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The acquisition of future temporality by L2 French learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2013

DALILA AYOUN*
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
*
Address for correspondence: 549 Modern Languages, Department of French & Italian, 1423 E. University Blvd, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, email: ayoun@email.arizona.edu

Abstract

This cross-sectional study in the acquisition of future temporality by English-speaking L2 French learners presents a descriptive account of the major contrastive features of the expression in futurity in English and French before considering learnability implications. A personal narrative and a cloze task were administered to L2 French learners (n = 34) at three proficiency levels and French native speaker controls (n = 14). Analyses revealed task and proficiency effects, but all learners used a variety of morphological forms to express futurity in their personal narratives, and appear to be acquiring temporal and modal values associated with the future.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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