The learning of spoken French variation by immersion students from Toronto, Canada

Abstract

This study on the learning of sociolinguistic variants by 41 adolescents from a French immersion program in Toronto, Canada, synthesizes the ¢ndings of our research on this topic. This article provides answers to the following questions. First, do the immersion students use the same range of sociolinguistic variants as do speakers of Quebec French, who are used in our research as a ¢rst language (L1) benchmark? Second, do they use variants with the same discursive frequency as do L1 speakers? Third, is their use of variants correlated with the same linguistic constraints observable in L1 speech? Finally, what are the independent variables in£uencing their learning of variants, for example: treatment of variants by immersion teachers and authors of French language arts materials used in immersion programs; interactions with L1 speakers; in£uence of the students' L1(s); in£uence of intra-systemic factors^marked-ness of variants; and in£uence of the students' social characteristics^social standing, sex?

Teenagers’ acquisition of variation

“…Clearly, evidence from L2 learners indicates that variation is an extraordinarily complex and challenging thing to acquire and that a range of outcomes are possible. Mougeon et al (2004) caution against the possibility of predicting outcomes when the input is variable, and our own work in London and Edinburgh seems to confirm this. However, there are several cases in our results that do not seem to be the result of re-ordering or non-replication of variable constraints; instead supralocal constraints seem to have been acquired.…”

“…Mougeon et al (2004) synthesises the results of a large-scale project on the acquisition of 13 sociolinguistic variables among French immersion students. Results from these studies seem to point to the general, but rather weak, conclusion that L2 speakers often display partial mastery of the native-speaker norms of variation, but this generalisation in itself is highly variable.…”

“…Results from these studies seem to point to the general, but rather weak, conclusion that L2 speakers often display partial mastery of the native-speaker norms of variation, but this generalisation in itself is highly variable. Mougeon et al (2004) found that the non-native speakers had fully acquired native speaker constraints on five variables under analysis (cf.…”

Assessing the Use of Multiple Forms in Variable Contexts: The Relationship between Linguistic Factors and Future-Time Reference in Spanish

“…While this line of inquiry is not new (e.g. Adamson & Regan 1991, Bayley & Preston 1996, Mougeon & Dewaele 2004, Mougeon, Rehner & Nadasdi 2004, Preston 2000, Tarone 1988, Young 1991, studies on L2 English and French have preceded much of the research on L2 Spanish. Recent work on L2 Spanish has examined variation in copula contrast, mood distinction and subject expression across tasks (Geeslin 2003, Geeslin & Guijarro-Fuentes 2006, Gudmestad 2006, 2008, Geeslin & Gudmestad 2008a, 2008b), yet other structures remain to be investigated.…”

Disentangling the effects of long-term language contact and individual bilingualism: The case of monophthongs in Welsh and English

“…Such studies tend to focus on Type 2 variation, which Mougeon, Rehner & Nadasdi (2004, p. 409) define as "aspects of the target language where native speakers display sociolinguistic variation, that is they alternate between variants". Mougeon et al (2004) investigated a range of variables in the speech of adolescent school students in French immersion education in Canada, where over 50% of the teaching is delivered in French, and found that variation patterned differently in their speech when compared to corpora of native speakers.…”