LITERATURE REVIEW

The study of ne use/non-use conducted by Rehner and Mougeon (Reference Rehner and Mougeon1999) focused on Grade 9 and 12 French immersion students and found that these learners were far from approximating native norms in terms of their frequency of non-use of the negative particle ne. They omitted ne only 28% of the time compared to the highly frequent or nearly categorical rates of native speakers, namely 99.5% of the time for speakers of Quebec French (Sankoff and Vincent, Reference Sankoff, Vincent and Sankoff1980), 98.5% of the time for native speakers of Ontario French (Sandy, Reference Sandy1997), and 63% of the time for native speakers of French from France (Ashby, Reference Ashby1981). The immersion students’ rate of ne non-use was also markedly lower than that of other groups of second language learners, for example Irish learners of French – 50% (Regan, Reference Regan, Bayley and Preston1996, Reference Regan2004); American learners of French – over 63% for learners with extended extra-curricular exposure to French (Sax, Reference Sax2003); and Anglophone Montrealers – 89% (Thibault and Sankoff, Reference Thibault and Sankoff1997). What Rehner and Mougeon highlight in this latter finding is the greater levels of exposure to French outside of the school context that the Irish, American, and Montreal L2 learners had compared to the immersion students. The Irish learners participated in a year-long study-abroad experience in France, the American learners had between eight months and four years of extra-curricular exposure to French, while the Anglophone Montrealers live in a bilingual community and have ample opportunities to interact with native speakers of Quebec French in their daily lives.

This key role of exposure to native spoken French for the Irish, American, and Montreal L2 learners was echoed in Rehner and Mougeon's findings for different subsets of the immersion students. Higher frequencies of ne non-use in the immersion students’ speech were correlated with several measures of increased exposure to native spoken French both outside and within the school context, namely with students having the longest stays with a Francophone family (GoldVarb factor effects: no time = 0.40 versus over two weeks = 0.75), the most frequent use of the French language media (no use = 0.45 versus occasional use = 0.57), and the most schooling in French (0–25% schooling in French = 0.49 versus 40% and over schooling in French = 0.59). The authors suggested that these patterns reflected the greater likelihood of being exposed to ne non-use in situations outside the classroom, either in extra-curricular settings or in school hallways.

Higher levels of ne non-use were also found for those immersion students of working class backgrounds (middle class = 0.44 versus working class = 0.62) and for students in Grade 9 (Grade 12 = 0.44 versus Grade 9 = 0.56), with the former result being attributed to the students’ ability to infer the social value of the variant based on in-class treatment and the latter finding being attributed to the inherent complexity of a two-pronged negation proving especially difficult for younger, less experienced learners. A negative correlation with ne non-use was found for students who spoke a Romance language at home as compared to those students speaking English or ‘other’ languages at home (Romance = 0.30 versus English = 0.47 versus ‘other’ = 0.67), a finding the authors explained by highlighting the use of a non-deletable pre-verbal negator in Italian and Spanish, the two Romance languages spoken at home by the students. No correlation was found between the immersion students’ use of ne and formal interview topics and their deletion of ne and informal interview topics, a finding the authors attributed to the subtlety of that particular type of measure of (in)formality.Footnote ³

Finally, in terms of the effect of linguistic factors, Rehner and Mougeon found that the immersion students omitted ne more often with post-verbal negators other than pas (pas = 0.48 versus ‘other’ post-verbal negators = 0.77), a finding they linked to the relative infrequency of the ‘other’ post-verbals as compared to pas and the resulting desire on the part of the students to simplify the complex negation more often in unfamiliar constructions than in familiar ones.

Concerning the previous studies of other sociolinguistic variables in the speech of the same university FSL learners examined in the current research, Rehner and Beaulieu (Reference Rehner and Beaulieu2008) investigated their use of variants to express a consequence, while F. Mougeon and Rehner (Reference Mougeon, Nadasdi, Rehner, Martineau, Mougeon, Nadasdi and Tremblay2009) documented their mastery of first person plural pronouns. In relation to the use of expressions of consequence, Rehner and Beaulieu investigated the university FSL learners’ use of donc, alors, (ça) fait que, and so and found that the students used the hyper-formal variant donc 25% of the time, the formal variant alors 73% of the time, the mildly-marked informal variant so 2% of the time and did not use the vernacular variant (ça) fait que—elles ne parlent pas le français donc c’était moi qui parlais ‘they don't speak French therefore I was speaking’; je n'aimais pas le programme alors j'ai changé mon majeur ‘I didn't like the program therefore I changed my major’; and je travaille aussi so j'ai un peu d'argent ‘I work too therefore I have a little money’.

Compared to high school FSL immersion learners in a study by Rehner and Mougeon (Reference Rehner and Mougeon2003), the university level students make greater use of donc than do the high school students (25% versus 15%), less frequent use of alors (73% versus 78%), and less use of so (2% versus 7%). Neither group of FSL learners used (ça) fait que. Compared to the findings of research on the use of these variants by adult native speakers of Quebec French (Dessureault-Dober, Reference Dessureault-Dober1974) and by adolescent speakers of Ontario French from the community of Hawkesbury (Mougeon, Nadasdi, Rehner, Reference Mougeon, Nadasdi, Rehner, Martineau, Mougeon, Nadasdi and Tremblay2009) the university learners, and for that matter the high school immersion students, are out of step with L1 Canadian French: (ça) fait que was used 55% of the time by the native speakers of Quebec French and 85% by the speakers of Ontario French, alors 43% for Quebec French and 0% for Ontario French, and donc only 2% for Quebec French and 8% for Ontario French. According to Dessureault-Dober, so is not a feature of Quebec French, but according to Mougeon, Nadasdi and Rehner it is used 7% of the time by the adolescent speakers of Ontario French from Hawkesbury.

In terms of the correlations between extra-linguistic factors and the university learners’ use of alors as compared to donc, Rehner and Beaulieu (Reference Rehner and Beaulieu2008) found that greater exposure to French in the school context favoured the use of alors (secondary schooling in English = 0.45 versus French/mixed = 0.96; graduation from core French program = 0.32 versus French immersion program = 0.57), while greater exposure to the language in extra-curricular settings displayed a negative correlation with alors in favour of donc (no time in a Francophone environment = 0.65 versus semester or more = 0.09). The authors explain these patterns by pointing out that while the students attended school in Canada where research has found the most frequent of the variants to be alors, their stays in French-speaking environments have been almost exclusively in Europe, where they suggest that future research would find donc to be the more frequently used variant, a pattern of variant choice they suggest is being picked up on by the students. In keeping with the findings of previous research on the use of markers of consequence by French immersion high school students (Rehner and Mougeon, Reference Rehner and Mougeon2003), Rehner and Beaulieu found that it is the female students who show a clear preference for alors (female = 0.61 versus male = 0.02). However, in contrast to the study by Rehner and Mougeon, Rehner and Beaulieu found that those students from a Romance language background did not favour alors on the basis of their familiarity with allora as expected, but rather showed a very strong preference for donc (Romance language background = 0.10).

Finally, in relation to the use of so versus donc/alors, Rehner and Beaulieu (Reference Rehner and Beaulieu2008) found that use of this variant was correlated with two distinct student groups. First, so was favoured by those students who had the least exposure to French (core French = 0.79 versus immersion = 0.36; first year = 0.81 versus fourth year = 0.21; time in a Francophone environment was a knockout with use of so only in the two bottom categories with less time spent and no variation in the top category of a semester or more with 100% alors/donc). The authors suggested that it was those students with the least amount of exposure to French who were most likely to use the English variant so in place of its French counterparts due to lack of familiarity with the French variants. However, the second group of students who favoured so were those students who had the highest levels of French or mixed French/English schooling at the secondary level (French/mixed = 0.96 versus English = 0.45). The authors explained that this French/mixed schooling had taken place primarily in Ontario French-medium high schools where the students would have had exposure to Franco-Ontarians who use so as an integrated part of their spoken French.

Turning to the study of first person plural pronouns, F. Mougeon and Rehner (Reference Mougeon, Nadasdi, Rehner, Martineau, Mougeon, Nadasdi and Tremblay2009) examined the use of nous, on, nous-autres on, and nous on to mean ‘we’ in the speech of the same FSL university students. The authors found that the hyper-formal variant nous was used 25% of the time (chaque été ma sœur et moi nous départons pour la Russe ‘every summer my sister and I we leave for Russia’) and the mildly-marked informal variant on was used 75% of the time (ma famille on est ah anglicanes ‘my family we are Anglican’), while the vernacular variants nous-autres on and nous on were used only once each. Compared to the high school FSL immersion learners in a study by Rehner, Mougeon, and Nadasdi (Reference Rehner, Mougeon and Nadasdi2003), we see that the university level students make markedly less frequent use of nous than do the high school students (25% versus 44%) and sharply greater use of on (75% versus 54%). Both groups of FSL learners made nil to highly marginal use of the vernacular variants. Compared to the findings of research on the use of these variants by native speakers of Quebec French (Laberge, Reference Laberge1977), we see that the university learners, and for that matter the high school immersion students, are again out of step with L1 Quebec French: on was used 98.4% of the time by the native speakers and nous was used only 1.6% of the time.Footnote ⁴ The vernacular variants, according to Blondeau (Reference Blondeau2001), were used with a combined frequency of just under 3%.

Concerning correlations with linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, F. Mougeon and Rehner (Reference Mougeon, Nadasdi, Rehner, Martineau, Mougeon, Nadasdi and Tremblay2009) found that the university FSL students’ use of on compared to nous was associated with several measures of greater exposure to and use of French (French immersion = 0.59 versus core French = 0.30; use of French at levels equal to English = 0.93 versus rare use of French = 0.56 versus no use of French 0.19; French/mixed elementary schooling = 0.80 versus English elementary schooling = 0.45; and a semester or more in a Francophone environment = 0.84 versus 2–3 weeks = 0.53 versus no time = 0.41). In keeping with past research on FSL learners in high school immersion programs (Rehner, Mougeon, and Nadasdi, Reference Rehner, Mougeon and Nadasdi2003), the authors found that the university level FSL students adhered to the linguistic factor examined in previous L1 research, namely that on was most strongly associated with referents that were non-specific and unrestricted (e.g., all of humanity, people in general), while nous was most strongly associated with referents that were specific and restricted (i.e., a limited group of people who the speaker can count and name – e.g., the members of the speaker's family) – (non-specific/unrestricted = 0.72 versus specific/restricted = 0.45). In contrast with Rehner et al.'s previous research, F. Mougeon and Rehner found that the extra-linguistic factor of speaking a Romance language at home did not favour the use of nous over on. Instead, students from a Romance language background favoured on more than those students from English speaking homes (Romance = 0.60 versus English = 0.46).

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDENT SAMPLE

The FSL learners under study here are, as mentioned, the same learners as those examined in the research on expressions of consequence and first person plural pronouns described in the literature review above. These learners are enrolled in their first or fourth year of study in undergraduate programs in the Social Sciences or Humanities at a bilingual university in Ontario, Canada. All students at this college are required to take a minimum of one full course at the second year level taught through the medium of their L2 (French in the case of these learners). Since students at this college cannot study exclusively in their L1, all programs offer a variety of courses in both English and French from which students can choose required courses for their major in their L2. As such, each of the fourth-year students in the current study, regardless of their major subject, will have taken courses through the medium of French, while the same cannot yet be said for the first-year learners.

Further details of the characteristics of the speaker sample are provided in Table 1. As can be seen, 52% of these 61 students were enrolled in a high school French immersion program, while 48% had taken core French courses. Among the 52% of students from immersion programs, 6 students had attended either an elementary or secondary French language school. None of the 48% of students who had attended core French courses had ever been enrolled in a French language school or in an immersion program. Participants were considered as former immersion students if they had attended immersion programs or French language schools for longer than regular English schools. As Table 1 also shows, these 61 learners represent both males and females, though there are more females than males (90% versus 10%, respectively), particularly at the fourth-year level, reflecting an uneven sex distribution among the FSL learners in these programs at the college. Their first languages include Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages, but the students are predominantly native speakers of English (73%). Their elementary and high school learning was undertaken primarily in English language schools (91% and 98%, respectively), though, as mentioned above, some students attended French medium schools for either all or part of their prior schooling. Approximately two thirds of the students have never stayed in a Francophone environment, but among the remaining third, some students have had such stays for as long as a semester (three to four months), usually via a ‘study abroad’ program in Europe.

Table 1.

Characteristics of the Student Sample

^†One 1st year former immersion student did not indicate an elementary school language.

Finally, while the levels of overall fluency and grammatical proficiency of these students is not the focus of the current research, it should be noted that these learners, whether former core French or former immersion students, produced longer stretches of sustained speech in their interviews than did the high school French immersion students reported on in the research by Mougeon and his colleagues, despite the fact that the interviews were of the same length and conducted by the same interviewer according to a nearly identical set of questions. Specifically, the average number of words produced during the interviews by the high school French immersion students was approximately 3500 words, while the approximate averages for the university learners were 2300 words for the first-year former core French students, 3200 words for the fourth-year former core French students, 3400 words for the first-year former immersion students, and 4700 words for the fourth-year former immersion students. These numbers show an interesting difference between high school and university learners, between university learners from former core French versus immersion programs, and between first-versus fourth-year university learners. Having said this, it is also important to point out that the university learners continue to make some of the same grammatical errors during the course of their interview that were present in the interviews with the high school immersion learners (e.g., occasional mismatches in agreement between subject and verb, errors in assigning grammatical gender, incorrect verb tense).

HYPOTHESES

Given the findings of previous research related to studies of ne use/non-use by other Ontario FSL learners and related to the use of other sociolinguistic variables by the university level FSL learners under study here, the following hypotheses can be drawn. These hypotheses address the frequency of use/non-use of ne by the university FSL learners, the impact on this use/non-use exerted by various linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, and how the patterns obtained in relation to the above will compare to the results of previous research on high school FSL learners.

• • First, in terms of frequency, one can expect the learners to make frequent use of the mildly-marked informal variant of ne non-use, since these same learners have been shown to make extensive use of the mildly-marked informal variant associated with first person plural subject pronouns, namely on. Further, one can expect that this rate will be higher than that of the high school FSL learners, but at levels not yet approaching native norms. This hypothesis reflects the fact that these university FSL learners outperformed the high school FSL learners in their use of on, but that these levels did not approach native norms.

• • Second, regarding the impact of the linguistic factor, namely the nature of the post-verbal negator, one can expect that the learners will adhere to the same constraint observed by the high school learners, namely they will omit ne more often before less frequent post-verbal negators than before pas. This hypothesis is in keeping with the fact that the university learners observed the same linguistic constraint on nous/on variation as was documented for the high school learners. However, given that this pattern of influence of post-verbal negator is based on degree of difficulty of maintaining a complex two-pronged negation in unfamiliar constructions, it is likely that the degree to which there is a difference between deletion rates before pas and before the other post-verbal negators will be lessened for the university level learners compared to their high school counterparts. This reflects the fact that the university level learners have had more exposure to and practice with the language than have the younger learners and therefore may be more likely to have mastered this dimension of French negation.

• • Third, concerning the influence of extra-linguistic factors measuring exposure to and opportunities to use French, it can be hypothesised that those university level learners with higher scores on these measures will make greater use of the mildly-marked informal variant of ne non-use than will the remaining university learners, as was the case for the university learners in relation to their use of the mildly-marked informal variant on. Further, given that the university learners’ amount of exposure to and opportunities to use French in such settings has been greater than was reported for the high school learners, it can be expected that the degree to which these factors will impact on the non-use of ne will be more marked for the university learners than it was for the high school learners.

• • Finally, in relation to the factor of languages spoken at home, it can be expected that the tendency for students from a Romance language background to strongly favour ne use that was documented for the high school FSL learners will not be found for the university level students. This hypothesis reflects the fact that the expected associations between Romance language background and alors use and nous use found for the high school learners were not found for the university level learners. In fact, based on the high level of correlation between the university level students from a Romance language background and donc and on, one could hypothesize that these students will strongly favour ne deletion.