The learning of sociolinguistic variation by French immersion students at the high school and university levels

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The learning of sociolinguistic variation by
French immersion students at the high school and
university levels

• Katherine Rehner
• Language Studies, UTM

2
Two lexical variables

• Words referring to remunerated work
• travail versus emploi

• Verbs indicating ones place of residence
• habiter versus vivre

3
Previous Immersion Research

• French immersion students
• over-use (hyper-)formal variants
• under-use mildly-marked informal variants
• dramatically under-use marked informal variants
• the use of neutral variants depended on
• the availability of an English equivalent
• the structural complexity of the variants
• the frequency of the variants in the educational
  input

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Lexical Variation Montreal L1

• Work Variable
• travail 35
• job 29
• ouvrage 14
• emploi 14
• poste 8
• Ouvrage/job working class
• Emploi/poste upper class
• Travail socially neutral

• To Dwell Variable
• rester 64
• demeurer 20
• vivre 10
• habiter 6
• Habiter professional class
• Demeurer high-style form
• Rester working class
• Vivre neutral

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Lexical Variation Ontario L1

• To Dwell Variable
• rester 42
• demeurer 32
• vivre 26
• habiter 1
• important role of lexical priming, especially for
  vivre

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Lexical Variation Immersion Students

• Work Variable
• travail 56
• emploi 38
• job 6
• ouvrage 0
• poste 0
• Importance of lexical priming

• To Dwell Variable
• habiter 60
• vivre 40
• rester 0
• demeurer 0
• Highly important role for lexical priming

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Lexical Variation Montreal L2

• Work Variable
• travail 40
• emploi 34
• job 14
• poste 12
• ouvrage 0

• To Dwell Variable
• habiter 45
• rester 27
• vivre 25
• demeurer 1

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Research Questions

• How do the Ontario university learners from
  former immersion programs compare to the patterns
  of use of the work and to dwell variables
  documented in the speech of the Ontario high
  school French immersion students, the Montreal
  Anglophones, and the native speakers of Canadian
  French from Montreal?
• How do they compare to the patterns displayed for
  these variables by their former core French
  counterparts enrolled in FSL studies at the same
  university?
• Do the results of these comparisons change
  depending on whether we are dealing with variants
  that are socially stratified or neutral?

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Table 1 Characteristics of the Student Sample
Extra-Linguistic Factors 1st Year Core (n) 1st Year Immersion (n) 4th Year Core (n) 4th Year Immersion (n) TOTAL (n)
Sex -female -male (19) 91 (2) 9 (16) 84 (3) 16 (8) 100 (0) 0 (12) 92 (1) 8 (55) 90 (6) 10
L1 -English -Romance -Other (15) 71 (0) 0 (6) 29 (14) 74 (1) 5 (4) 21 (4) 50 (3) 38 (1) 22 (12) 92 (0) 0 (1) 8 (45) 73 (4) 7 (12) 20
Elementary school -English -French -Mixed (21) 100 (0) 0 (0) 0 (16) 88 (1) 6 (1) 6 (8) 100 (0) 0 (0) 0 (11) 85 (2) 15 (0) 0 (56) 91 (3) 7 (1) 2
High school -English -French -Mixed (21) 100 (0) 0 (0) 0 (19) 100 (0) 0 (0) 0 (8) 100 (0) 0 (0) 0 (12) 92 (1) 8 (0) 0 (60) 98 (1) 2 (0) 0
Fr.environ. -no time -2 weeks -semester (13) 62 (7) 33 (1) 5 (16) 84 (2) 10 (1) 6 (3) 38 (5) 62 (0) 0 (9) 69 (1) 8 (3) 23 (41) 67 (15) 25 (5) 8
TOTAL (21) 35 (19) 31 (8) 13 (13) 21 (61) 100
One 1st year former immersion student did not
indicate an elementary school language
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Table 2 Interview Length by Corpus
CORPUS INTERVIEW LENGTH
1st year Core 2300 words
4th year Core 3200 words
High school Immersion 3400 words
1st year Immersion 3500 words
4th year Immersion 4700 words
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Methodology

• Data Collection
• 61 students
• Labovian-style interview
• language background questionnaire
• Data Analysis
• tokens identified using concordancer
• coded for lexical priming
• chi square test of independence

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Hypotheses

• Neutral variants
• relatively stable levels of use across cohorts

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Figure 1 Use of Less Formal Variants
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Hypotheses

• Former immersion students making greatest use of
  less-formal variants
• Former core students on par with or lower than
  immersion students when social stratification
  between variants is marked
• 4th year university students making greater use
  of less-formal variants than 1st year counterparts

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Figure 2 Results for work variable
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Figure 3 Results for travail
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Figure 4 Results for to dwell variable
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Figure 5 Results for vivre
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Figure 6 Results for vivre by year of study
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Figure 7 Results for habiter vs vivre vs rester
by cohort
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Figure 8 Use of vivre as a result of lexical
priming
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Conclusions

• The type of learning undertaken in the early
  years of L2 studies sets learners up on
  differential footing when they arrive at the
  university level and that these differential
  footings are maintained throughout the learners
  university studies.
• Any advantage afforded by the type of
  naturalistic learning offered in immersion
  programs does not transfer into a beneficial
  effect for the learning socio-stylistically
  neutral variants.

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Implications

• Former immersion students are at an advantage
  over their former core French counterparts.
• The type of naturalistic learning undertaken in
  an immersion program provides students with a
  better grasp of natural language.
• This conclusion is supported by the advantages
  over their 1st year counterparts displayed by the
  4th year former core French students who have had
  the opportunity to study in French as a medium of
  communication.

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