Tense and aspect in late stages of child L2 acquisition of French

1. Tense and aspect in late stages of child L2 acquisitionof French Maria Kihlstedt UMR CNRS 7114 MoDyCo Université de Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense

2. Background • Child L2 acquisition (cL2) relatively little studied • Do child L2 learners proceed like first language learners or like adults ? • Does successive bilingualism (immersion programs) differ from simultaneous bilingualism (2 L1 from birth?)

3. Study 1, GSK07 • Granfeldt, Schlyter & Kihlstedt 2007: French as cL2, 2L1 and L1 in pre-school children PERLES 24, SOL, Lund university http://person.sol.lu.se/JonasGranfeldt/Perles_24.pdf

4. L2 French in adults : • Initially, two forms in variable use: a short default form (V) or a non-finite long form‘avant, je joue’ then‘il donnE’ (Dietrich et al.1995, Schlyter 1996, 2007). • Marked past reference appears first in passé composé contexts with ‘Aux V-e’, il a donné, il a suivé. The default present form still occurs esp. in imperfective contexts, j’ai fait des promenades, mais il pleut tout le temps (Petra 2) (Schlyter 1996, Kihlstedt 2002) • Later, most past contexts are marked. Clear cases of imparfait, but restricted to était, avait and modals and less frequent than passé composé. (Ayoun, 2002, Devitt 1992, Harley 1992, Bergström,1995, Kihlstedt 1998,2002, Salaberry 1998). 4. Last development: Imparfait with dynamic verbs, pluperfect (Kihlstedt 2002, Howard, 2002)

5. L1 / 2 L1 French • In L1, practically no cases of unmarked past at 4 years for passé composé et imparfait and at 5 years for pluperfect (Fayol 1982, Labelle 1994, Jakubowicz 2003) • In 2L1 Swedish-French, unmarked past between 2 and 4 is practically non-existent (Schlyter 1993, 1995)

6. How do the L2 children score for past tense marking in obligatory contexts in comparison with monolinguals, simultaneous bilinguals and adults learners ?

7. Children studied • Swedish-French Children 5 and 6 years from Lycée Francais St Louis, Stockholm • Swedish as L1 or one of 2L1: • 2 cL2 beginners 5 ys (6 mths expos to French) • 3 cL2 beginners 6 ys (6 mths expos to French) • 2 cL2 advanced 6 ys (2 years exposure to Fr) • 3 2L1 5 ys (simultaneous bilinguals) • 2 2L1 6 ys (simultaneous bilinguals) • Controls: • 2 L1 monolingual French 6 ys

8. 2L1 L1 cL2adv cL2beg

9. Results Study 1 • FL1 children always mark past tense • 2L1 children almost perfect • Beginner cL2 children use tense marking very imperfectly (Schlyter 2007, 2008) • Advanced cL2 children (2-3 ys exp) almost perfect

10. What happens next ? Study 2 • Late child L2 learners attain the same levels as their monolingual peers. • Late child L2 learners follow the same developmental route as that observed for advanced adult L2 • Late child L2 learners level out and fossilize

11. Tense-Aspect in advanced stagesSwedish adults L2 French (Kihlstedt 2002)

12. The Aspect Hypothesis(Andersen &Shirai 1994, Li and Shirai 2000) Claims for French: • Learners first use perfective past marking (le passé composé) on achievements and accomplishments (telic verbs), later with activities and eventually statives • Imperfective past appears later than perfective past, begins with statives, spreads to activities and finally to accomplishments and achievements (Ayoun 2002, Bergström 1995, Bardovi-Harlig & Bergström 1996, Bardovi-Harlig 2005, Harley & Swain 1978, Howard 2002, Salaberry 1998, Kihlstedt 2002, Schlyter 1996)

13. Research questions • Are all past contexts now marked for past? • What past tense forms are used ? • How is imparfait used – with what verbs and for what functions?

14. Children studied

15. Methods • Recordings in French and Swedish: • Conversation about past and future • Picture sequences (Hickmann) • Test questions for habitual and progressive imparfait : Les dernières vacances, qu’est-ce que tu faisais le soir / le matin? Qu’est-ce que vous faisiez dans la classe tout à l’heure quand tu es sorti?

16. Table 1a.Past tense marking L2

17. Table 1b.Past tense marking L1

18. Table 2a.Distribution of past forms L2

19. Table 2b.Distribution of past forms L1

20. Progressive IMP 1 • *INV: alors qu’est-ce que vous étiez en train de faire dans la classe # quand j' étais de l'autre côté?* • CHI: on parlait . (Nancy 2) • INV: alors qu’est ce que vous étiez en train de faire quand j' étais de l' autre côté? • CHI: on a parlé de <ce que je fais> [//] # ce que j' allais faire pendant les grandes vacances. (Lena 2)

21. Progressive IMP 2 • CHI: et il y avait un chose # de pierre et un trou dans ce pierre # qui était à l' envers # sur le toit . • INV:au plafond de la grotte ? • *CHI:oui et au dessus du bassin il il tombait de l' eau vert qui était comme le ketchup vert qui tombait dans le bassin . • *CHI:et le bassin c' était vert de [?] ketchup . • *CHI:et <je> [//] j' ai tombé dans le ketchup vert . (Lena 2)

22. Habitual IMP • INV: alors qu’ est-ce que tu avais l' habitude de faire le matin ? • CHI: me baigner hehe. <je j' ai> [//] je me baignais toutes # les jours . […] et # aussi je prenais des poissons avec un filet .(Lena 2)

23. Unmarked past contexts: • *CHI: et à Paris c' était dix-huit degrès et ça pleut / pleut oui il pleut • INV:il pleuvait ? (Lena 2)

24. Summary of results • Some past contexts remain unmarked after four years of exposure • Substantial L2 development takes place as regards the lexical and semantic diversity of imparfait • Late cL2 = late stages of adult L2 • Late cL2 = L1 in aspectualising of events

25. « The learners’ performance improved for the PC but not for the IMP because of the greater aspectual difficulty and complexity of the IMP that encompasses differenct semantic aspectual values in contrast to the PC which represents only the perfective»   (Ayoun 2004; see also Labeau 2005, Howard 2005, Duperron 2008) • True for adult L2 but not child L2?

26. Sentence completion task (Kihlstedt & Schlyter 2009) INV: Et pendant qu’il marche il se souvient qu’il y a très longtemps alors beaucoup plus petit que maintenant, très souvent… ? Lena : Il peint des petits voitures en rouge. INV: Oui il peignait de petites voitures en rouge. (Lena L2, 9;1) INV: Maintenant le garçon se voit grand. Il pense que dans quelques années une fois grand? Nancy: Il pouv il va il va boire du vin. INV: Oui il boira du vin. (Nancy L2, 8;7)

27. Is cL2 like aL2 or (2)L1? • Morphology and semantics processed differently (Slabakova 2006, Slabakova &Montrul 2002) • Inflectional morphology : L1,2L1 ≠ cL2, aL2 • Aspectual semantics in discourse : L1 = 2L = cL2 ≠ aL2

28. Discourse « accent » in adult L2 • « In brief, each native language has trained its speakers to pay different kinds of attention to events and experiences when talking about them. This training is carried out in childhood and is exceptionnally resistant in adult second language acquisiton » (Slobin 1996, p.23)

29. Acknowledgements • Jean-Luc Montois, Sylvie Renard, Anne Garant for invaluable help in finding and talking to the children. • The children and their parents at Lycée St-Louis, Stockholm

30. THANK YOU! MERCI!