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La sollicitation dans l'interaction exolingue en français

Bozier, Christine LU (2005) In Études Romanes de Lund 75.
Abstract
The aim of this study is to discuss how ?soliciting? (non-native speakers? requests of native speakers for help in how to express themselves in a foreign language) may play a part in the triggering of SPAs (Séquences Potentiellement Acquisitionnelles or ?learning?teaching sequences?). The beneficial effect of SPAs for learning is still controversial, since no correlation has yet been shown between the occurrence of SPAs and the development of linguistic competence. The present study discusses how the form of the SPA, as an interactional sequence, may vary with the type of soliciting by which it may be triggered.



The corpus examined consists of exolingual interactions between six Swedish learners of French and two native... (More)
The aim of this study is to discuss how ?soliciting? (non-native speakers? requests of native speakers for help in how to express themselves in a foreign language) may play a part in the triggering of SPAs (Séquences Potentiellement Acquisitionnelles or ?learning?teaching sequences?). The beneficial effect of SPAs for learning is still controversial, since no correlation has yet been shown between the occurrence of SPAs and the development of linguistic competence. The present study discusses how the form of the SPA, as an interactional sequence, may vary with the type of soliciting by which it may be triggered.



The corpus examined consists of exolingual interactions between six Swedish learners of French and two native speakers of French. The interactions consist of semi-guided interviews, two elicitation tasks and a spoken-translation task (from Swedish to French).



After an introductory chapter, situating both the notion of soliciting and the SPA in the general framework of the socio-interactionist perspective on language learning (Chapter 2), a detailed presentation of the corpus analysed is made (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 describes different types of soliciting on which the analyses in Chapters 5 to 7 are based. Chapter 5 deals with the study of the relationship between the different ways of soliciting and the development of interaction. This chapter concludes with a description of the different interactional formats triggered by soliciting. Chapter 6 discusses, in the light of Activity Theory, the relationship between soliciting and task. Since soliciting is considered as an action taken by the learner to reach a goal, the question is whether differences can be seen between tasks and interview in terms of the learners? goals. Chapter 7 is a longitudinal study of soliciting. With reference to the socio-cultural perspective of learning, the question asked is whether a development in terms of the way of soliciting occurs and, if so, whether it has implications for the format of the interactional sequences which develop. A further question which is treated is the relationship between the potential development in soliciting and the development of other competencies (lexical, linguistic and interactional).



In this study, a link is shown between the way learners solicit information and the interactional sequences which develop. While requests for information and for judgement/evaluation tend to be followed by SPAs, requests for confirmation are followed by ?limited sequences? where a backchannel signal (hm, oui) constitutes the native speaker's answer. Concerning the impact of context on soliciting, differences have been observed in the way of soliciting which are individual rather than task-related and seem to be related to the learners? goals: while a few learners seem to consider the different types of interaction (tasks, interview) they are engaged in as a potential way of learning, others seem to be motivated simply by completing the task.



Finally, a mainly qualitative development as regards soliciting in some of the learners was found in the longitudinal study: while soliciting is mainly done through requests for information in the first interview recordings, an evolution towards requests for confirmation tends to take place in the later recordings. As far as the relationship with other competencies is concerned, no direct parallels could be drawn. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
Popular Abstract in Swedish

Syftet med denna undersökning är att diskutera inlärares signaler om hjälp att uttrycka sig på främmande språk, här franska, signaler som här kallas ?sollicitationer?. Undersökningen handlar om vilken roll dessa spelar för den fortsatta utvecklingen av samtalet med den infödde talaren, närmare bestämt för att utlösa s.k. SPA (Séquences Potentiellement Acquisitionnelles), d.v.s. ?möjliga inlärningssekvenser?. Dessa innebär att den infödde talaren reagerar och ger önskat språkligt uttyck, och att inläraren repeterar detta. Det är dock fortfarande omtvistat i vilken mån SPA verkligen främjar inlärning, eftersom man ännu inte har kunnat påvisa någon korrelation mellan förekomst av SPA och... (More)
Popular Abstract in Swedish

Syftet med denna undersökning är att diskutera inlärares signaler om hjälp att uttrycka sig på främmande språk, här franska, signaler som här kallas ?sollicitationer?. Undersökningen handlar om vilken roll dessa spelar för den fortsatta utvecklingen av samtalet med den infödde talaren, närmare bestämt för att utlösa s.k. SPA (Séquences Potentiellement Acquisitionnelles), d.v.s. ?möjliga inlärningssekvenser?. Dessa innebär att den infödde talaren reagerar och ger önskat språkligt uttyck, och att inläraren repeterar detta. Det är dock fortfarande omtvistat i vilken mån SPA verkligen främjar inlärning, eftersom man ännu inte har kunnat påvisa någon korrelation mellan förekomst av SPA och språkfärdighetsutveckling. I denna undersökning diskuteras hur SPA-sekvensen ? som är en produkt av ett samspel mellan icke-infödd och infödd talare ? kan ha olika form beroende på vilken sorts sollicitation som utlöser den.



Den undersökta korpusen består av s.k. exolingvala samtal på franska (d.v.s. samtal där talarna har olika modersmål), mellan sex svenska franskinlärare och två personer med modersmålskompetens i franska. Samtalen utgörs av halvstyrda intervjuer, därtill två uppgifter där inlärarna har fått berätta utifrån olika material samt en muntlig översättning (från svenska till franska).



Avhandlingen börjar med ett kapitel där både sättet att sollicitera och SPA-sekvensen placeras i en allmän ram som utgörs av det socio-interaktionistiska perspektivet på språkinlärning (kapitel 2). Därefter följer en beskrivning av den korpus som har analyserats (kapitel 3). Kapitel 4 beskriver de olika typer av sollicitationer som analyserna i kapitel 5?7 bygger på. I kapitel 5 undersöks förhållandet mellan de olika sätten att sollicitera och interaktionens utveckling, och sist i kapitlet beskrivs de olika interaktionsformer som utlöses av sollicitationer. Kapitel 6 består av en diskussion om förhållandet mellan sollicitationer och de olika typerna av språkliga uppgifter, mot bakgrund av Leontievs verksamhetsteori. Att sollicitera kan ses som något inläraren gör för att uppnå ett visst mål, och frågan är därför om det går att se några skillnader mellan uppgifterna och intervjuerna i fråga om inlärarnas mål. Kapitel 7 är en longitudinell undersökning, d.v.s. en undersökning över tid, av sollicitationerna. Mot bakgrund av det socio-kognitiva perspektivet på inlärning ställs här frågan om det sker någon utveckling över tiden i sättet att sollicitera och om detta i så fall påverkar formen hos de interaktionssekvenser som utvecklas. En annan fråga som behandlas rör förhållandet mellan en eventuell utveckling över tid i fråga om sollicitationerna och utvecklingen av andra språkfärdigheter (lexikala, grammatiska och interaktionella).



Undersökningen påvisar en koppling mellan hur inlärarna solliciterar och de interaktionssekvenser som utvecklas. När sollicitationen gäller att få upplysningar eller att bli bedömd/utvärderad tenderar detta att utlösa en SPA, men när sollicitationen gäller bekräftelse tenderar i stället modersmålstalaren att producera en ?begränsad sekvens? bestående av en återkopplingssignal (?hmm?, ?oui?). När det gäller sammanhangets inverkan kan man se skillnader i hur de olika inlärarna ber om information. Dessa skillnader är individuella snarare än knutna till de olika uppgiftstyperna och förefaller ha samband med inlärarnas mål: några av dem verkar se de olika samtalstyperna (uppgifter, intervjuer) som en möjlighet att lära sig språket bättre, medan andras motivation verkar vara att de helt enkelt vill slutföra uppgiften.



Slutligen kunde det, i den longitudinella undersökningen av sollicitationer, hos tre av inlärarna konstateras en huvudsakligen kvalitativ utveckling i sättet att sollicitera: under de båda första intervjuinspelningarna ber dessa inlärare främst om att få upplysningar (om uttryck på målspråket), medan det i de senare inspelningarna tenderar att ske en utveckling i riktning mot sollicitation som gäller bekräftelse (av föreslaget språkligt uttryck). När det gäller förhållandet till andra språkfärdigheter kunde inga direkta paralleller dras. (Less)
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author
supervisor
opponent
  • Prof. Vasseur, Marie-Thérèse, Université du Maine
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
French, exolingual communication, appeal for help, interactionist, sociocultural theory, metalinguistic activity, conversation analysis, teaching-learning sequence, task, Franska, interaction, acquisition
in
Études Romanes de Lund
volume
75
pages
207 pages
publisher
Department of Romance Languages
defense location
Humanisthusets hörsal, Språk- och litteraturcentrum, Helgonabacken 12, Lund
defense date
2005-10-21 14:30:00
ISSN
0347-0822
ISBN
91-628-6612-5
language
French
LU publication?
yes
id
892af831-c5c9-4b73-923f-57259a951f32 (old id 24771)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 17:03:06
date last changed
2019-05-21 13:58:41
@phdthesis{892af831-c5c9-4b73-923f-57259a951f32,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this study is to discuss how ?soliciting? (non-native speakers? requests of native speakers for help in how to express themselves in a foreign language) may play a part in the triggering of SPAs (Séquences Potentiellement Acquisitionnelles or ?learning?teaching sequences?). The beneficial effect of SPAs for learning is still controversial, since no correlation has yet been shown between the occurrence of SPAs and the development of linguistic competence. The present study discusses how the form of the SPA, as an interactional sequence, may vary with the type of soliciting by which it may be triggered.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
The corpus examined consists of exolingual interactions between six Swedish learners of French and two native speakers of French. The interactions consist of semi-guided interviews, two elicitation tasks and a spoken-translation task (from Swedish to French).<br/><br>
<br/><br>
After an introductory chapter, situating both the notion of soliciting and the SPA in the general framework of the socio-interactionist perspective on language learning (Chapter 2), a detailed presentation of the corpus analysed is made (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 describes different types of soliciting on which the analyses in Chapters 5 to 7 are based. Chapter 5 deals with the study of the relationship between the different ways of soliciting and the development of interaction. This chapter concludes with a description of the different interactional formats triggered by soliciting. Chapter 6 discusses, in the light of Activity Theory, the relationship between soliciting and task. Since soliciting is considered as an action taken by the learner to reach a goal, the question is whether differences can be seen between tasks and interview in terms of the learners? goals. Chapter 7 is a longitudinal study of soliciting. With reference to the socio-cultural perspective of learning, the question asked is whether a development in terms of the way of soliciting occurs and, if so, whether it has implications for the format of the interactional sequences which develop. A further question which is treated is the relationship between the potential development in soliciting and the development of other competencies (lexical, linguistic and interactional).<br/><br>
<br/><br>
In this study, a link is shown between the way learners solicit information and the interactional sequences which develop. While requests for information and for judgement/evaluation tend to be followed by SPAs, requests for confirmation are followed by ?limited sequences? where a backchannel signal (hm, oui) constitutes the native speaker's answer. Concerning the impact of context on soliciting, differences have been observed in the way of soliciting which are individual rather than task-related and seem to be related to the learners? goals: while a few learners seem to consider the different types of interaction (tasks, interview) they are engaged in as a potential way of learning, others seem to be motivated simply by completing the task.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Finally, a mainly qualitative development as regards soliciting in some of the learners was found in the longitudinal study: while soliciting is mainly done through requests for information in the first interview recordings, an evolution towards requests for confirmation tends to take place in the later recordings. As far as the relationship with other competencies is concerned, no direct parallels could be drawn.}},
  author       = {{Bozier, Christine}},
  isbn         = {{91-628-6612-5}},
  issn         = {{0347-0822}},
  keywords     = {{French; exolingual communication; appeal for help; interactionist; sociocultural theory; metalinguistic activity; conversation analysis; teaching-learning sequence; task; Franska; interaction; acquisition}},
  language     = {{fre}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Romance Languages}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  series       = {{Études Romanes de Lund}},
  title        = {{La sollicitation dans l'interaction exolingue en français}},
  volume       = {{75}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}