The aim was to find out teachers in Swedish as a second language in primary schools view on how they work with a language development teaching in a multicultural environment. I did a semi-structured interview where I both made questions before the interview and also used individualized follow-up questions during my interview. I did that because I really wanted to get answers to the subject and the aim of the essay. Two teachers in Swedish as a second language have been interviewed.   The result shows that a holistic approach to language development is important, where great emphasis lies on understanding. Teachers say that communication and interaction are key factors and that it is important with good linguistically appropriate and understandable texts where the words/concepts are learned and used in the right context. / Syftet med studien är att ta reda på uppfattningarna bland lärare i svenska som andraspråk om hur de i grundskolan och mångkulturella miljöer bedriver en språkutvecklande undervisning. En semistrukturerad intervju har genomförts med gjorda frågor både innan intervjun samt individualiserade följdfrågor under själva intervjun. Detta genomfördes för att verkligen få svar på frågeställningarna och syftet. Intervjuerna har gjorts med två lärare i svenska som andraspråk.   Resultatet visar att en helhetssyn på språkutveckling är betydelsefullt, där stor vikt läggs på förståelsen. Lärarna belyser att kommunikation och samspel är centrala faktorer för denna utveckling samt bra språkligt anpassade och lättförståeliga texter där ord/begrepp lärs in och används i sitt rätta sammanhang/kontext.

Brown (1973) a proposé la « longueur moyenne des énoncés » (LME) comme indice standard du développement langagier. La LME se calcule selon le nombre moyen de morphèmes dans 100 énoncés de parole spontanée. L’hypothèse sous-jacente à cet indice est que la complexité syntaxique croît avec le nombre de morphèmes dans les énoncés. Selon Brown, l’indice permet d’estimer le développement d’une « compétence grammaticale » jusqu’à environ quatre morphèmes. Certains auteurs ont toutefois critiqué le manque de fiabilité de la LME et la limite de quatre morphèmes. Des rapports démontrent des variations de la LME avec l’âge, ce qui suggère que des facteurs comme la croissance des capacités respiratoires peuvent influencer l’indice de Brown. La présente étude fait état de ces problèmes et examine comment la LME et certaines mesures de diversité lexicale varient selon le développement des capacités respiratoires. On a calculé la LME et la diversité lexicale dans la parole spontanée de 50 locuteurs mâles âgés de 5 à 27 ans. On a également mesuré, au moyen d’un pneumotachographe, la capacité vitale (CV) des locuteurs. Les résultats démontrent que la LME et des mesures de diversité lexicale corrèlent fortement avec la croissance de la CV. Ainsi, la croissance des fonctions respiratoires contraint le développement morphosyntaxique et lexical. Notre discussion fait valoir la nécessité de réévaluer l’indice de la LME et la conception « linguistique » du développement langagier comme une compétence mentale qui émerge séparément de la croissance des structures de performance. / Brown (1973) proposed the « mean length of utterance » (MLU) as a standard index of language development. MLU is calculated by counting the mean number of morphemes in 100 utterances of spontaneous speech. The underlying hypothesis of this index is that syntactic complexity rises with the number of morphemes in utterances. According to Brown, MLU indexes the development of a « grammatical competence » up to about four morphemes. However, authors have criticized the lack of reliability of the MLU and the limit of four morphemes. Reported variations in MLU with age also suggest that factors such as the growth of respiratory capacities can influence Brown’s index. The present study reviews those problems and examines how the MLU and certain measures of lexical diversity vary according to the development of respiratory capacities. We calculated the MLU and the lexical diversity in the spontaneous speech of 50 male speakers aged 5 to 27 years. We also measured, with a pneumotachograph, the vital capacity (VC) of the speakers. The results show that MLU and measures of lexical diversity strongly correlate with the growth of VC. Thus, the growth of respiratory functions constrains morphosyntactic and lexical development. Our discussion focuses on the necessity to revaluate the MLU index and a « linguistic » conception of language development as a mental competence emerging separately from the growth of performance structures.

Sammanfattning Alla barn i förskolan har rätt till en stimulerande språkutveckling, att kunna uttrycka känslor, behov och känna delaktighet i det sociala samspelet. Syften med denna studie är att ge en övergripande bild över hur teckenanvändning i förskolan kan stimulera barns språkutveckling oavsett svårigheter och vad pedagogerna har för inställningen till metoden ur ett sociokulturellt inkluderande perspektiv. Tidigare forskning visar att det finns positiva effekter av att använda sig av tecken som ett komplement för att förstärka talspråket, speciellt för språksvaga barn. Det har framför allt fått konsekvenser för begreppsutvecklingen och ordförståelsen som innefattas i förskolans styrdokument. Tillvägagångssättet i studien var kvantitativ metod i form av en digital enkätundersökning som skickades ut till förskolor runt om i landet. Resultatet visade att majoriteten av pedagogerna hade en positiv inställning till användandet av tecken och att deras uppfattningar stämde överens med det som tidigare forskning påvisat. Avslutningsvis behöver mer forskning inom området utföras för att kunna säkerställa fördelarna i ett längre perspektiv. / Abstract All children in preschool are entitled to a stimulating language development process; to be able to express their feelings, needs and be actively involved in social interaction. The purpose of this study is twofold: Firstly, to deepen the understanding of how signing can stimulate children's language development complementary to speech in preschool regardless of difficulties in speech. Secondly, to investigate teachers’ attitudes to and opinions on the method from a socio-cultural theory and in inclusion perspective. Previous research shows that there are many benefits of using signing as a method to enhance the spoken language, especially for children with special needs. Signing has proved especially significant for improving literacy and language skills, which are important components of the pre-school curriculum. The approach in this study was a quantitative method produced as a digital questionnaire sent to different preschools around Sweden. The results showed that the majority of the educators saw positive effects of using signing as a complement to speech, which is consistent with previous research. In conclusion, further research needs to be conducted on the topic to be able to identify the long-term benefits.

L’étude de l’orientation mentale (OM), soit l’habileté des parents à concevoir et à traiter leur enfant comme un individu disposant d’une vie mentale autonome et active (Meins, 1997), a gagné en intérêt grâce à la démonstration de ses associations avec plusieurs sphères du développement de l’enfant, entre autres avec le style d’acquisition linguistique chez les enfants de 20 mois ainsi que le développement de la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants d’âge préscolaire (p. ex., Meins & Fernyhough, 1999). En dépit de ces résultats, l’étude du développement du vocabulaire et des stades initiaux de la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants a été négligée dans cette littérature. La présente thèse est composée de trois articles empiriques et vise à combler certaines lacunes de la littérature actuelle. Le premier article vise à examiner les liens longitudinaux entre l’OM maternelle et le vocabulaire expressif chez les enfants de 2 ans. Les deuxième et troisième articles ont pour but d’évaluer les relations longitudinales entre l’OM maternelle, la sécurité d’attachement des enfants et les toutes premières articulations de la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants de 2 ans, puis 2 ans plus tard, avec la théorie de l’esprit chez les enfants de 4 ans. Les données des trois articles proviennent de cinq visites effectuées au domicile de 84 dyades mère-enfant. À 12 mois, l’OM maternelle a été mesurée lors de jeux libres mère-enfant à l’aide du système de codification de Meins et al. (2001). À 15 mois, la sécurité d’attachement de l’enfant a été mesurée par un observateur avec le Q-Sort d’attachement (Waters & Deane, 1985). À 2 ans, les mères ont évalué le langage de leur enfant à l’aide des inventaires MacArthur du développement de la communication (Dionne, Tremblay, Boivin, Laplante, & Pérusse, 2003). Finalement, la théorie de l’esprit de l’enfant a été mesurée à 2 et 4 ans à l’aide de diverses tâches expérimentales (Carlson, Mandell, & Williams, 2004). Les résultats du premier article indiquent que l’OM maternelle est associée au développement du vocabulaire expressif des enfants de 2 ans. Les résultats des deuxième et troisième articles indiquent que la compréhension des enfants de 2 et 4 ans aux tâches de théorie de l’esprit est associée à l’OM maternelle. De plus, ces deux articles ont démontré que les garçons, mais pas les filles, présentant des comportements d’attachement davantage sécures ont obtenu de meilleures performances à une tâche demandant la compréhension des perspectives visuelles de leur mère à 2 ans et de celles d’une étrangère à 4 ans. En conclusion, les résultats de la thèse suggèrent que l’utilisation que les mères font de commentaires mentaux à 12 mois semble favoriser l’acquisition de mots dans le vocabulaire expressif de leur enfant à 2 ans ainsi que le développement d’une meilleure compréhension aux tâches de théorie de l’esprit à 2 et 4 ans. / Studies on mind-mindedness (MM), which is an indication of parents’ inclination to conceive and treat their child as an independent individual with an autonomous and active mental life (Meins, 1997), have grown in interest because of the associations found with children’s developmental areas, such as with 20-month-olds’ acquisition of linguistic style and with preschoolers’ theory of mind development (ToM) (e.g., Meins & Fernyhough, 1999). Despite these results, studies on expressive vocabulary and earlier ToM stages were neglected in this literature. This thesis is composed of three empirical articles and aims to fill the gaps in the current literature. The first paper aims to examine the longitudinal links between maternal MM and children’s expressive vocabulary at 2 years of age. The second and third articles aim to evaluate the prospective relations between maternal MM, children’s attachment security and 2-year-olds’ first articulations of ToM understanding, and 2 years later, with 4-year-olds’ ToM understanding. The data of the three articles was collected from five home visits made with 84 mother-infant dyads. At 12 months, maternal MM was measured during mother-child free plays with Meins et al. (2001) coding scheme. At 15 months, children’s attachment security was measured with the Attachment Q-Sort (Waters & Deane, 1985) by a research assistant. At 2 years of age, mothers were asked to complete the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Dionne, Tremblay, Boivin, Laplante, & Pérusse, 2003) to measure their child’s expressive vocabulary. Finally, children’s ToM was assessed with different experimental tasks at 2 and 4 years of age (Carlson, Mandell, & Williams, 2004). Results of the first paper suggested that maternal MM is related to children’s expressive language at 2 years of age. Results of the second and third papers proposed that 2- and 4-year-olds’ understanding on ToM tasks is associated with maternal MM. Furthermore, results from these two articles showed that more securely attached boys, but not girls, performed better on a task requiring comprehension of their mothers’ visual perspective at 2 years of age and of a stranger’s visual perspective at 4 years of age. In conclusion, results of this thesis suggest that mothers more inclined to use mental comments at 12 months have children that acquire more words in their expressive vocabulary at 2 years of age and who show a better understanding on ToM tasks at 2 and 4 years of age.

本研究主要探討台灣漢語兒童在日常家庭對話中，對父母行使請求時的語言表現及禮貌現象，以了解漢語兒童的語用發展歷程與現象。研究的重點主要是在兒童表達請求的言語行為時所使用的語言形式，以及人際關係中會影響兒童禮貌表現的因素及其反應在語言形式的使用情形。透過對兩位以漢語為母語的兒童長期互動的觀察，本研究發現，兒童在表達請求時，採用多元的語言形式，包含祈使句、直述句、帶有語尾助詞的祈使句、以及表達個人慾望或需求的陳述句。考量這些語言形式使用的情境後進一步發現，兒童傾向在一般的日常對話中多以表達個人慾望的陳述句為表達請求的主要語言形式，而在合作互動的情境中，主要的請求語言形式則絕大多數為祈使句；這樣的語言功能分工，在兩歲半左右可以明顯觀察得到。 另外，透過兒童語言形式表達禮貌的觀察顯示，兒童普遍會依照人際互動的一些因素來選擇表達請求時所適用的語言形式，尤以有效性及地位高低為主要的兩個考量因素。觀察中發現，兒童大量使用祈使句及表達個人慾望需求的陳述句來表達請求，而其他的語言型式相對上則少得許多，主要的因素很有可能是這兩類的語言型式，在他們與父母互動中最能有效達到他們的溝通目的。此外，兒童也會依照他們在表達請求時與他們父母間的地位高低來考量請求所要使用的語言形式。儘管觀察結果指出，兒童傾向使用能有效達到溝通互動目的的語言形式來表達他們的請求，必要時，他們也會依照互動雙方的地位關係進行語言形式的微調，這樣的語言表現有明顯的系統性；而這樣的系統性，進而突顯了兒童約略在三歲前即對禮貌在語言形式使用的影響有了初步的系統與了解。 除了句法結構外，兒童也會透過詞彙單位來傳達他們在請求所應注意的禮貌，例如，必要時，他們會使用「幫」、「請」、及「我們」來修飾或削弱請求時可能對對方所造成的影響。這些詞彙的使用在發展上屬於略晚才習得的語言形式。 最後，研究的結果也指出，雖然兒童表達請求時，使用較為間接而有禮的語言形式，未必較能有效地達到他們的溝通目的，但是如果在表達請求的同時，也進一步說明理由者，達到溝通目的的機率則有明顯的增加。另外，從語言形式和表達請求的情境及人際地位的互動中發現，兒童表達請求的基本語言形式極有可能為表達個人的慾望與需求的陳述句，儘管祈使句在所觀察的語料中使用的頻率最高。這樣的論點，不但符合其他文獻中針對兒童語言發展的發現，也貼近兒童語言發展為連續過程的觀點，且也反應了人類語言發展的基本歷程。 / This study aims to investigate Mandarin-speaking children’s requests and their linguistic politeness so as to contribute to the understanding of children’s pragmatic development as well as linguistic development. The present study is mainly concerned with what linguistic devices children utilize to issue requests in spontaneous interactions with their parents and what interpersonal factors may have an influence on children’s uses of request forms. These two issues were discussed through examinations over children’s spontaneous interactions with their parents in family settings. On the basis of the longitudinal data produced by two children, it has been found that when requesting, children draw upon various linguistic devices, primarily including simple imperatives, WANT statements, imperatives with sentence-final particle, and declaratives. Such a variety of request forms can be observed from an early age on, at around two years old, but demonstrates no remarkable development, judged simply by these formal devices used at different ages. When situational contexts are also taken into account, nevertheless, a developmental pattern regarding the request forms is thus revealed. In terms of situational contexts, children are found to use simple imperatives primarily to convey their requests when involved in interactive activities with their parents, whereas they tend to utilize both simple imperatives and WANT statements when having common talks with their parents. Such a division of labor can be noticeably observed when children are about two and half years old. As to children’s linguistic politeness when making requests, the results reveal that children are aware of the influence of certain interactional and interpersonal factors on the appropriate use of linguistic forms. Children are inclined to draw upon comparatively more effective forms to issue their requests, and therefore children by and large request with pure imperatives and WANT statements, since these two request forms may effectively obtain the desirable compliance from their parents. In addition to effectiveness, children may also take interpersonal status and request cost into consideration when judging which request forms to use in the immediate context. Such consideration of interpersonal status when determining the appropriate request forms to use may thus reflects children’s awareness of politeness at around the age of three. In addition to syntactic structures, children are also found to draw upon lexical items to show their deference to politeness. Children may use such lexical forms as qing ‘please’, bang ‘to help with’ and women ‘let’s; we’ to mitigate the illocutionary force in their requests. These forms, despite their low frequencies in the data, may thus reveal children’s sensitivity to politeness when making such a face-threatening act as requests. The use of these polite lexical forms also discloses a comparatively late development in linguistic politeness; children may not use such polite forms until they reach the second half of their second year. A late development is also observed in the respect of children’s use of reasons to justify their requests. The results show that children’s justification may generally increase the effectiveness of their requests, but such use is infrequent and only observed at a later age, around the age of three. Finally, the results of the investigation into the data may suggest that WANT statements are highly likely an earlier developed request form and the prime linguistic forms children rely on to issue their requests, given the findings that children tend to request with WANT statements when interacting with parents at a lower status as a child and that children’s use of request forms are prone to the effect of interpersonal status. Such a suggestion may not only conform to the findings in previous studies with regard to children’s linguistic development in requests, but also accord with the general developmental pattern of human languages.

No description available.

A pesquisa de mestrado relatada ao longo desta dissertação contemplou o desenvolvimento de um sistema de comunicação altenativa em alta tecnologia voltado para a comunicação de crianças com autismo não oralizadas. O processo de construção do Sistema de Comunicação Alternativa para o Letramento de pessoas com Autismo, SCALA, desdobrou-se em três etapas, abrangendo o seu desenvolvimento e avaliação do mesmo com potenciais usuários da ferramenta. Na primeira etapa deste trabalho, foram estabelecidos os resquisitos do sistema, a primeira modelagem do SCALA e suas propostas de interface. Concomitantemente, desenvolveu-se um estudo de caso com uma criança diagnosticada com autismo não oralizada. Nesta etapa, inseriu-se a CAA no cotidiano da criança, iniciando com recursos de baixa tecnologia, e finalmente passando para alta tecnologia, chegando ao uso do sistema SCALA em atividades pedagógicas voltadas para o desenvolvimento da comunicação. As estratégias de CAA desenvolvidas ao longo do estudo, pautadas no uso de recursos de comunicação alternativa e do sistema SCALA, permitiram identificar as potencialidades deste sistema no desenvolvimento da comunicação oral de uma criança com autismo. Na última etapa, verificou-se a usabilidade do sistema SCALA seguindo as heurísticas definidas por Nielsen e adaptadas por Rauber. Para a verificação da usabilidade, foi elencado um conjunto de dez tarefas a serem realizadas com o sistema. As tarefas foram analisadas a partir de dois métodos: inspeção e teste. O método de inspeção foi realizado pela própria autora, enquanto que os testes foram realizados com quatro educadoras especiais que atuavam em salas de recursos com crianças com déficits de oralidade e que utilizavam recursos de CAA. / This research contemplated the development of a high-technology-based alternative communication system, aimed for the communication on orality-impaired autistic children. The building process of “Sistema de Comunicação Alternativa para o Letramento de Pessoas com Autismo” (Alternative Communication System for People with Autism), SCALA, unfolded along three stages, running from its construction to the evaluation among potential users of the tool. In the work`s first stage the system requisites were established and also SCALA`s first model and interfaces proposals were made. Meanwhile, a case-study was conducted with an orality-impaired child with an autism diagnosis. In this stage, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) was introduced among the child`s activities, starting with low-technology resources, and finally reaching high-technology and the use of SCALA on communication development related pedagogical activities. AAC strategies, created along the study, based on alternative communication resources the SCALA system usage, allowed the identification of the system`s potentialities on developing oral communication on a children with autism. In the last stage, SCALA`s usability was accessed following heuristics defined by Nielsen and adapted by Rauber. To the usability verification, a set of ten tasks was devised. The tasks were analyzed with two methods: inspection and test. The inspection method was conducted by the author herself, while the tests were made with four special education professionals who had been working in Resource Rooms with children with orality deficits using AAC resources.

I den här texten beskriver jag min studie om hur fyra olika Grade R-pedagoger i Sydafrika arbetar med barns språkutveckling, vilka metoder och artefakter de använder samt varför. Under utbildningen till förskollärare har vi fått lära oss vikten av den pedagogiska verksamhetens miljö, den ska bland annat vara stimulerande och inspirera barn till att utforska och lära (Skolverket, 2016). Detta arbete belyser miljöns vikt och användning ur ett lärarperspektiv eftersom det är deras erfarenheter och arbetssätt jag vill ta reda på. Barns språkutveckling är viktig för deras lärande och nu för tiden blir verksamheten alltmer flerspråkig vilket ger oss pedagoger ett visst ansvar att se till att varje individ utvecklas både inom svenskan och sitt modersmål. Till insamlingen av det empiriska materialet valde jag att använda mig av både semistrukturerade intervjuer och observationer som metod. Min studie analyseras och beskrivs sedan ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande där användning av miljö och artefakter är en viktig del i lärandet. I resultatet beskrivs att pedagogerna anser miljön väldigt betydelsefull eftersom det underlättar det språkliga lärandet både i planerade aktiviteter och i leken, men att man som pedagog inte bara ska förlita sig på en välplanerad lärandemiljö. / In this text I’m describing my study on how four different Grade R preschool educators in South Africa work with the children’s language development. What methods and artifacts they use, and why. During our education to become preschool teachers we have learned the importance of the educational environment, which should stimulate the children to explore and learn (Skolverket, 2016). This text will highlight the importance of using the environment from a teacher perspective, as it is their experiences and methods I want to find out. The language development of children is important for further education and nowadays the preschools are becoming more multilingual, giving us educators a certain responsibility to ensure that each individual evolve in both their mother tongue and the second language. I chose to use both semi structured interviews and observations as my method of collecting data. My study is both analyzed and presented from a sociocultural perspective on learning, where using the environment and artifacts is an important part. The result will show that the preschool educators consider the environment very important, because it facilitates linguistic learning both in planned activities and in free play, but also to not only rely on a well-planned learning environment alone.

Syftet med arbetet är att studera några lärares uppfattningar när det gäller undervisningsmetoder och åtgärder för elever med språkstörning eller försenad språkutveckling i grundskolans tidigare år, samt när och hur elevernas språkliga svårigheter visar sig i undervisningssituationen. Metoden för insamlingen av empiriskt material är kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra lärare i grundskolans tidigare år. Intervjuerna var ostrukturerade och fokus var att försöka uppfatta och förstå lärares nyanserade beskrivningar om sin undervisning för elever med språkstörning eller försenad språkutveckling. Resultaten i arbetet visar att de riktigt stora riskerna att utveckla läs-och skrivsvårigheter är när språkförståelsen och ordförrådet är drabbat. Svårigheter inom språkförståelse och ordförråd är dock inte lika enkla att definiera som fonologiska svårigheter. Därför gäller det att lärare säkerställer att de undervisningsmetoder som används ger elever med språkliga svårigheter möjlighet att utveckla sidor av språket som handlar om förståelse. Resultaten visar även att många anpassningar är på individnivå utan sammanhang. Det gör att de kommunikativa delarna av undervisningen försvinner vilket gör att språkförståelsen och ordförrådet inte utvecklas särskilt effektivt. Anpassningar som är inkluderade i den ordinarie undervisningen gör det möjligt att utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande bibehålla de kommunikativa delarna av undervisningen vilket i sin tur gör det möjligt att utveckla språkförståelsen och ordförrådet. Undervisningsmetoderna bör istället vara konkreta, kommunikativa, modellerande och av multimodal karaktär, där undervisningsmetoderna utgår från elevens starkaste språkliga sidor. / The purpose of the study is to study some teachers' perceptions regarding teaching methods and measures for students with language impairment or late language development in the early year's primary school, as well as when and how students' linguistic difficulties appear in the teaching situation. The method for collecting empirical material is qualitative interviews with four teachers in the primary school's early years. The interviews were unstructured and the focus was to try and perceive teachers' nuanced descriptions of their teaching for language impaired students or students with late language development.   The results in the study show that the major risks of developing reading and writing difficulties are when linguistic difficulties and vocabulary is already affected. However, linguistic difficulties and vocabulary are not as easy to define as phonological difficulties. Therefore, teachers must ensure that the teaching methods used give students with linguistic difficulties the opportunity to develop sides of language that concern understanding.   The results also show that many adaptions are at individual level without context. This causes the communicative parts of teaching to disappear, which hinders language comprehension and vocabulary to develop efficiently. Adaptations that are included in the regular practice allow for the communicative parts of the teaching from a socio-cultural perspective of learning. This makes it possible to develop linguistic understanding and vocabulary. The teaching methods should instead be concrete, communicative, explicit and using a variation of learning methods. Where the methods are based on the student's strongest linguistic aspects.

Les recherches sur l'apprentissage informel de l'anglais en ligne (AIAL) étudient la manière dont des locuteurs non natifs de l’anglais participent aux activités de loisir sur Internet en langue étrangère et les implications que ces interactions peuvent avoir pour le développement de la langue étrangère. Cette thèse a pour objectif d’examiner l’envergure de ces pratiques et d’analyser le développement langagier des apprenants en termes de complexité, précision, aisance à communiquer et chunks. 953 étudiants français et allemands ont renseigné un questionnaire d’environ 60 questions sur leurs pratiques informelles en ligne en anglais. Les résultats montrent des habitudes similaires entres les deux cohortes, une préférence pour les activités de compréhension plutôt que de production, des taux bas d’apprentissage explicite et des raisons de participer liées au contenu des activités plutôt qu’à la langue. Ensuite deux études de cas ont été réalisées sur 10 mois. Des données orales et écrites ont été analysées. Les résultats indiquent que chaque apprenant possède son propre profil AIAL et que les trajectoires de développement sont individuelles et non linéaires. / Preliminary research regarding the online informal learning of English has shown that L2 development can result from participation in informal activities online. The goal of this dissertation is to examine the range of these online practices and to analyse university students’ long-term L2 development through their participation in such activities.953 French and German university students responded to a questionnaire containing approximately 60 questions regarding their online informal activities in English. Results from this survey show many similar practices between the two cohorts, a preference for comprehension over production and interaction activities, low rates of active (explicit) learning and content-associated rather than language-associated reasons for participating. Case studies were subsequently carried out. Oral and written data were collected over 10 months and analysed for complexity, accuracy and fluency measures as well as the use of language chunks. Results show that each language user interacts with the activities in his/her own unique style and that the different L2 measures evolve non-linearly and in relation to one another.