This study is an attempt to investigate the interlanguage (IL) development of Cantonese learners of English whose exposure to the target language (TL) is mainly from the classroom context and with little or no informal exposure outside the classroom. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research to date suggests that naturalistic SL learners largely follow a universal route of development. The issue of concern of the present research is whether acquiring the TL in a classroom context involves the same or different processes of SLA and how the learning context shapes the qualitative development in terms of the degree of analyticity and automaticity of IL knowledge. An equally important issue in relation to SLA in the classroom situation is the development of metalinguistic knowledge and in what principled way this type of knowledge assists or hinders the learner's development. Within this framework of investigation, an empirical distinction is drawn between the learner's development of IL knowledge and the extent to which he is able to retrieve this knowledge in production. In the present study, three groups of learners were identified. Two groups of subjects were sampled from the Hong Kong learning context, where English is regarded by and large as a second language. One of the two groups was chosen from the English medium environment, and the other was from the Chinese medium environment. The third group of subjects was drawn from Guangzhou, one of the southern provinces of China, where the medium of instruction is Chinese while English is treated as a foreign language. Although these three groups of subjects share the same Li background, they are differentiated by the availability of informal exposure and the degree of explicitness of grammar teaching received. The English interrogatives were chosen as the target language structure for investigation because they represent one of the taught language items commonly found in the syllabus. Four elicitation tasks were administered: an oral elicitation task, a written dialogue completion task, a grammar correction task and a timed grammaticality judgment task. From the perspective of the general theory of second language acquisition, the results suggest that the classroom learners as identified in the present study largely conformed to the universal `sequence of development' and exhibited similarities in their orders of development. However, it was found that certain features of the learner's order of development at the level of knowledge did not necessarily coincide with that established in his production. Furthermore, an adequate explanation for IL development, as far as this study is concerned, needs to take into account the learner's Li as well as the other types of knowledge at his disposal, as differences were found in the present study which may be traceable to these parameters. In terms of the effect of learning context on second language development, the results suggest that (i) the different learning contexts as identified leads to certain differences in the subjects' IL development as well as the qualitative development of their IL knowledge, (ii) the provision of explicit instruction seems to be more beneficial for more advanced learners than beginners; and when informal exposure is not available in the learning context, and (iii) the availability of informal exposure of the kind found in the present study seems to promote initial IL development at a faster rate than that found in learning contexts in which informal exposure is not usually available.

This thesis investigates the attitudes of young people in Brittany (aged 8-18) towards varieties of language (especially Breton) and the link between language and identity. The sociolinguistic situation in Brittany (past and present) is outlined, and previous research on language attitudes is reviewed. In phase 1 of the project, different informants completed a written questionnaire (470 respondents) and a Matched Guise Test (258 listener-judges), the latter involving Breton, Breton-accented French and Standard-accented French. The questionnaire responses revealed a strong correlation, verified by chi-square tests, between levels of use of Breton and perceptions of identity. Although those respondents from the traditionally Bretonspeaking western part of Brittany (Basse Bretagne) were keen for the language to be preserved, very few were willing to contribute to this process. The respondents from traditionally non Breton-speaking eastern Brittany (Haute Bretagne) were less positive in their views on the future of Breton. The least favourable ratings for the future of Breton were expressed by 15 to 16 year old males, and this was attributed to differences between male and female peer group norms. Breton emerged very favourably from the Matched Guise Test with positive ratings for both status and solidarity traits (a distinction identified by factor analysis of the data). Further breakdown and analysis of the results for the two regions revealed major differences in the evaluation of Breton in Basse and Haute Bretagne, which were attributed to the perceptions of Breton as either Li or L2 by different informant groups. These differing perceptions of Breton further complicated the relationship between the varieties, which may have contributed to the unexpected downgrading of Standardaccented French in terms of status in several cases. The 13-14 year olds perceivedBreton-accented French as the most statusful of the three varieties, a reaction which was attributed to the typical use and positive reinforcement of non-standard speech forms by this age group. In phase 2, 62 informants from western Brittany participated in interviews (based on the questionnaire, administered previously to other respondents), and pair-discussions of the MGT recordings. The overall picture provided by the interviews indicated that although informants expressed a keen interest in improving their competence in Breton, they did not support initiatives designed to encourage this such as the compulsory teaching of Breton in schools. This finding, which supported that of the questionnaire, gave rise to the distinction between the passive and active expression of attitudes. The interviews also revealed the complexity of the relationship between language and identity, with the informants' assertions that Breton identity was more strongly related to origin and residence than competence in Breton. This apparent contradiction between perceptions of the role played by language in determining identity, and the reality of the informants' responses concerning use, appeared to be operating at the subconscious level. The pair-discussions revealed that age was a central aspect of identity which had not yet been investigated in the current project, and which provided an explanation for the different attitudes towards Breton speakers in the MGT: there was an equal division between those who considered them to be young L2 speakers and those who assumed them to be old native speakers of Breton. This aspect of identity also played a key role in the construction of profiles for each guise which gave typical reactions to each guise in order to highlight patterns running through the discourse data. The combination of different methods in the current study was designed to elicit different insights into attitudes and perceptions of identity in the data.

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