L1–L2 differences in the L2 classroom: Anticipating Anglophone learners’ difficulties with French pronoun interpretation

Abstract

In this article, we address the issue of targeted instruction on interpretive contrasts between native and second-language grammatical meanings. Such mismatches are predicted to create challenges for learners. We illustrate this with French and English pronouns. In French, clitic pronouns ( le, la) point to human as well as inanimate referents, while English pronouns distinguish between human ( him, her) and inanimate ( it) referents. While other grammatical differences between English and French pronouns are taught, this interpretive mismatch attracts less attention in instructional materials. We review the pedagogical literature and report the results of a study investigating this knowledge in Anglophone learners of French as a second language (L2). We document that the mismatch is indeed challenging, particularly to beginning learners, and propose ways to overcome this difficulty.

Acceptance and Online Interpretation of “Gender-Neutral Pronouns”: Performance Asymmetry by Chinese English as a Foreign Language Learners

“…A recent study by Wu, Li, and Qin (in press) indicated that the Mandarin plural pronoun tamén (counterpart of the English plural they ) functioning as a singular pronoun is not acceptable for Mandarin native speakers. Such a discrepancy between the two languages has been found to be an important source of difficulty in L2 learning, particularly when it comes to the restructuring of existing knowledge for the plural feature of they [−PLURAL] and the adaptation to the sociocultural norms of the target language ( Ellis, 2016 ; Shimanskaya and Slabakova, 2017 ). To overcome such a difficulty, Chinese EFL learners are likely to require positive evidence of the correct use of the singular they from their language input ( Gabriele, 2009 ), yet such input is rare in Chinese classroom settings ( Xie, 2014 ).…”

Grammatical meaning and the second language classroom: Introduction

“…The papers in this volume can be divided into two sets: those that report on a teaching intervention study that aims to incorporate linguistic description from generative linguistic research into grammar instruction (Hirakawa et al, 2018;Lopez, 2017;Umeda et al, 2017) and those that combine experimental L2 acquisition work with pedagogically oriented research, including a survey of the presentation of linguistic properties in textbooks (Gil et al, 2017), a survey of language teacher views and investigation of classroom input (Leal & Slabakova, 2017), and exploration of materials development (Shimanskaya & Slabakova, 2017).…”

“…For example, in relation to the English articles a and the, the paper by Lopez (2017) highlights the meanings of definite noun phrases and specific noun phrases, with a view to helping the L2 student realize that there is a difference between these two meanings, and that only one of them (definiteness) is captured in a and the. Or, in teaching French, Shimanskaya and Slabakova (2017) consider the utility of emphasizing that gendered clitic pronouns stand for inanimate things, not just for people, in contrast to gendered pronons in English.…”

“…The properties under investigation in the different papers all relate to elements of language that typically receive at least some attention in the language classroom: articles (Lopez, 2017;Umeda, Snape, Wiltshier & Yusa, 2017), adjectives (Hirakawa, Shibuya & Endo, 2018), and negation (Gil, Marsden & Whong, 2017) in English, and clitic pronouns in Spanish (Leal & Slabakova, 2017) and French (Shimanskaya & Slabakova, 2017). The formal linguistic properties of these elements have all been investigated within the generative linguistic paradigm.…”