Variable future-time reference in French: A comparison of learners in a study-abroad and a foreign-language context
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study seeks to advance understanding of second-language (L2) acquisition of future-time reference in French, by comparing the developmental trajectories of learners living in and away from the target-language setting. Study-abroad learners in France (n= 45), foreign-language learners living in the US (n= 37), and native speakers of Hexagonal French (n= 30) participated in this study. They completed a written-contextualized task, a language-proficiency test and a background questionnaire. For each written-contextualized-task item, participants selected from among three responses that differed with respect to the form (inflectional future, periphrastic future, present). Items were designed to test for the influence of three factors on the form selected: presence/absence of a lexical temporal indicator, temporal distance, and (un)certainty. Additionally, two extra-linguistic factors were examined: learning context and proficiency level. The analyses of frequency and the multinomial logistic regressions suggest that, despite developmental similarities between learning contexts, acquisitional paths of study-abroad and foreign-language learners were not identical.
DOI: 10.1017/cnj.2016.27
Authors: Aarnes Gudmestad, Amanda Edmonds
Institutions: Virginia Tech, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4242822190