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- Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
Language, Interaction and Acquisition - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 10, Issue 1, 2019
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Introduction
Author(s): Martin Howard and Malin Ågrenpp.: 1–10 (10)More LessAbstractThis introduction to the special issue presents a brief overview of the phonological phenomenon of liaison in French, drawing on the morphosyntactic contexts of its use by native speakers. We outline previous research on liaison in second language acquisition, focusing on the challenges this phenomenon presents to learner comprehension and production, and on major findings in each area. We then present a synopsis of the articles in this special issue, which highlight key questions with regard to the development of this phonological feature in the learners’ French.
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Introduction
Author(s): Martin Howard and Malin Ågrenpp.: 11–21 (11)More LessRésuméDans cette introduction, nous caractérisons le phénomène phonologique que constitue la liaison en français en faisant référence à ses contextes d’emploi morphosyntaxiques. Ensuite, nous présentons un court survol des recherches antérieures sur l’acquisition de la liaison en langue seconde du point de vue du défi qu’elle pose par rapport à sa compréhension chez l’apprenant, ainsi que par rapport à sa production dans les lectes d’apprenants. Nous identifions aussi les résultats principaux dans chaque domaine. Nous concluons par un bref résumé des articles du numéro qui met en lumière quelques questions importantes concernant l’acquisition de cet aspect de la phonologie du français.
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The emergence of speech segmentation in adult L2 learners of French
Author(s): Ellenor Shoemaker and Sophie Wauquierpp.: 22–44 (23)More LessAbstractThe beginning stages of speech segmentation in a second language (L2) have received little attention to date. The literature on L2 phonological acquisition tends to focus on learner populations who have access to discrete (orthographic) forms through exposure to the L2 in a classroom setting. Specifically, the existing literature on L2 acquisition of French liaison holds that the processing of liaison is greatly influenced by orthographic representations and that L1 and L2 phonological learning subsequently follow distinctly different developmental paths. We present data suggesting that more naturalistic L2 learners, who have had little formal L2 instruction and whose exposure is primarily oral, process liaison employing strategies previously observed only in children learning L1 French, calling into question the assumption that L1 and L2 phonological acquisition differ fundamentally and suggesting rather that phonological development depends on both the quality and quantity of the input to which the L2 learner is exposed.
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Comparing French liaison acquisition in L1 children and L2 adults
Author(s): Mylène Harnois-Delpiano, Cristelle Cavalla and Jean-Pierre Chevrotpp.: 45–70 (26)More LessAbstractIn the study of liaison acquisition, a key line of inquiry has focused on potential differences and similarities between L1 and L2 French speakers. However, such a comparison encounters a number of difficulties such as matching learners in terms of language exposure, age, and learning abilities. This study addresses these issues based on the analysis of French liaison in a series of experimental tasks performed by L1 children aged two to six, and by adult Korean learners of French as a foreign language. Results show that, for both groups, acquisition of categorical liaison precedes acquisition of variable liaison. However, when L1 and L2 learners are matched individually based on the results of a production task, they differ in a judgment task involving the perception of liaison. More specifically, the ability to judge the correctness of liaison precedes the ability to produce it in L2 learners, but not in L1 children. The findings provide a strong indication that L2 learners follow a specific process when acquiring liaison.
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The development of obligatory liaison in early L2 learners of French
Author(s): Frida Splendidopp.: 71–95 (25)More LessAbstractStudies on the acquisition of French liaison have primarily focused on monolingual children or adult second language (L2) learners in a university context. To bridge the gap between these two populations, the present article focuses on child L2 (cL2) learners – a particularly interesting group, since they are L2 learners who, unlike adults, do not have access to writing. How does liaison develop in cL2 French? Is the development more similar to L1 or L2 acquisition? These questions are explored through longitudinal data from cL2 learners (age of onset: 3;0–3;5, n = 3), with monolingual (n = 2) and bilingual (n = 3) L1 controls. The cL2 data present certain similarities with adult L2 learners, but also with L1 controls. However, productions vary greatly within the L2 group: whereas one of the three learners shows clear development over time, behaving similarly to the L1 children at the end of the observation period, another learner hardly produces any liaisons at all.
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Learning to read liaison in French as a Foreign Language
Author(s): Sylvain Detey and Isabelle Racinepp.: 96–116 (21)More LessAbstractMany of the studies devoted to the acquisition of liaison in French as a foreign language have been carried out with advanced learners, whose first languages were often typologically close to French, and typically without much consideration to the graphophonemic dimension, which is an essential part of the learning process. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the linguistic and contextual factors in the acquisition of liaison by Japanese learners of French in Japan, with a particular focus on the connection between literacy and phonological skills. We then present initial results of a two-year longitudinal study (four sessions) of text-reading tasks with beginner Japanese learners of French (n = 12) in Tokyo, using the same tasks employed in two large corpora of French native (PFC) and non-native (IPFC) speakers/readers. Our data offer a glimpse into the evolution of these learners during the initial acquisition of L2 phonological/literacy skills.
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The production of preverbal liaison in Swedish learners of L2 French
Author(s): Malin Ågren and Joost van de Weijerpp.: 117–139 (23)More LessAbstractThe acquisition of preverbal liaison (e.g. ils arrivent /ilzaʀiv/) in second language (L2) French has rarely been explored in detail in previous studies on obligatory liaison. In this study, we conducted an elicited imitation test in order to study the influence of proficiency level, modality (spoken or written), and verb frequency on the use of preverbal liaison among 42 Swedish learners of L2 French and 21 native speakers of French. The results indicate that L2 beginners had considerable difficulty with the production of preverbal liaison, while the most proficient L2 learners performed nearly as well as the native speakers. In addition, we observed that beginner learners, in contrast to the more proficient ones, performed better with written than spoken stimuli. Finally, we observed no impact of verb frequency on participant performance. Based on these results, we discuss the possible influence of input frequency (both type and token) on the production of preverbal liaison, and conclude that future studies need to address the input characteristics of the L2 classroom in more detail.
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