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ENGAGEMENT PORTRAITS AND (SOCIO)LINGUISTIC PERFORMANCE

A Transversal and Longitudinal Study of Advanced L2 Learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2014

Françoise Mougeon  and
Katherine Rehner
Françoise Mougeon*
Affiliation:
Glendon College, York University
Katherine Rehner*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Mississauga
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Françoise Mougeon, Glendon College, York University, 2275 Bayview Ave., Toronto, ON, M4N 3M6, CANADA. E-mail: fmougeon@yorku.ca
†Correspondence may also be addressed to Katherine Rehner, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Rd., Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, CANADA. E-mail: katherine.rehner@utoronto.ca
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Abstract

This study considers, both transversally and longitudinally, advanced second language (L2) learners’ profile portraits, how these correlate with their sociolinguistic and linguistic performance, and how changes in these portraits over time connect to changes in sociolinguistic performance. The results show a strong correlation between high degrees of learner engagement, as captured in the profile portraits, and the three measures of sociolinguistic and linguistic performance. The longitudinal data point to an increase over time both of levels of engagement and of use of informal sociolinguistic variants. By measuring the impact of learners’ evolving engagement on their use of sociolinguistic variants as they progress to a more advanced level of proficiency in their L2, the present study shows that an index of engagement can usefully summarize the multiple effects captured by the learner profile portraits and can shed light on rates of use of certain forms.

Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 425 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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