This volume is a collection of 10 chapters that report on various research projects in SLA, all relating to the learning of French or the nature of French second language (L2) interlanguage (IL). Although the use of the descriptor “multidisciplinary” seems a bit of a stretch, a range of specific research questions is addressed, in varying contexts, including the acquisition of French as a L2 or foreign language, in naturalistic or instructional contexts, by speakers of various first languages (L1s) and at beginning or, often, advanced stages of acquisition. Whereas the volume naturally takes its place in what the editor refers to as “the Anglo-Saxon SLA world” (p. viii) with strong representation of the Universal Grammar perspective, there are also contributors working in variationist sociolinguistics and a traditional psycholinguistic framework.
With a few surprising exceptions, the volume is very well edited. One of its qualities, in addition to the extensive bibliographies that accompany each chapter, is the generally thorough and clear exposition of the research questions, theoretical framework, and previous work that relate to each topic. Thus, the volume should be of interest not only to SLA researchers but also to practitioners in French language education and to those who teach research methods. The somewhat inconsistent translation of interlanguage data, when it occurs, might occasionally pose an obstacle to those lacking a thorough knowledge of French, but this varies from chapter to chapter.
In chapter 1, Watorek and Perdue review a number of previous studies and focus on the expression of temporal relations by beginning learners and the expression of spatial relations by advanced learners, situating the data within the learner variety approach. In chapter 2, Hancock and Kirchmeyer contribute to a description of discourse structuring in advanced L2 French by comparing, from a functional perspective, the use of relative clauses in native speaker and advanced nonnative speaker (Swedish L1) discourse. Schlyter's chapter 3 compares data on the use of adverbs in bilingual Swedish-French children and adult native speakers of Swedish acquiring French. Finding clear differences between the children and adults, as in previous studies, Schlyter attempts to place these observations within the well-developed syntactic theory of generative grammar and to weigh in on the question of the nature of the development of functional categories.
Howard's chapter 4 seeks to fill a gap in our knowledge of advanced French IL, specifically with respect to aspectuo-temporal development, by studying the emergence and use of the plus-que-parfait (past perfect tense) in the IL of Irish university learners of French. Howard finds that despite the greater obligatoriness of this tense in French than in English, the data for these learners are similar to that of other studies, namely that the tense emerges late and only when other past tense forms have become stable.
Like the preceding chapter, Myles' chapter 5, on the emergence of morphosyntactic structure, is a model of clarity. Based on a longitudinal study of learners of French within the British school system, the study aims to provide new evidence bearing on the earliest development of the verb phrase. Results include important similarities to children learning French as their L1.
Véronique's chapter 6 investigates syntactic and semantic issues in the acquisition of negation by speakers of Moroccan Arabic compared to other learners of L2 French examined in previous studies. Both of the following chapters deal with the phenomena of gender attribution and agreement. Prodeau reports on several experimental tasks performed by English L1 adults studying French in an institutional setting, seeking to answer the question of why L2 speakers are often unable to use their knowledge of gender when they are speaking. Granfeldt adopts a longitudinal and cross-learner perspective, comparing the acquisition of gender by adult L2 learners (L1 Swedish) and young bilingual (French and Swedish) speakers. Results show sharp differences between these two, with the children showing earlier, more successful acquisition and the adults showing an early default stage characterized by an absence of any gender feature.
Chapter 9 is a sequel to Regan's earlier work on the effects of study abroad on the acquisition of sociolinguistic variables, ne deletion in particular. Here, Regan looks at the status of this variable a year after learners return from study abroad, following a year of continued classroom instruction in the language. Happily, Regan's hypothesis—that the speakers would decolloquialize in this setting—is not supported by the data. Finally, chapter 10, by Towell and Dewaele, investigates the role of psycholinguistic factors in the development of fluency among advanced learners of French. Using Levelt's model of speech production, the authors examine the relationship between declarative and procedural knowledge as reflected in grammaticality judgments and fluency measures, respectively, in a group of L2 adult British learners. Results show, at best, an indirect link between grammatical knowledge in the L2 and L2 fluency, with the latter being more closely linked to fluency in L1.
