Devoted to recent work on French in applied linguistics, this dense work covers a wide selection of topics from contributors all over the world. Ayoun has brought together theoretical approaches to the analysis of second language (L2) development among learners of French, descriptive overviews of subfields in French applied linguistics, and work undertaken in less familiar contexts that may provide new perspectives even for well-read scholars of French applied linguistics.
Several chapters that consider theoretical topics in the acquisition of French as a L2 provide a succinct literature review followed by an empirical study. This effective format allows the authors to move from theory to practice, illustrating both the relevant theoretical perspective and its application to real-world data from learners. Such contributions include Herschensohn's chapter on functional categories in L2 French, Warga's chapter on interlanguage pragmatics, and Ayoun's chapter on the acquisition of gender and agreement in L2 French. Dekydtspotter, Anderson, and Sprouse present a research paradigm developed to examine the syntax-semantics interface in L2 French interlanguage and review several studies undertaken using this method.
Other contributions synthesize data from various sources in an attempt to clearly identify the specific challenges faced by learners of L2 French. These chapters consider details of the acquisition process in light of learner-external and learner-internal factors. Considering French phonology, Hannahs points out that learners are inevitably confronted with variation—particularly, geographic variation—in their contact with spoken French. Such variation must be taken into account as a challenge inherent in identifying and acquiring salient aspects of French phonology. Dewaele considers the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in L2 French, providing an overview of studies that have addressed interlanguage variation. In addition to pronunciation, morphosyntactic (omission of the negative particle ne, pronouns of address, nous vs. on), syntactic (interrogative structures), and lexical variants have been examined in the discourse of learners. Researchers have observed that nonnative speakers tend to deviate from native speaker norms, but Dewaele argues that the reasons for such variation may be due only in part to competence; performance factors as well as personal variables may also play a role in the observed output of learners of French. MacIntyre, Clement, and Noels also consider personal factors as they examine how affective variables may play a role in the SLA process.
In the chapter most relevant to SLA studies beyond L2 French, Myles presents a stimulating argument for the utility of corpus linguistics in SLA research. She argues that electronic corpora are useful for finding patterns of language use in large datasets, in addition to the fact that such corpora allow for data sharing as well as word-based and category-based analysis once a corpus has been coded. Finally, she explains the development of the recently created French learner language oral corpora database and illustrates her claims for the efficacy of corpus research with samples extracted from this database. The arguments and examples are carefully constructed and abundantly clear; SLA researchers would do well to heed her advice and advance the field by developing more—and more varied—large-scale learner corpora.
Moving away from learners' L2 French, several chapters consider the role of French in specific contexts. Lodge provides an overview of the history of French from a sociolinguistic perspective, whereas Train, taking a contemporary viewpoint, discusses foreign language ideology and its relation to pedagogy in the classroom context. Tuller, Blondel, and Niederberger consider bilingual development in French and French sign language. Mather presents models of creole genesis as well as evidence from various French creoles that have been used to support these models. Sonaiya discusses issues in French applied linguistics in West Africa, and Caldas provides a narrative that addresses French in Louisiana. Many of these chapters provide interesting overviews of work outside the field of SLA in its strictest sense, but they may prove informative to researchers who are unfamiliar with these particular contexts.
Although some of the chapters would be interesting and appropriate for a beginning graduate course in French linguistics, others are quite specialized and would prove challenging to students without a solid background in the subfield under discussion. All in all, with its broad range of timely topics and qualified authors, this book is certainly a valuable addition to the resources available in French applied linguistics.
