where verbs do not move, or do not move far enough, in the L3 learners’ underlying syntactic representation. Following the assumption that verb movement is a costly operation, we argue that the syntactic operation verb movement is constrained by principles of economy in L3 acquisition, and that economy plays a role in determining cross-linguistic influence in multilingual acquisition. Our account is compatible with a uniform analysis of the acquisition of verb movement in L1, L2 and L3, and underlines the qualitative similarities in different acquisition processes.

The processing of gender agreement during reading comprehension in L2 French: The effects of syntactic complexity and working memory

A longstanding debate in L2 research focuses on how syntactic complexity needs to be operationalized to account for L2 performances. Whereas many studies investigated this issue in L2 production, very few studies focused on L2 sentence processing. The present study aimed at investigating the effect of syntactic complexity on gender agreement processing in L2 French, while controlling for the learners’ working memory capacity. We tested 37 Dutch learners of French by means of a self-paced reading technique. The results showed decreased sensitivity to gender agreement in embedded structures, but increased sensitivity to gender agreement in non-embedded structures. We concluded that the number of clauses in gender agreement constructions accounts for the effect of syntactic complexity on gender agreement processing in L2 French and that this measure is negatively correlated to sensitivity to gender agreement. We furthermore concluded that (non-verbal) working memory does not affect L2 gender agreement processing.

The formalization of interlanguage: the example of object clitic pronouns acquisition in French L2*

ABSTRACT The interlanguage of second and foreign language French learners presents certain patterns that offer a formal framework within the context of the Applicative Combinatory Categorical Grammar. These patterns manifest in the acquisition of object clitics which presents considerable difficulties for French second language learners. To address this, we thoroughly analysed the object clitic pronouns that appeared in a corpus of texts by examining the different facets of these pronouns. A formal analysis was then proposed. The objective of this research is to establish an automated system for processing learners’ interlanguage in terms of the ACCG.

‘Transported into like another space’: second language learners’ perspectives of their experience of flow

ABSTRACT This study explored the notion of flow, which refers to a person’s sense of being completely absorbed in a task, as it applies to second language (L2) learning and use. Previously, flow has been mainly examined through researcher-generated descriptions to which learners reacted using Likert-type scales. In this study, we examined flow through the perspectives of the individuals experiencing it, by asking them to describe any insights relevant to their experience. During four weeks, five undergraduate students taking L2 French or Spanish coursework reported their flow states in weekly diary entries and interviews. Students described a total of 15 flow states, reporting them most frequently in interaction inside and outside coursework (e.g. speaking to a friend/stranger, in a paired task) but also while taking an exam, studying grammatical forms, listening to a lecture, reading, and practicing a speech. Qualitative coding revealed seven dimensions of flow, where five previously reported dimensions (attention, interest, enjoyment, sense of accomplishment, skill–challenge balance) were supported and clarified through our analyses while the remaining two (oblivion, stress) were identified for the first time. Flow appeared to be linked to proceduralisation of L2 skills, as the element of automaticity was prominent in most descriptions of flow.

The correlates of flow in the L2 classroom: Linking basic L2 task features to learner flow experiences

AbstractFlow is an intrinsic motivational state associated with full task engagement, positive affect, and enhanced performance. While research has examined how different language tasks interact with flow experiences, no study has examined learner flow experiences in a wide range of tasks using an experience sampling method to determine how universal basic task features (e.g., modality, participant structure, information distribution, and targeted skills) interact with flow. The present study aims to respond to this gap in the research. Participants were 13 teachers and 327 students from 18 intact French L2 classes in a Canadian postsecondary school. Teachers selected and implemented an average of six tasks from their personal repertoires at random moments throughout the semester. Immediately following each task, learners anonymously completed a flow experience questionnaire (N = 1408; α = 0.91), and teachers a task description questionnaire containing 17 basic task features (N = 81). Statistical analyses show that 10 of the 17 variables significantly interacted with learners’ flow experiences. The results not only validate a frequently used flow measurement and establish norms for future research but also outline a framework language teachers can use to evaluate and modify practices to improve learners’ subjective classroom experience.

Effects of speaking task and proficiency on the midclause pausing characteristics of L1 and L2 speech from the same speakers

AbstractThis study explored the effect of speaking task on midclause pausing characteristics in the L1 and L2 speech of the same speakers to gain further insights into the potential relationship between pause location and stages of speech production. Participants included English L1 learners of L2 French (n = 29) or Spanish (n = 27) from the publicly available, longitudinal LANGSNAP corpus. Participants completed two oral tasks in their L1 and L2: a picture-based narrative and a semistructured interview. The rate, duration, and proportion of midclause pauses were compared between tasks in the L1 as well as in the L2 before and during residence abroad. In the L1, results indicated more fluent performance in the narrative task except for rate. When speaking in their L2, participants showed improvement on each measure in the narrative task but ultimately remained less fluent in their L2 in comparison to their L1. In the interview task, the only measure of midclause pausing that consistently differentiated L1 from L2 speech was midclause pause rate. The findings call for a nuanced interpretation of connections between midclause pausing and formulation and suggest that midclause pause rate is least influenced by speaking task.

The Role of Explicit Memory Across Second Language Syntactic Development: A Structural Priming Study

AbstractWe tested whether second language (L2) learners rely more on explicit memory during structural priming at lower than at higher proficiency levels (Hartsuiker &amp; Bernolet, 2017). We compared within‐L2 priming with lexical overlap in 100 low and 100 high proficiency French L2 speakers under low versus high working memory load conditions induced with a letter series recall task presented between primes and targets. The high load condition would prevent explicit recall of primes during target production. Both groups primed more under low than high load. The effect of load was similar across groups, but exploratory analyses with proficiency as a continuous variable suggested that, with increasing proficiency, participants primed less under high load. We discuss how these findings support the idea that learners exploit explicit memory more during priming in early versus later stages of acquisition. Overall, this study showed that explicit memory influences syntactic processing across the L2 learning trajectory.

Acquisition of estar + adjective in L2 Spanish by L1 French and Portuguese speakers

Abstract This paper reports the developmental stages of the acquisition of estar in stage-level predicate constructions in the L2 Spanish grammar of native speakers of French and Portuguese. Copular verbs exist in the L1s of both learner groups; however, only in Portuguese is there an aspectual contrast, with copula selection conditions that partially differ from those of ser and estar in Spanish. The study used data extracted from the Corpus de Aprendices de Español (CAES), made up of written texts produced by L2 Spanish learners from CEFR A1 to C1 levels. We attempt to analyse whether, and to what degree, these L2 learners are sensitive to estar copula restrictions in adjective constructions. Our analysis of the written production of 143 L1 French speakers and 361 L1 Portuguese speakers showed differing acquisitional patterns depending on the L1. We consider that the estar overextension, found in the learners’ productions, is related to the process of developing the ability to identify the specific features that distinguish the use of copular verbs in the interlanguage of our learners. Our findings, thus, provide a more fine-grained description of the semantic representation and access of interpretable features in L2 Spanish with special relevance to current hypotheses on Second Language Acquisition such as the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere 2009).

How to Start a Request? A Contrastive Study of Alerters in Spanish by Speakers of L1 Spanish and L1 French

Abstract The formulation of requests has been widely studied in pragmatics, both within a (variety of) language and from a contrastive perspective. In this study, we will show the specific role of alerters (elements that precede the request head act and that serve to get the attention of the hearer on the request) in request formulation, comparing L1 speakers of Spanish and L2 speakers of Spanish with L1 French in Discourse Completion Tests and Naturalised Interactions. In doing so, we contribute to the contrastive pragmatic study of both languages. Our data reveal that there are statistically significant differences in the use of alerters from Spanish L1 and L2 speakers in the DCTs but not in the Naturalised Interactions. Alerters occur with rather similar frequencies in both groups, but there are qualitative differences as to which forms are adopted. At the methodological level, we highlight that data obtained from both groups’ DCTs vs. Naturalised Interactions show different results, thus underlining the importance of combined methods for contrastive pragmatics research.

Elementary School First Graders’ Acquisition of Productive L2 French Grammar in Regular and CLIL Programs

This study presents productive L2 French grammar data obtained at the end of grade 1 from 186 elementary school children learning French in bilingual (CLIL) or in regular school programs in Germany. The children completed a picture description task to assess their productive oral L2 French grammar skills and two standardized cognitive tests on nonverbal intelligence and sustained attention. The results did not indicate any significant effects of the cognitive tests or of child-internal variables (in this case gender, language background and educational background). However, children in the regular French program unexpectedly outperformed their peers in the bilingual French program. Classroom observations and information provided by teachers suggest that this finding may, at least in part, be due to the fact that in grade 1 there were only minor differences between the two programs in terms of L2 exposure time and teaching methodology.