Sociolinguistic Competence of Immersion Students

This book reports the findings of an extensive research project on the acquisition of the native norms of spoken French variation by French immersion students who have learnt their second language primarily in an educational context. The project focused on a range of phonetic, lexical and grammatical sociolinguistic variants documented in studies of contemporary first language varieties of spoken French, and assessed the extent to which the students master the linguistic and extra-linguistic factors which govern variant choice. The book also discusses pedagogical strategies to improve the students' mastery of spoken French variation. The book represents an important contribution to an under-researched aspect of advanced Second Language Acquisition in an institutional setting.

Raymond Mougeon received a PhD in linguistics from McGill University. He received numerous research grants from Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the Ontario Ministry of Education. He has written extensively on topics such as the diachrony of variation in European French, variation in the spoken French of Franco-Ontarian students and immersion students and aspects of the ethno-linguistic vitality of Ontario’s francophone community. He is current director of the Centre for Research on Language Contact on the Glendon campus of York University.

Terry Nadasdi obtained a PhD in French linguistics from the University of Toronto. His research focuses on grammatical variation in French-English language contact situations, e.g.: minority language speakers and learners of French as a second language. His research also involves the creation of online grammar checkers for English and French (e.g.: www.bonpatron.com). He is currently a Full Professor in the University of Alberta’s Linguistics Department.

Katherine Rehner received a PhD in Second Language Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Her research and publications centre on the development of sociolinguistic competence by first and second language speakers of French and on the role of educational input in the development of such competence. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Linguistics and the Teaching and Learning programs in the Department of Language Studies at the University of Toronto, Mississauga.