The relationship between the group and the individual and the acquisition of native speaker variation patterns: A preliminary study

Abstract

The relationship between group

Emphatic ne in informal spoken French and implications for foreign language pedagogy

“…Second, this paper offers a number of pedagogical recommendations for teaching the discursive‐pragmatic function of ne in French‐as‐a‐foreign‐language contexts. Although a number of second language (L2) acquisition scholars have explored variable ne retention in the speech of learners of French (Coveney 1998; Dewaele 2004; Dewaele and Regan 2002; Regan 1995, 1996, 1997, 2004; Rehner and Mougeon 1999; Sax 2003), these previous studies have focused primarily on learners’ rates of ne retention vs deletion in comparison with native speakers, without consideration of discursive‐pragmatic effect. The recommendations and sample tasks provided at the end of this paper highlight the fact not only that ne is an optional item in informal French, but that its presence generally co‐occurs with certain prosodic and other emphatic features of discourse.…”

Variable Omission ofnein Real-Time French Chat: A Corpus-Driven Comparison of Educational and Non-Educational Contexts

“…Regan's large-scale longitudinal study (1995,1996,1997,2004) has demonstrated that Irish learners of French approximate, but do not match, NS patterns of variation after a year abroad. Regan (2004) has also reported that students maintain their ne deletion rates one year after their return to Ireland. Several external and internal linguistic factors, including speech style, lexicalization, subject type, and clause type, were also found to be contributing factors (p. 346).…”

Chapter 10. Data Analysis: Quantitative approaches

“…L2 learners, particularly immigrant learners, are exposed to varying types of input and have varying degrees of access to the target language. Although several studies have shown that L2 learners follow similar paths of acquisition (Bayley and Langman 2004;Regan 2004), those studies are fairly small. Hence the question remains open.…”