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摘要：English-speakers' learning of a French vowel contrast (/(schwa)/-/o/) was examined under six different stimulus conditions in which contrastive and noncontrastive stimulus dimensions were varied orthogonally to each other. The distribution of contrastive cues was varied across training conditions to create single prototype, variable far (from the category boundary), and variable close (to the boundary) conditions, each in a single talker or a multiple talker version. The control condition involved identification of gender appropriate grammatical elements. Pre- and posttraining measures of vowel perception and production were obtained from each participant. When assessing pre- to posttraining changes in the slope of the identification functions, statistically significant training effects were observed in the multiple voice far and multiple voice close conditions.

摘要：This study explored the developed and acquired critical competence of a group of American learners of French as a second language (L2), intermediate level, within a virtual learning environment (VLE). In this VLE, students had to resolve complex problems in a collaborative way. The study focused on the concept of negotiation and co-construction of meaning as a paradigmatic phenomenon of emerging critical competence for learners of a foreign language. It first aimed to evaluate the nature of discourse schemas produced by these learners when chatting in the VLE in order to find out what these schemas indicated about the quality of the critical competence of these learners. Furthermore, this study wanted to explore the learners' perception of the impact of their immersion within the VLE on the development of their critical competence in French in order to better inform the way VLEs should be used in foreign language courses. This study was based on a mixed methods research protocol that favoured the complementarity of quantitative and qualitative data in order to increase the results' validity and credibility. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This article reports on a study which took place in the context of the design and development of an online dictionary prototype for learners of French. Aspects of the 'usability', i.e. the quality of the 'learner-task-dictionary interaction' of the prototype were tested. Micro-tasks were designed to focus on learners' productive knowledge of French collocations. Learners (n = 6) completed the tasks individually, with access to the dictionary prototype. The computer sessions were screen-captured. The product (the language input provided by the learners) and the process (the learners' behavior) of the interaction were analyzed based on a set of defined effectiveness and efficiency parameters. The results provide an insight into the learners' dictionary search and look-up strategies highlight areas of the prototype's interface that deserve further design attention and consolidate the methodology used to test the usability of the prototype. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This descriptive observational study aimed at exploring the form-focused instruction (FFI) interventions used by four French and four English as-a-second-language high school teachers to draw their students' attention to form. With the help of an Intervention-on-Form(s)-Observation Scheme (IFOS) developed and tested for this purpose, each FFI intervention observed during 60 hours of video-recorded class time was coded according to its type (e.g., corrective feedback, explanation, enhancement, form-oriented exercises) and its related characteristics (e.g., linguistic focus, interactional pattern, source of the intervention). The results show that grammar-oriented interventions are rather frequent in these second-language classes and that some differences in preferences of intervention types exist in the two contexts. Although FFI interventions are more frequent in the English classes observed, the overall time spent on FFI is significantly higher in the French classes. The reasons for this as well as details regarding the characteristics of the interventions coded through the use of the IFOS will be discussed.

摘要：This study aims to investigate whether teaching vocabulary in immersion courses in two instructional contexts results in improvements in lexical acquisition. It was conducted with 11 students of law and 13 students of history who were enrolled in adjunct language courses linked to immersion courses at the University of Ottawa. Each week, for one university semester, the students completed a series of activities related to discipline vocabulary drawn from their readings or lectures. The participants' gains in target vocabulary knowledge were determined using pre-, post-, and delayed post-tests. The gains were compared for vocabulary items that were acquired incidentally and those that were explicitly taught. This study takes into account the specific characteristics of the vocabulary related to each discipline, how the vocabulary appears in the discipline course, and how it will have implications for the best pedagogical approach for the two language courses. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Nurses working in their second language (L2) face different language-related problems in clinical practice, among which is the difficulty to understand patients' accents or the colloquial phrases they use. These results come as no surprise as L2 teaching is often implicitly oriented toward the acquisition of the standard level of the target language. In order to incorporate a greater linguistic diversity into L2 teaching, the concept of a pedagogical norm, which reflects the observable linguistic behaviour of target language speakers, can be used. The present study aims to establish the pedagogical norm to adopt in the French as a second language education of nursing science students living in a French minority environment. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This article explores the microgenetic development of learners' understanding of sociolinguistic variation in French during an instructional conversation (IC) that followed a language analysis task in which learners attempted to formulate hypotheses about the nature of language variation. During the IC, the instructor led students toward a conceptual understanding of variation in French by providing appropriate graduated (i.e. from implicit or strategic to explicit) mediation that was sensitive to the class's zone of proximal development (ZPD). Teacher-student collaborative interaction within a group's ZPD has the potential to develop learners' conceptual understanding of variation, which can provide an important orienting basis for the development of their performance abilities. The transcript of the IC is analysed and discussed with regard to the amount and type(s) of mediation the instructor provides and opportunities for development created in this type of collaborative interaction. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：This article reports on an investigation into the development of the listening proficiency and strategic behaviour of 15 lower-intermediate learners of French in England. We consider whether listeners remain in the same listening proficiency group after six months, and whether changes in strategy use are related to movement or non-movement between listening proficiency groups. We also examine whether learners' strategic behaviour reflects their teachers' approaches to listening. Data were gathered at two time points from a recall protocol which learners completed after listening to short passages and from verbal reports made by learners while they completed a multiple choice listening task. Teacher interviews provided information on how listening had been presented in learners' classrooms. We detected little movement by students across the listening proficiency groups between the two time points. In spite of some changes in frequency of strategy use, we also observed stability in manner of use by some learners. Differences in strategy use were more evident between groups (non-movers, improvers and decliners) than between uses from Time 1 to Time 2. We conclude by discussing the pedagogical implications of these findings. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：This article presents 2 case studies of intermediate university students of French, Casey and Melanie (both pseudonyms), and their developing use and understanding of stylistic variation over the course of an academic semester. It draws from a variety of data sources: classroom observation, learners' explanations of stylistic variants, learners' analyses of variation in transcriptions of spoken French, interlearner online chat discussions, and interviews with a teacher-researcher in French and English. The two case studies illustrate two dramatically different orientations to variation among second language learners of French. On the one hand, Casey uses variation during class assignments, and she is capable of creating and assigning social and symbolic meaning through its use. Yet variation for Casey remains an academic achievement and she resists incorporating variation into her natural speech. On the other hand, Melanie embraces variation as a mediating artifact that will afford her access to social, interpersonal interaction in the future, and enable her to engage in "being Melanie" in this additional language. In both cases, however, the importance of their personal histories, the role of language learning in their lives, and desired future access to French-speaking communities of practice beyond a school setting come into sharp relief. Adapted from the source document

摘要：The present study examined how American learners of French perceived the influence of instruction on their existing stereotypes about the French people to determine the effects of these stereotypes on their language learning and cultural openness. During a semester, 22 undergraduate students, all native English speakers enrolled in 4 sections of first-semester French at a large Midwestern university were interviewed 3 times via Instant Messenger. The data analysis revealed that, for some participants, the information received during instruction was selectively interpreted (Barna, 1998; Bennett, 1998) through the lenses of beliefs and images present in their habitus (Bourdieu, 1982), with as a result the reinforcement of preexisting stereotypes and impressions. This article focuses on 3 participants who, at some point during the semester, identified a stereotype about the French people and how they believed their instructor or the instructional material participated in its reinforcement. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Many second language acquisition researchers (e.g., Doughty & Williams, 1998; R. Ellis, 2007; Long, 1996, 2007; Lyster, Lightbown, & Spada, 1999; Russell & Spada, 2006) have advocated the use of negative feedback to promote learner noticing of errors and the internalization of correct forms. At the same time, the true efficacy of this practice is uncertain, for it not only entails additional linguistic input but may generally enhance otherwise non-salient language features as well (Leeman, 2003). This study examined the development of the a/au/en/aux distinction before French toponyms among 136 2nd-semester university French learners randomly assigned to an interactive, computer-based reading lesson featuring either textually enhanced or unenhanced target forms and one of four types of corrective feedback: meaning-focused, implicit form-focused, non-metalinguistic explicit form-focused, or metalinguistic explicit form-focused. Learners in all treatment groups showed continuous improvement in mean target item accuracy. However, no differences were observed between any of the conditions. These findings suggest no benefit for highlighting or repeated correction and explanation, at least for the structures in question. Thus, instructors who feel the need to teach these types of necessary grammatical redundancies should perhaps focus on maximizing learners' opportunities to process them through meaningful interaction rather than concentrate on the forms themselves. Adapted from the source document

摘要：In these days of ubiquitous tweeting, language teachers must consider whether microblogging is an activity that will bring benefits to the learning experience. Recent research (Junco et al., 2010; Messner, 2009, among others) indicates that Twitter is becoming increasingly popular in classrooms, but few studies (see for example, Borau et al., 2009; Junco et al., 2010) have empirically examined the linguistic, attitudinal or content-based outcomes of such implementation. This paper discusses the role of Twitter in an intermediate French class (4th or 5th semester of French at the University level), in which students tweeted weekly with each other and with native French speakers. The goal for using Twitter was to build community among learners in the U.S. and in France and to provide opportunities for creative language practice outside of class time. Data suggest that participants quickly formed a collaborative community in which they were able to learn, share and reflect. Attitudinal data and discourse analysis findings are presented to discuss the use of this medium in language learning. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]

摘要：The study reported in this article investigates the development of sociolinguistic competence among second-year (US university-level) L2 learners of French who were given systematic instruction on sociolinguistic variation as part of their normal coursework. We focus on the variable use of the negative morpheme ne in verbal negation. Drawing from learners' explanations of ne presence versus absence, their analyses of two texts representing different levels of discourse, and their own small-group inter-learner online chat discussions, we examine the link between conceptual understanding of variation in French and these learners' development of conscious control over variation. We show that properly organized pedagogical activity can help learners to develop their understanding of variable features of discourse, which ultimately leads (to) the development of their performance abilities. We present both quantitative and qualitative analyses of learners' performance to illustrate their developing control over variation in French, which begins to emerge as a sociolinguistic resource by the end of the academic term. Adapted from the source document