Thesis (doctoral)--University of Edinburgh, 1988. / Includes bibliographical references and index.

Thesis (Educat.D.)--Fairleigh Dickinson University, 1983. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-08, Section: A, page: 2395.

Cette étude vise à explorer l'influence de la langue première (L1) sur la performance en lecture en français chez des apprenants trilingues de langue minoritaire (LM) en immersion françcaise précoce vers la fin de leurs études secondaires. Des données ont été obtenues à partir d'un questionnaire portant sur les antécédents linguistiques des participants et d'un test de compétence en lecture. L'étude a permis de constater que dans les niveaux avancés de l'acquisition, l'influence de la Li sur la troisième langue ne se limite pas aux habiletés de littératie. Des facteurs tels que l'identité linguistique, le statut de la LM et l'utilisation familial de la L1 peuvent jouer un rôle important au moment du transfert des connaissances linguistiques. Cette étude contribue à une meilleure compréhension du phénomène du trilinguisme dans les programmes canadiens d'immersion française et du domaine du transfert translinguistique en milieu minoritaire.

No description available.

This study investigated the second language writing development of 23 Early French Immersion (E.F.I.) grade one students who wrote in a Whole Language classroom. Data, consisting of Journal and Story writing, were collected over the 1986-1987 school year. Five Research Questions were studied: (1) How much did the subjects write? (2) About which topics did the subjects choose to write? (3) How much audience awareness was developed by the subjects? (4) How functional was the language used by the subjects? (5) What orthographic strategies were used by the subjects? All writing under study was subjected to varying levels of analysis: statistical analysis of total written production; classification and categorization of topics, language functions, spelling strategies; correct spelling and writing vocabulary. The results of the analysis provided the following answers. The answers to the first Research Question were as follows: (1) age was not a deciding factor in amount written; (2) girls wrote significantly more than boys; (3) significant increases in quantity occurred in Journal writing but not in Story writing; and (4) the mean increase in Journal writing over terms for boys, girls and all children was significant at the.001 level. The answer to the second Research Question indicated that these young L2 writers wrote predominantly about human relations, personal ideas and feelings which were crucial to them. The answer to the third Research Question revealed that close to 70% of the writing was addressed to the teacher. Audience categories: "Self" and "Peers" were found in the remaining writing. Answers to the fourth Research Question (conducted from studying products of the 23 subjects) showed that Reporting Personal Facts; Stating General Facts and Opinions as well as Asking Opinion Questions were language functions most frequently found in the students' dialogue Journal writing. The teacher's written responses most frequently took the form of Asking Information Questions, Reporting Opinions, and Evaluating. The fifth Research Question was studied from analysis of the spelling of 8 of the 23 subjects. The following are the answers to this question: (1) the majority of L2 spellings were not random, but reflected sensible linguistic decisions made by the writer; (2) L2 writers, like L1 writers, use a wide range of orthographic strategies to produce meaningful texts; (3) proportionally to their written amount, all writers increased the number of correct spellings and variety of words in their writing vocabulary; (4) the interlanguage spellings of L2 writers could be recognized by the use of English and French letter names as well as the omission of letters and the representation of certain French sounds by letters which provided the closest fit. The findings of the study challenge traditional ways of introducing young children to reading and writing in the second language. They call into question instruction delivered in a predetermined, lock-step, sequential manner and favour a more holistic child-centered approach to L2 literacy learning. The results of the inquiry suggest that replication of the present study in higher E.F.I. grades would be beneficial.

This study investigated the comprehension strategies used by 12 and 13 year old core French students in listening tasks. French was a third language for all participants. The range and types of strategies used by these young language learners were investigated, and the differences in strategy use between the participants who attained higher and lower levels of comprehension in the listening tasks were compared. Six students from all ranges of ability participated in two separate research procedures. In phase one, semi-structured individual interviews were utilized for the learners to retrospectively report on their conscious use of learning strategies in different listening contexts. In phase two, think-aloud sessions were used for the students to report their thought processes concurrently while listening to three different texts. All reporting sessions were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded according to an established taxonomy. A detailed discussion of theoretical and methodological issues in listening comprehension research concludes the study. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The purpose of the inquiry is to further understanding with respect to error and its correction in learning a second language. This dissertation deals with the question of how a learner puts one response into the foreground and eclipses or sets another previous understanding aside on the way to attempting to learn the invariable constant correct response offered through forms of representation arising from the aural, oral, visual, and/or written and other forms of sensual stimuli or input. The proposal is that the traditional positivist/postpositivist paradigms usually used in second language research are inadequate to look at knowledge and learning as a nonlinear dynamic process. A poststructural worldview is retained to look at this process. At issue is the reconceptualisation of error correction and focus-on-form in a French immersion setting. A conceptual framework adapted from a triad linked to Derridean, Deleuzean and Guattarian thought helps develop a theory of learning and knowledge for second language learning. At the methodological level, the study looks at different knowledge and produces knowledge differently in that it removes itself from looking at information transmission as being synonymous to learning and knowledge. Methodologically, this dissertation performs its hypothesis by using empirical data to provoke thought thereby transcending the empirical. What is posited in this dissertation is that through error correction, experience has the possibility of intruding upon a student, interacting and connecting with the student and possibly mediating with the knowledge of that student. It suggests that focus-on-form (1) opens up the aporia or closed spaces by creating doubt and (2) works in tandem with affect and perceptions. In this way, there is a possibility that new links and connections can be made in learning. Knowledge and learning are viewed as linked to an iterative process that folds, enfolds and refolds onto itself. The study offers a reconceptualisation of error and correction and provokes thought and reflection about their use in a classroom situation through the lenses of six Grade 4 French Immersion students. It suggests practical applications to teaching and learning. Moreover it opens up possibilities on how to conduct studies on focus-on-form in second language learning within a non-traditional research paradigm.

This Master thesis examines the L2 acquisition of Spanish reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals by French and English-speaking adults at the University of Ottawa. Reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals have been chosen over other constructions because they are superficially very similar and possess an idiosyncratic lexical, morphological, and syntactic behavior: no equivalent of these constructions exist in English or French, which may entangle their acquisition. Subjects in this study included two experimental groups made up of 13 native speakers of English and 16 native speakers of French, and one control group made up of 27 native speakers of Spanish. The two experimental groups were first administered a grammaticality judgment tasks of 64 questions, after which they were provided with 3 hours of explicit grammatical instruction on reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals. A second grammaticality judgment task was administered one week after instruction. The results of the two grammaticality judgment tasks were compared to the results of one grammaticality judgment task completed by the Control group. The performance of subjects on both tasks indicated that explicit grammatical instruction had some impact on the L2 acquisition of reflexive passives and reflexive impersonals, though this influence was not found to be significant on every sentence type. The findings also revealed that the subjects' L1 (French and English) had an effect on the L2 acquisition of both constructions on items where transfer from L1 to Spanish was possible.

This thesis proposes a series of general rules for writing a textbook for an introductory course in translation. The list of rules is certainly not exhaustive, but it uses a number of phenomena observed in various textbooks as its starting point. This list has thus been created from real facts. The first part of the thesis presents the rules that are accompanied by explanations and examples taken from various textbooks. They are outlined according to sixteen evaluation criteria. The second part applies the rules to the review of four textbooks. We evaluated these textbooks according to the various criteria by underlining their positive and negative aspects and concluded this evaluation with overall comments on the textbooks. This paper ends with observations that link the evaluation criteria according to which the rules were presented, to the four assessed textbooks. These observations serve to prove the relevance of the present paper.

Dans son roman Le Cassé paru en 1964, Jacques Renaud a donné droit de cité au français québécois non seulement dans le discours, comme le faisaient les auteurs auparavant, mais aussi dans la narration, atténuant ainsi la distance entre les deux modes. Cette oeuvre, fortement marquée par le contexte sociopolitique dans lequel elle s'est inscrite, sert de point de départ et d'outil de comparaison pour introduire l'analyse de cinq romans québécois qui couvrent la période de 1980 à 2000: La Vie en prose de Yolande Villemaire (1980), Encore une partie pour Berri de Pauline Harvey (1985), Cowboy de Louis Hamelin (1992), Cadavres de François Barcelo (1998) et On a raison de faire le caméléon de Jean-Marie Poupart (1999). L'étude de la langue dans la narration et dans le discours de ces oeuvres permet de constater quelle place les auteurs accordent au français québécois dans les deux modes depuis le grand saut fait par Renaud dans les années 1960. De plus, cette étude permet non seulement de déterminer si la société influence les auteurs dans leur écriture, mais elle permet aussi de constater s'il y a uniformisation ou distanciation des usages linguistiques entre narration et discours dans ces romans représentatifs de leur époque respective.