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THE LEARNING OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC VARIATION BY ADVANCED FSL LEARNERS

The Case of Nous versus On in Immersion French

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2003

Katherine Rehner
Affiliation:
York University
Raymond Mougeon
Affiliation:
York University
Terry Nadasdi
Affiliation:
University of Alberta

Abstract

This paper synthesizes research on the acquisition of linguistic variation by learners of French as a second language—an overview that, to our knowledge, is the first of its kind. It also presents a case study on French immersion students' acquisition of the pronouns nous and on “we,” an alternation in many varieties of spoken French. The study shows that the students use the mildly marked variant on slightly more often than the formal variant nous but much less often than native speakers (who use it almost categorically) and immersion teachers (who strongly favor it). Female and middle-class students favor nous, students with greater extracurricular French language exposure favor on, and students who speak a Romance language at home favor nous. Various explanations are proposed for these correlations. Finally, the students, like L1 Francophones, favor on in linguistic contexts in which the referent is both nonspecific and unrestricted.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2003 Cambridge University Press

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