Given the multicultural, multilingual character of Canadian society, it is no surprise that second-language programs were implemented in our elementary schools. The need and demand for such programs were acknowledged by politicians when French Core Programs were introduced at the elementary level in the late sixties and foreign language programs (Heritage Language Programs) were introduced after school hours in the mid-seventies. The topic was selected primarily to examine how adequately our elementary schools are fulfilling the need and demand for second-language learning. At present, there is strong evidence to support the claim that these programs are failing to motivate students to pursue further studies in a second language or to produce students who are fairly fluent in a second language. These claims arouse concern and controversy as to the effectiveness and perhaps the validity of such programs as they exist today in our elementary schools. It is imperative that elementary second-language programmers examine what is happening in this area. They have to deal with the factors influencing the effectiveness of their programs. It is my view that a number of changes have to be introduced into second-language programs at the elementary level if they are to survive at this and other levels and if they are to support the multilingual, multicultural identity of Canada. / Thesis / Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)

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Despite the importance of the speech act as an analytic category, a general comprehensive definition of it that allows for methodical definitions of particular acts has not been provided. As a consequence, large areas of language use are often treated inadequately, both in learning research and in course planning. Among other problems, applied linguists presuppose different dimensions in discourse and their codings of utterances are insufficiently reliable. Therefore, valid comparisons regarding their empirical results or their design proposals are often impossible. The lack of definitions ESOL work requires is intimately associated to a defective understanding of the nature of acts. Existing classifications separate akin acts and group diverse ones together. To clarify the confusions, it is necessary to distinguish sharply acts which make present, create or modify knowledge from acts that set deontic conditions, ie acts like defining, classifying and generalizing from acts like ordering, requesting and inviting. The first kind, which are referred to here as dissertation acts, are not a subtype of illocutionary acts, as has previously been considered. Rather, they constitute a category at the same hierarchical leveL The distinction is shown to be fundamental following the same approaches that Strawson, Austin, Searle and Widdowson used to establish the sentence, the proposition and the speech act as independent units. The discussion leads to two general definitions of illocutionary and dissertation acts, which postulate a fixed number of parameters for each. Sets of conceivable values for every parameter are also delimited. Hence, a given combination of values determines a particular act, and all possible acts are determinable. The systematic framework thus produced suggests spiral research and teaching programmes which, at different stages, focus on speech act elements, speech acts and speech act combinations. These would allow analysts and students to discern the global organization of a discourse from its final results. They might also lead to a better understanding of its linguistic realization.

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In the variation of English for Occupational Purposes, ESP is usually considered to be culture-free. This thesis investigates, as an example, a vocational ESP program in Saudi Arabia to establish, first, what cultural values might be present in the course materials, and second, how the ESP programme relates to the school system in which workers have been educated. The study proposes that there is a cultural content even in what appears to be a culture-free ESP program, and that this cultural content is expected to provide the non-native target population learners with values and thinking abilities that are different from those that are in the receiving environment. The study shows how an ESP program can have a Western cultural perspective that provides Western values and thinking abilities and general / basic education. The thesis consists of six chapters and a general introduction. The Introduction discusses the significance of ESP, the general view that it is 'culture-free', and the importance of analysing an example ESP program to see if this is the case. Chapter One presents an account of ESP, its definition, nature, development, and key issues in the field of its syllabus design and significance in its various fields, with focus on the significance of ESP having a common core component. Chapter Two presents an account of the literature on the concepts of socialisation and culture, its definition, nature, relation with language, learning, and significance in foreign language teaching (FLT), English language teaching (ELT), and specifically in ESP. Chapter Three introduces Saudi Arabia, with a brief account of its socio- cultural aspects, religion, educational system, and the significance of English language teaching in it. It also has a section about the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco) which represents the environment of Western cultural learning in the ESP program, namely Vocational English Language Training (VELT).

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la description didactique de la variation linguistique dans une approche à contraintes. En nous appuyant sur la Troisième Vague de l’étude de la variation (Eckert, 2012) et les Social Meaning Games (Burnett, 2017 ; sous presse), nous postulons que les contraintes stylistiques sont un sous-ensemble de contraintes pragmatiques. Cette approche nous permet d’envisager la variation dans une perspective fonctionnelle plutôt que normative et de décrire les variantes « non-standard » comme plus ou moins appropriées à une tâche plutôt que comme des déviations de la norme. Pour illustrer notre approche, nous l’appliquons à la description de la dislocation clitique à gauche en français. Nous proposons que la variation de la dislocation clitique à gauche avec les clivées et les constructions canoniques est contraintes par la structure informationnelle (Lambrecht, 1994), les relation d’ensembles partiellement ordonnés (Ward & Birner, 1991) et une stigmatisation stylistique dans les contextes formels (Zribi-Hertz, 1994). Nous suggérons que ces contraintes sont toutes de nature pragmatique et que leur interaction influe sur l’emploi de la dislocation clitique à gauche en français. Ces hypothèses sont testées empiriquement via une étude de corpus, une série de test de jugements d’acceptabilité et un test de Matched Guise. De plus, nous postulons que l’apprentissage des contraintes pragmatiques en langue étrangère dépend de leur enseignement explicite et l’exposition répétée à la construction dans des contextes acceptables. Suivant l’hypothèse de l’interface dynamique (Ellis, 2005), nous suggérons que l’apprentissage explicite des contraintes de la dislocation clitique à gauche dans le contexte de la classe de langue facilite leur apprentissage implicite lorsque les apprenant se retrouve dans une situation de communication avec des locuteurs natifs du français. Le rôle de l’exposition est exploré empiriquement en répliquant un test de jugements d’acceptabilité et le test de Matched Guise avec des participants non-natifs. Enfin, nos observations sont implémentées dans le discours didactique à l’aide de notions et d’une terminologie déjà employés dans les grammaires pédagogiques (Germain & Séguin, 1998). Les contraintes discursives de la dislocation clitique à gauche sont décrites via la distinction entre informations familières et nouvelles (Capelle & Gidon, 1999 ; Watorek, 1998). Les contraintes stylistiques sont décrites via la compétence de savoir-être et les registres sociolinguistiques (CECR, 2001). / The present dissertation deals with didactic description of linguistic variation in a constraint-based approach. In line with the Third Wave movement of variation studies (Eckert, 2012) and Social Meaning Games (Burnett, 2017; accepted), we argue that stylistic constraints are a subset of pragmatic constraints. This approach allows us to consider variation in a functional perspective rather than in a normative perspective and to describe “non-standard” variants as more or less appropriate to certain tasks rather than deviations from the norm. To illustrate our approach, we are applying it to the description of clitic left dislocation in French. We propose that the variation of clitic left dislocation with clefts and canonical construction is constrained by information structure (Lambrecht, 1994), Partially Ordered Set relations (Ward & Prince, 1991) and stylistic stigmatization in formal context (Zribi-Hertz, 1994). We claim that these constraints are all pragmatic in nature and that their interaction weight on the use of clitic left dislocation in French. These claims are tested empirically via a corpus studies, a series of acceptability judgment tests and a matched guise test. Furthermore, we argue that the learning of pragmatic constraints in foreign language is dependent of their explicit teaching and repeated expositions to the construction in felicitous contexts. Following the dynamic interface hypothesis (Ellis, 2005), we suggest that explicit learning of the constraints of clitic left dislocation in the context of the classroom facilitates their implicit learning when the learners find themselves in a situation of communication with French native speakers. The role of exposition is explored empirically by replicating an acceptability judgment test and the matched guise test with non-native participants. Finally, all of our observations are tentatively implemented to didactic discourse with the help of notions and a terminology already used in pedagogical grammars (Germain & Séguin, 1998). Discursive constraints of clitic left dislocation are described using the distinction between old and new information (Capelle & Gidon, 1999; Watorek, 1998). Stylistics constraints are described using existential competencies and sociolinguistics registers (European Framework, 2001).

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The goal of the research was to discover which type of input and instruction best facilitates the acquisition of syntax in adult learners. An artificial miniature language was used to model real second language to control precisely the type of input, conditions of exposure and instruction accompanying that input. Performance of learners under four input conditions was compared and analogies were drawn between these conditions and those experienced by adult second language learners (L2 learners). 'Instructed' learners Z): like formally instructed L2 learners were systematically taught the rules of the language. 'Exposure' learners saw example sentences and were asked to search for rules, the conditions of their input analogous to that of 'naturalistic' L2 learners who receive no formal instruction but who make conscious efforts to search for rules. 'Memorisation' learners received the same input as that presented to the exposure learners but were asked to memorise the sentencesT. hey were seena s analogoust o naturalistic L2 learners who do not search for the rules and the conditions of input were modelled on those claimed to induce implicit learning. 'Cued' learners received input which contained cross-sentential cues to underlying phrasal structure. They were modelled on naturalistic learners whose input contains such cues and who make efforts to search for rules. Performance was compared on both grammaticality judgement and free production tasks. No overall superiority in performance was observed for any of the input conditions. An interaction between input type and rule complexity was evident in which the amount of information received regarding the rules related positively to performance on. the less salient, more complex rules. It was proposed that the findings could be explained in terms of a 'noticing' hypothesis, in which noticing of features is considered a pre-requisite for acquisition. Theories of second and artificial language learning which have stipulated that complex rules can only be learned implicitly were not supported.