Student Number : 9711192Y - MA Research Report - School of Human and Community Development - Faculty of Humanities / This research considered factors that predict academic achievement in Grade 8 and 9 learners. The learners in this study were categorised primarily based on their first language. As a researcher in South Africa one is not faced with a division between monolinguals and bilinguals, but rather is forced to classify language users based on their ‘home’ or ‘first’ language. Thus learners whose first language was English fell into the first-language (L1) group, while learners whose first language was not English fell into the second-language (L2) group Academic achievement was defined in this study as the marks obtained by learners in their school subjects. This method of assessing students and learners is both pervasive and essential in the determination of academic potential, and the subsequent determination of future employment and educational opportunities. The results of these school achievement tests were compared with results obtained from the Differential Aptitude Test Form S (DAT-S) English Version. The DAT-S is an assessment instrument used to determine academic potential. This test was developed in South Africa, and normed against Afrikaans and English speaking students (Vosloo, Coetzee & Claassen, 2000). The test was chosen for use in this study because “the kind of information obtained from the differential aptitude tests can … facilitate judgements regarding potential success in the course of a career” (Vosloo, Coetzee & Claassen, 2000 p. 1). The results of this comparison were used to examine factors that determine success in an academic sphere, and which underlying proficiencies as predicted by the DAT-S may have contributed to this success.

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Studies on bilingual production have not come to a consensus on the possibility of bilinguals reaching native-like production. Some studies find that bilinguals can be close to native production while others have shown that even in simultaneous bilinguals, the production cannot reach native-likeness. Flege’s Speech Learning Model (Flege & Bohn, 2020) theorizes that acquiring a second language affects the production of the L1 and vice versa. The model also states that new phonemes are easier to acquire compared to existing phonemes with different production. This thesis seeks to research the production of French and English vowels in a general population of Canadians to give an accurate picture of second language learning in Canada. We also seek to determine the strength of second language effects on the production of the first language and, what factors influence proficiency in bilingual speakers. Participants were recruited in the Montréal region to have bilinguals of different proficiency and different backgrounds. They were given a sentence list to read out loud while being recorded. The recorded data was used to study the vowel formants produced by the bilinguals. These formants were then used to create a plot of the group average that was then compared to the production plots of monolinguals. The production data was also used to create a group average distance, with the help of the Mahalanobis distance calculations, to also compare to the production from the French and English monolingual groups. The plots and the calculations were used to compare the groups between themselves and the monolingual groups. The results from the production data are within our expectations. The simultaneous bilinguals had the closest to native-like production in both English and French compared to the other bilinguals. The data also showed that for the English native bilinguals, the frequency of L2 use is the biggest factor in native-like production while for the French native bilinguals it was L2 proficiency. Regarding the SLM, the data we collected support the claim that bilinguals acquire and produce new phonemes with more ease than modify existing phonemes. It also partially supports the claim that knowledge of a second language will affect the production of the first language. The results from our experiment demonstrate that as the L1 French – L2 English bilinguals’ knowledge of English increased, their production of French veered away from the French monolinguals. However, this effect was not seen with the L1 English – L2 French bilinguals. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / The Speech Learning Model (SLM) theorizes that the acquisition of a second language will be affected by the production of the first/native language. In addition, it theorizes that the second language can simultaneously affect the first/native language (L1). By observing the production of French and English vowels in different groups of French native speakers who later acquire English (L2) and English native speakers who later acquire French, we hope to answer the following questions. 1. How close do bilinguals get to native-like production? 2. How strong is the bilateral (L1 → L2 and L2 → L1) effect in the different groups of bilinguals? 3. Which vowels are harder for bilinguals to acquire? 4. What factors influence native-like production? We recorded pronunciation of French and English vowels by bilinguals to achieve the goals of this thesis. By studying the pronunciation of vowels in English and French, we hoped to get a clearer picture of second language learner in the context of Canada. These pronunciations are used to compare the bilinguals to speakers who only speak French or English. The data suggests that bilinguals are the closest second language learner group to the pronunciation of both French and English vowels. The results also point to frequency of L2 use being the strongest factor for native-like production for the English native bilinguals, and proficiency being the strongest factor for the French native bilinguals. L2 → L1 effects are strongest in the groups with high proficiency, with speakers that have both English and French as native languages.