Le développement du genre grammatical en français: étude longitudinale et comparative sur l’attribution du genre chez deux enfants bilingues successifs et un enfant bilingue simultané âgés de 4 à 6 ans
(2014) FRAK01 20141French Studies
- Abstract
- This paper deals with the development of gender attribution in French in child second (cL2) language acquisition. Recordings of two Swedish speaking children with an AOA at the age of 3;5 have been examined between the ages of 4 to 6, and compared to the development of a bilingual first (2L1) language learner during the same period of age.
An analysis of the use of noun phrases between the ages of 4 and 6, indicate that there is a progress in the percentage of correct gender attribution to nouns in cL2 acquisition as well as in 2L1 acquisition, but that the cL2 learners differ from the 2L1 learner in the sense that they do not show a linear development that grows in function of their age, as is noticed in the 2L1 learner. Instead the... (More) - This paper deals with the development of gender attribution in French in child second (cL2) language acquisition. Recordings of two Swedish speaking children with an AOA at the age of 3;5 have been examined between the ages of 4 to 6, and compared to the development of a bilingual first (2L1) language learner during the same period of age.
An analysis of the use of noun phrases between the ages of 4 and 6, indicate that there is a progress in the percentage of correct gender attribution to nouns in cL2 acquisition as well as in 2L1 acquisition, but that the cL2 learners differ from the 2L1 learner in the sense that they do not show a linear development that grows in function of their age, as is noticed in the 2L1 learner. Instead the accuracy rate of gender attribution in cL2 increases and decreases during the course of time, showing a certain progress with each increase. At the ages of 5;2 and 5;9, the cL2 children reach a percentage of correct gender attribution that surpasses the accuracy rate of the 2L1 learner at the age of 5:9. Thus, showing that it is possible for cL2 learners with an AOA at 3;5 years, to reach the level of a 2L1 learner, after having been exposed to French during approximately 2 years. However, this high level of gender attribution is immediately succeeded by a decline in accuracy rate in both cL2 children.
During the examined period of development, the cL2 learners tend to overuse each singular article (le, la, un, une) at a certain moment of time, possibly causing the constant increases and decreases in accuracy rate. This distinct overuse of each article suggests that they “try out” each article on the nouns in their repertoire, which could be a strategy to discover the right gender of the nouns. The overuse of articles is less evident during periods of higher accuracy rate in gender attribution.
Both groups of learners use masculine determiners more often but with a lower accuracy rate, while they are more successful in the attribution of grammatical gender to masculine nouns than feminine nouns during their development, which can depend on the fact that masculine nouns are more common and have more certain phonetic predictability. This suggests that cL2 learners with an AOA of 3;5 are also sensitive to clues in the linguistic environment. However, compared to the 2L1 child, the cL2 children show less sensibility to the phonetic clues of individual nouns. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4446713
- author
- Günes, Azize LU
- supervisor
-
- Anita Thomas LU
- organization
- alternative title
- The development of grammatical gender in French: a longitudinal and comparative study of gender attribution among two successive bilingual children and one simultaneous bilingual child from the age of 4 to 6
- course
- FRAK01 20141
- year
- 2014
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Grammatical gender, French, development of grammar, gender attribution, gender agreement, cL2, 2L1, AOA, LAD, noun phrase, longitudinal study
- language
- French
- id
- 4446713
- date added to LUP
- 2014-05-28 09:46:16
- date last changed
- 2014-05-28 09:46:16
@misc{4446713,
abstract = {{This paper deals with the development of gender attribution in French in child second (cL2) language acquisition. Recordings of two Swedish speaking children with an AOA at the age of 3;5 have been examined between the ages of 4 to 6, and compared to the development of a bilingual first (2L1) language learner during the same period of age.
An analysis of the use of noun phrases between the ages of 4 and 6, indicate that there is a progress in the percentage of correct gender attribution to nouns in cL2 acquisition as well as in 2L1 acquisition, but that the cL2 learners differ from the 2L1 learner in the sense that they do not show a linear development that grows in function of their age, as is noticed in the 2L1 learner. Instead the accuracy rate of gender attribution in cL2 increases and decreases during the course of time, showing a certain progress with each increase. At the ages of 5;2 and 5;9, the cL2 children reach a percentage of correct gender attribution that surpasses the accuracy rate of the 2L1 learner at the age of 5:9. Thus, showing that it is possible for cL2 learners with an AOA at 3;5 years, to reach the level of a 2L1 learner, after having been exposed to French during approximately 2 years. However, this high level of gender attribution is immediately succeeded by a decline in accuracy rate in both cL2 children.
During the examined period of development, the cL2 learners tend to overuse each singular article (le, la, un, une) at a certain moment of time, possibly causing the constant increases and decreases in accuracy rate. This distinct overuse of each article suggests that they “try out” each article on the nouns in their repertoire, which could be a strategy to discover the right gender of the nouns. The overuse of articles is less evident during periods of higher accuracy rate in gender attribution.
Both groups of learners use masculine determiners more often but with a lower accuracy rate, while they are more successful in the attribution of grammatical gender to masculine nouns than feminine nouns during their development, which can depend on the fact that masculine nouns are more common and have more certain phonetic predictability. This suggests that cL2 learners with an AOA of 3;5 are also sensitive to clues in the linguistic environment. However, compared to the 2L1 child, the cL2 children show less sensibility to the phonetic clues of individual nouns.}},
author = {{Günes, Azize}},
language = {{fre}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Le développement du genre grammatical en français: étude longitudinale et comparative sur l’attribution du genre chez deux enfants bilingues successifs et un enfant bilingue simultané âgés de 4 à 6 ans}},
year = {{2014}},
}