La tesi pertany a una línia d’estudis recentment iniciada amb l’objectiu de descriure la varietat de l’anglès avançat. Proposem una anàlisi integral d’una sèrie de factors semàntics, discursius i interlingüístics que conformen l’ús de la morfologia verbal que empren aprenents avançats catalans i francesos d’anglès idioma estranger; específicament dues poblacions d’especialistes de l’anglès (estudiants de Filologia Anglesa i professors d’anglès a la universitat). A partir d’un corpus de narracions orals d’un llibre en imatges, explorem la distribució de la morfologia temporo-aspectual en relació amb les característiques semàntiques dels predicats (la hipòtesi de l’aspecte) i els moviments narratius que els predicats expressen en la narració (la hipòtesi del discurs). Les formes verbales són analitzades també des de la perspectiva de l’anomenat estíl retòric d’aprenent, és a dir la tria sistemàtica de recursos lingüístics que els aprenents fan en tasques comunicatives complexes en base a un repertori après de formes però també à una determinada manera de seleccionar i organitzar la informació pròpia del seu idioma matern. El fet que els aprenents disposin d’aspecte gramatical en català i en francès no garanteix, d’entrada, el mateix ús d’aquesta morfologia verbal en anglès. Les diferències resideixen tant en la utilització del progressiu amb els predicats de tipus duratiu atèlic, com en el ventall de funcions que les formes verbals en general tenen en el discurs dels aprenents. La coalició prototípica dels predicats duratius atèlics amb el progressiu continua sent forta, particularment en les produccions dels estudiants francòfons, i dona peu a un ús generalitzat d’aquesta forma, molt sovint en tensió amb la funció de fer avançar la narració que té el predicat. El grau de gramaticalització de l’aspecte progressiu en el idioma matern dels aprenents sembla interferir amb les hipòtesis d’ús del progressiu en anglès idioma estranger. Els grups de professors són els que més s’alliberen de les congruències semàntiques amb els predicats en el seu ús de les formes verbals, de manera semblant als locutors nadius. Amb aquests aprenents, el progressiu té una funció discursiva específica i esdevé opcional quan la informació temporal pròpia de la forma verbal es pot recuperar d’altres elements en context. L’estudi estableix que el ventall de funcions que les formes verbals tenen en anglès avançat és més limitat i que no sempre es correspon a les funcions emprades pels locutors nadius. Un exemple és la forma no progressiva de present i de passat, que s’utilitza sobretot per expressar relacions de moviment endavant de la narració en les produccions dels estudiants, mentres que els professors i els anglesos utilitzen la forma no progressiva com a forma per defecte i en contextos narratius més variats. L’anàlisi interlingüístic de dos episodis estructurats per la relació de simultaneïtat revela que hi ha una influència subtil de l’idioma matern en la manera de construir una perspectiva temporal en l’expressió de la simultaneïtat en anglès idioma estranger. Aquesta influència es manifesta fins i tot amb els aprenents més avançats (els professors). Totes aquestes observacions conviden a una reflexió sobre la rigidesa dels contrastos gramaticals, les coalicions atípiques predicat/forma o forma/funció que poden sorgir en el discurs, i la manera que tenen els aprenents d’arribar a detectar i produir aquestes coalicions en un idioma estranger com l’anglès. Les observacions també indiquen que les produccions orals en un idioma estranger es fan a través del filtre lingüístic i conceptual de l’idioma matern fins a estadis molt avançats d’aprenentatge. / Our dissertation belongs to a recently initiated line of studies seeking to characterise the advanced English L2 variety. We present an integrated analysis of a series of semantic, discourse and cross-linguistic factors underlying the use of verb forms by advanced French and Catalan learners of English as a foreign language. On the basis of a corpus of oral picture book narratives produced by two populations of language specialists (i.e., English Studies graduates and professors at several French and Catalan universities), we explore the distribution of tense-aspect morphology in relation to the aspectual class of predicates (the Aspect Hypothesis) and the temporal information predicates encode in narrative discourse (the Discourse Hypothesis). Tense-aspect forms are also considered from the perspective of the so-called L2 rhetorical style, the systematic linguistic choices learners make in a given communicative task drawing both on their learnt repertoire of L2 devices and on information selection and organisation patterns unconsciously transferred from their L1. The availability of grammaticalised aspectual distinctions in the learners’ mother tongues does not ensure a nativelike use of aspectual marking in advanced English L2. Differences reside in the use of tense-aspect morphology with durative atelic predicates and in the functional-semantic scope verb forms have in discourse. Prototypical predicate/form coalitions in learner production were found to remain strong in the use of the progressive with durative atelic predicates and to lead to an across-the-board reliance on the progressive, often in tension with the plot-advancing role of the predicate. The degree of grammaticalisation of the progressive aspect in the learners’ L1 seems to interfere with the hypotheses of use concerning the progressive form in English L2, particularly in the case of the French L1 student group. Only the professor groups employ tense-aspect forms in a way which is genuinely liberated from the semantic congruence with the predicate, similar to what was observed in English L1. With these very advanced learners, the progressive has a discourse-specific function and becomes optional when viewpoint information can be retrieved from other elements in the context. English L2 form-function mappings in the domain of tense-aspect morphology were also found to be more limited or not to match the ones observed in English L1. A case in point is the non-progressive present or past form, strongly associated with plot-advancing contexts in the production of the student groups, whereas the non-progressive is a default form, encoding a variety of narrative material, in the production of the professor groups and the English native speakers. The cross-linguistic analysis of a specific type of narrative contexts, namely two episodes where the expression of simultaneity plays a central role, revealed the existence of a subtle L1 influence on the construction of a temporal perspective in English L2, even with the most proficient learners. These findings invite to a reflection on the margins of grammaticalised contrasts, where atypical coalitions arise, and how learners can grasp such peripheral uses in an instructional setting. They also indicate that L2 oral production at the advanced stages is bound to a linguistic and conceptualisation filter which is the legacy of learners’ L1.

The purpose of this research was to test the effect of stress presentation mode on stress acquisition of advanced learners of Russian. The study attempted to determine if advanced learners of Russian are able to place stress more correctly on words in specific texts after receiving various treatments or receiving no treatment. Participants were Brigham Young University students studying Russian as a second language at the third-year level or higher. They were randomly assigned into three groups: a group that received no treatment, a treatment group that read words with graphically marked stress, and a treatment group that heard texts read by a native speaker. All participants completed a pretest, a treatment (in the second and third groups), and a posttest. The pretest and the posttest consisted of a reading task: the participants read 12 sentences taken from 12 different texts. The same words from the texts were used in the treatment to expose the participants to the sentences again in order to determine if the treatment made a difference in the acquisition of correct stress. The treatment was different for each group. Group 1 (A) read texts marked with stress, Group 2 (B) read the same texts but without stress marked; rather, they heard a native speaker of Russian read the texts on a recording, and Group 3 (C) read the same texts but without stress marked graphically or hearing a native speaker. The results of the research reject the hypothesis that aural presentation of stress as opposed to a visual only presentation leads to improved acquisition of stress. However, based on the analyses of the data, overall findings rendered some interesting and unexpected results and observations. First, although the treatment for group A appears to be more effective than that for groups B and C, all groups showed improvement after completing the treatment. This strongly suggests that reading, whatever form it takes, can be a useful tool in facilitating control of stress. Second, group A had more participants that fell into the "fast" reading category, and fast readers scored significantly higher than slow or medium speed readers. This suggests that the faster one reads the better one controls stress, or the better one controls stress the faster one reads.

Pragmatics is part of communicative competence. In order to communicate successfully, pragmatic competence is of vital importance. Although pragmatics has played a significant role in L2 learners' communicative competence, pragmatics still has not been commonly taught in the classroom. The present research investigates the efficacy of instruction in pragmatics in the advanced Chinese language class has on the production and appropriate use of apology strategies, and examines the correlation between exposure in a Chinese Speaking Community (CSC) and pragmatics development. The subjects include 55 students in their third-year of college-level Chinese, divided into four classes at Brigham Young University. The study uses an experimental design in which the participants are assigned either to an explicit instruction group or an implicit instruction group. Participants in both groups also report their experience in a CSC. Results of this study show which as a whole improved their apology performance over the 8-week instruction, as rated by Chinese native speakers. Results reveal no significant difference between the explicit and implicit instruction groups, suggesting that explicit and implicit approaches were both effective methods in facilitating pragmatic competence. In addition, we also found no statistically significant difference between the CSC and Non-Chinese Speaking Community (NCSC) group in their pragmatic development. The findings of the present study indicate that pragmatic knowledge may emerge from classroom instruction, regardless of explicit or implicit instructional approaches; and living in a Chinese speaking communities do not necessary aid or accelerate the development of pragmatic competence.

This study explored the effectiveness of a Willingness to Communicate (WTC) scale with advanced foreign language (L2) learners. The WTC instrument included sections on communicating with native speakers of the L2 and peer language learners in various settings (at home, abroad, in-class and online). As most prior research had focused on beginning language learners, for this study, we recruited participants who began to learn their respective languages in informal, long-term immersion settings. Participants took the WTC survey as part of a larger self-assessment instrument with a subset of 600 intermediate and advanced level Spanish (n = 339), Portuguese (n = 155), and French (n = 106) L2 students taking an Oral Proficiency Interview (computerized). The instrument was found to be reliable (Cronbach α = .88), and there was a significant difference [t (5) = 2.97, p = .031] in WTC between sections for online and in-class settings. However, the WTC had no significant relationship (Pearson's r2 = .0005) with OPIc score. Thus, while WTC might help beginning learners reach advanced level language, it might not discriminate among learners who are already advanced.

The intention of this study is to give a qualitative and quantitative description of the usage of connectors, especially mais, parce que and donc, and of some epistemic modifiers in the spoken French of Swedish advanced learners. The study includes eight advanced learners, six highly advanced learners and eight native speakers from the French learner corpus InterFra, all interviewed by the same native speaker. In total, 22 interviews of learners (39,000 words) and eight interviews of native speakers (23,000 words) were examined. One of the goals was to find typical advanced learner features (interlanguage features) in connector and modifier usage, and also to describe individual variation in the group. We highlight the importance of comparative studies and of taking into account recent studies of spoken French to establish advanced interlanguage features, as normative French grammar fails to account for some spoken usage of connectors. The aim in studying interlanguage features that involve connectors and modifiers is twofold: first, we try to understand the function of certain connectors/modifiers at the semantic, discourse organizing, interactional and speech act levels. Second, we look at the syntactic dependence and integration of discourse sequences introduced by parce que and modifiers like je crois (que). The study of mais (chapters 2 and 3) showed that learners used turn-introducing mais more often than native speakers. Mais was also found to be an important reformulation marker in the learner group. In the study of parce que (chapter 4), we found that the macro-syntactic (paratactic) parce que was frequent in both speaker groupes, but that a function like introducing ”specifications” was more frequent in the learner group, while parce que introducing parenthetic remarks (incises) – commonly used by native speakers of French – was found in only a few cases in the learner corpus. We suggest that this latter usage is a property of the highly advanced user. The study of epistemic phrases like je crois/ je pense/ je trouve (que) (chapter 5) revealed a small quantitative difference in syntactic dependence between the two groupes of speakers: the learners more frequently used independent expressions. From a qualitative point of view, the difference was partly due to the high number of isolated phrases (like je crois oui) and post-positioned phrases in the learner material. Both groups of speakers used modifiers as discourse-structuring devices and as fillers, but their use as fillers was more frequent in the learner group. Finally (chapter 6), by carrying out a prosodic analysis (variation in fundamental frequency) coupled with an analysis of the information structure, we segmented the speech into functional discourse units (les paragraphes oraux). This analysis suggested some characteristics of highly advanced learner usage for the position of the connector donc. One such feature was the incorporation of donc in a constituent of the discourse unit, both from a syntactic and prosodic point of view.

Cette thèse analyse le profil des apprenants adultes avancés de deux langues étrangères, le français et l’italien, dont l’apprentissage se fait en milieu institutionnel, dans le cadre du lycée (Bartning, 1997). L’étude consiste à dégager les procédures d’organisation de l’information textuelle, lors de la production d’un récit oral, et s’insère dans un cadre de recherche sur la production verbale et le récit, en particulier Levelt (1989) et Klein & Von Stutterheim (2002). Tout locuteur doit gérer un certain nombre de procès pour mener à bien une tâche communicative. D’abord, il sélectionne l’information qu’il veut transmettre. Ensuite, il organise cette information en énoncé, réalisant ce qui s’appelle linéarisation des contenus. Cette information se développe d’énoncé en énoncé dans une suite cohérente et cohésive, de façon à ce qu’elle soit compréhensible aux interlocuteurs, dont les attentes et les connaissances sont aussi évaluées par le locuteur, lors de sa production. Telles sont les compétences textuelles que cette étude analyse, relativement à l’acquisition et à la maîtrise des processus de connexion syntaxique, en particulier les connecteurs. Pour ce faire, un corpus d’apprenants a été bâti, se composant de récits de lycéens italophones apprenants de français LE ainsi que francophones apprenants d’italien LE. La production de récits oraux a été sollicitée à partir d’un support vidéo, « Quest ». Après l’avoir visionné, les apprenants en ont fait deux restitutions : immédiate et différée, avec un délai de sept jours environ. Cela nous a permis, en outre, de tester les effets de la remémoration d’histoires sur la connexité textuelle, selon les hypothèses formulées par la psychologie cognitive, concernant l’existence d’un schéma de récit (Mandler & Johnson, 1977 ; Stein & Glenn, 1979). Les résultats obtenus confirment l’existence d’une divergence entre les productions des apprenants et des natifs, en termes de moyens syntaxiques employés et de répertoire de connecteurs mis en œuvre, suivant les relations exprimées. Il est possible de parler de « traitement prototypique » de la tâche verbale demandée (Watorek, 1996), en particulier pour le groupe d’apprenants italophones de français LE. Les apprenants font preuve d’une structuration de l’information visant à répondre de façon essentielle à la « quaestio » posée par le texte. De plus, l’analyse de la remémoration a permis de vérifier le recours à un schéma, lors de la structuration d’un récit, qui aboutit à la réactivation des seules informations retenues essentielles au bon déroulement de l’histoire, sans que cela entraîne un véritable ajout de connexions, en termes de connecteurs employés, sauf pour l’expression de la causalité, qui est plus fréquente en restitution différée chez tous les groupes analysés. / This thesis analyses the profile of advanced learners of French and Italian as foreign languages within the institutional environment of the high school (Bartning, 1997). The study consists in an analysis of the procedures according to which textual information is organised during the production of an oral narrative, and fits into a framework of research on verbal production (Levelt, 1989; Klein & Von Stutterheim, 2002). A speaker must do several things in the performance of a communicative task. First, he selects the information he wants to impart. Then, he organizes this information, resulting in what is called the linearization of the content. This information is then formulated into language clause by clause, producing a coherent and cohesive text that it is understandable to the interlocutors. This study will examine the textual skills involved in these processes in relation to the acquisition of the means for syntactic cohesion, in particular competence with connectors. To analyse these skills, a corpus of learners was assembled, consisting of Italian-speaking high school students learning French, and their French-speaking, Italian-learning counterparts. Oral responses to a video, « Quest », were elicited. The subjects were asked to give their recollections of the video immediately after viewing and again after approximately seven days. This allowed certain hypotheses in cognitive psychology concerning the existence of a story schema and the relationship between time passed and the cohesion of recollections (Mandler & Johnson, 1977; Stein and Glenn, 1979) to be tested. The results confirm the existence of a difference between the productions of learners and those of native speakers, in respect of employed syntactical means and the repertoire of connectors for certain semantic relations. It is possible to speak about the « traitement prototypique » (Watorek, 1996) of the verbal task, especially for the group of Italian-speaking learners of French. The learners structure the information to give a direct answer to the « quaestio » asked by the text. Furthermore, we noticed that the difference between learners and native speakers is rather small, especially as regards the repertoire of connectors employed and the syntactical structures in which they appear. We may therefore conclude that even the native speakers operate employ only those means strictly necessary to settle the task which they are set. Furthermore, analysis of the recollections verified that there is an appeal to a schema which reactivates only the essential information during the ideal progress of a recollection but which does not result in an increase in the number of connectors used. / Questa tesi analizza il profilo degli apprendenti adulti avanzati del francese e dell’italiano, come lingue straniere, apprese in ambito istituzionale (Bartning, 1997). Lo studio permette di rendere conto delle modalità di organizzazione dell’informazione testuale, in un testo narrativo orale, e si inserisce in un filone di ricerca sulla produzione verbale e la narrazione (Levelt, 1989 ; Klein & Von Stutterheim, 2002). Per portare a termine un determinato compito comunicativo, ogni locutore deve far fronte a un certo numero di attività. Innanzitutto, deve selezionare l’informazione da trasmettere e organizzarla in enunciati, realizzando ciò che si definisce linearizzazione dei contenuti. Tale informazione si sviluppa attraverso gli enunciati, realizzando in tal modo la coerenza e la coesione del discorso, necessarie per la sua comprensione da parte dell’interlocutore. Questa ricerca analizza tali competenze testuali, soprattutto in merito alla realizzazione della coesione attraverso l’uso di connettori. A questo scopo, è stato creato un corpus di apprendenti italofoni di francese L2 e francofoni di italiano L2. Le narrazioni orali sono state elicitate a partire da un supporto video, « Quest ». Dopo averlo visionato, gli apprendenti ne hanno prodotto due restituzioni : immediata e differita di sette giorni circa. Questo ha permesso di testare gli effetti della memoria sulla coesione testuale nella ricostruzione di una storia, secondo le ipotesi formulate dalla psicologia cognitiva sull’esistenza di uno schema, che guidi il trattamento del testo (Mandler & Johnson, 1977 ; Stein & Glenn, 1979). I risultati ottenuti confermano la differenza esistente tra le produzioni degli apprendenti e dei nativi, relativamente ai mezzi sintattici e al repertorio di connettori usati, secondo le relazioni semantiche che questi ultimi esprimono. È possibile parlare di « traitement prorotypique » del compito verbale richiesto (Watorek, 1996), in particolare per il gruppo di apprendenti italofoni di francese L2. Gli apprendenti strutturano l’informazione in maniera essenziale, rispondendo alla « quaestio » alla base del testo. Inoltre, l’analisi della memoria ha permesso di confermare l’esistenza di uno schema per il trattamento di un testo narrativo, che permette di riattivare solo le informazioni essenziali per lo sviluppo della storia, senza che questo comporti un reale aumento dei connettori usati, eccetto che per l’espressione delle relazioni causali, in aumento in restituzione differita per tutti i gruppi del corpus.

Keywords: Advanced learners, bilingual students, vocabulary, student vocabulary size, case study, receptive vocabulary, productive vocabulary Secondary-school teachers at Czech schools are encountering an increasing number of students who are significantly ahead of their peers. These students are either bilinguals or advanced learners. Regardless of the students' proficiency, the Czech education system enforces these students to keep attending further English classes, which often positions their teacher before a burdening question of what to teach these students. Scientific research postulates that a potential weakness of the said type of students could be vocabulary. This hypothesis was verified in this thesis, with the aid of Paul Nation VLT and Laufer & Nation Productive Vocabulary tests. The second goal of this thesis was to set a typical profile of advanced-learner and bilingual student through a survey. Results from the tests confirmed a significant deficiency in all of twelve test-subjects' productive vocabulary. Receptive vocabulary tests nonetheless revealed large receptive vocabulary size with eleven of tested subjects. Based on these findings, the recommended method for students this advanced is to allow them more autonomy, particularly through extensive reading, and to assign them...

La tesi si colloca nell'ambito di studi sulla fraseologia nell'inglese prodotto da apprendenti. Presenta uno studio empirico delle sequenze di parole più ricorrenti in un corpus di inglese prodotto da apprendenti di livello avanzato durante chat asincrone in contesto universitario italiano. Secondo la letteratura d'area, sia nella lingua scritta che in quella parlata, le sequenze di parole degli apprendenti rivelano una scarsa attenzione alla variazione del registro a seconda del mezzo di comunicazione usato. Al fine di verificare la presenza di questa caratteristica in un tipo di comunicazione che si trova in posizione intermedia tra i due poli del continuum esistente tra parlato e scritto, la presente ricerca ha analizzato quantitativamente e qualitativamente le sequenze di parole più frequenti nel corpus di comunicazioni mediate dal computer (CMC) raccolto nell'ambito della presente ricerca. Successivamente, le sequenze più frequenti sono state confrontate con quelle estratte da due corpora di interlingua inglese prodotta da apprendenti italofoni, uno di testi scritti (ICLE, Granger et al. 2002) e uno interviste orali (LINDSEI, Gilquin et al. 2010 ). Il confronto ha rivelato che le sequenze più ripetute dagli apprendenti hanno caratteristiche distintive nei vari media e supporta solo in parte i precedenti studi in materia. Ciò è probabilmente dovuto sia alle caratteristiche di informalità e immediatezza della comunicazione mediata dal computer, che ai vantaggi motivazionali e al diverso tipo di elaborazione linguistica connaturato alla CMC. Per l'apprendente la CMC non presenta la stessa pressione comunicativa del parlato e, allo stesso tempo, egli ha la possibilità di monitorare la propria produzione in quanto distanziata da sé dal mezzo elettronico. / The present dissertation contributes to studies of phraseology in learner English. It is an analysis of recurrent sequences of words in a corpus of learner Computer-mediated Communication. English, collected by means of asynchronous chats in an Italian university context. Previous research has argued that the use of recurrent word sequences plays a major role in learner English fluency both in writing and in speech, and is one of the factors behind learner English register failures. Using a corpus-driven approach, the study analyses the most frequent word sequences extracted from the specially compiled Learner Chat Corpus (LCC). To determine the level of adaptation of learner English to different registers, data regarding 3-word sequences from LCC is compared with the Italian subcomponents of a well-known corpus of learner writing (ICLE, Granger et al. 2002) and a corpus of learner speech (LINDSEI, Gilquin et al. 2010 ). The cross-corpus comparisons provide evidence that learners employ combinations which make their English suitable to the mode they are using for communication. Quantitative and qualitative findings from the present research support only in part previous studies of learner English in terms of recurrent sequences. This is probably due both to the informality and spoken-like quality of CMC, and to its motivational advantages and processing differences connected to the fact that learners can monitor their output while communicating because learner language production is distanced by the electronic means.