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VOT production, writing skills, and general proficiency in multilingual learners of French: approaching the intertwinement of different linguistic levels

  • Christoph Gabriel ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Thorsten Klinger and Irina Usanova ORCID logo
Published/Copyright: September 1, 2021

Abstract

We investigate the interrelations between pronunciation and writing skills in French as a foreign language produced by two groups of bilingual learners (German-Russian; German-Turkish) and a monolingually raised German control group (each n = 10). As an indicator of the learners’ pronunciation skills, we refer to a perceptually relevant acoustic feature of stop production, “Voice Onset Time” (VOT). Our aim is to explore whether the learners’ proficiency at the level of pronunciation is mirrored in (1) their global language competencies and (2) their writing skills. We applied an extreme-cases approach based on the learners’ VOT productions in L3 French. Both positive and negative deviations from the French target pronunciation were found in all groups. In orthography, bilinguals showed lower correctness scores as compared to monolinguals. The VOT measurements yielded more target-like results for the bilinguals. For the monolinguals, the results reveal no correlation between pronunciation and general language proficiency as well as writing skills. In the bilinguals the investigated phenomena were more interrelated. Our analysis of semi-focused interviews conducted with all participants revealed that more target-like VOT productions correlate with a greater degree of phonological and multilingual awareness. This suggests that phonological and cross-linguistic awareness should be fostered in today’s multilingual classrooms.


Corresponding author: Christoph Gabriel, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Romanisches Seminar, Jakob-Welder-Weg 18, 55128 Mainz, Germany, E-mail:

Funding source: The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Award Identifier / Grant number: MEZ (01JM1406)

Acknowledgments

We thank Marion Krause for her collaboration at an earlier stage of the project as well as an anonymous reviewer for the careful reading of our manuscript and insightful comments.

  1. Research funding: We acknowledge the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for funding the project “Mehrsprachigkeitsentwicklung im Zeitverlauf” (2014–2019; MEZ 01JM1406).

Appendix

Spelling errors, error types, text length (in words), and error rates (in %) of the analyzable data produced by the three learner groups GER (n = 8), RU/GER (n = 5), and TUR/GER (n = 7). “High” performers are highlighted in light, “low” performers in dark grey.

Group ID Error Target Errors type(s) SEL SEQ OM ADD CAP JSS n Text length Error rate
GER 1 allemagne Allemagne CAP 2 1 1 4 92 4.35
chauterie charcuterie OM OM
oefes œufs OM ADD
2 petit déjourner petit-déjeuner SEL SEL JSS 2 1 1 1 1 6 128 4.69
Allemange Allemagne SEQ
choose chose ADD
example exemple SEL
coures courses OM
3 prepare préparé SEL SEL 1 1 1 3 14 21.43
petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS
allemagne Allemagne CAP
4 petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 1 1 2 33 6.06
allemagne Allemagne CAP
7 cafè café SEL 1 1 98 1.02
8 petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 1 1 1 2 5 55 9.09
allemagne Allemagne CAP
chooses choses ADD
petit déjourne petit-déjeuner JSS OM SEL
9 ou SEL 4 1 1 6 196 3.06
mett met ADD
different différent SEL
ois œufs SEL OM
preparer préparer SEL
10 allemagne Allemagne SEL 1 1 1 3 55 5.45
super marché supermarché JSS
oefs œufs OM
Total 9 1 6 4 4 6 30 83.9 6.9
RU/GER 1 petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 2 1 4 1 1 9 111 8.11
allemagne Allemagne CAP
caffee café SEL ADD ADD
choose chose ADD
casse caisse ADD
oeu eau SEL SEQ
aussie aussi ADD
4 petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 2 2 1 1 6 97 6.19
allemagne Allemagne CAP
achete achète SEL
coffée café SEL ADD ADD
caffée café ADD ADD
6 petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 2 1 1 4 69 5.8
ofeus œufs SEL
prefere préféré SEL SEL SEL
cafée café ADD
7 petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 3 5 2 1 11 103 10.68
juis jus ADD
caffée café ADD
primierment premièrement SEL SEL OM
écrions écrivons OM
list liste OM
oblier oublier OM
fair faire OM
supermarche supermarché SEL
achéte achète SEL
8 prepares prépare SEL ADD 3 3 1 1 8 76 10.53
achetes achète SEL ADD
frommage fromage ADD
preparer préparer SEL
petit dejeuner petit-déjeuner JSS
allemagne Allemagne CAP
Total 12 1 5 12 3 5 38 79.2 8.3
TU/GER 2 allemande Allemagne CAP SEL SEQ 1 2 1 4 43 9.3
eoufs œufs SEQ
4 petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 3 1 1 2 1 8 120 6.67
allemagne Allemagne CAP
achete achètes SEL ADD
list liste OM
cuilleré cuillère SEL SEL
cafe café SEL
Jus jus CAP
5 supermarche supermarché SEL 3 1 1 5 47 10.64
caffé café ADD
apres après SEL
prepare prépares SEL OM
6 petit dejeuner petit-déjeuner JSS 2 1 2 1 1 7 75 9.33
allemagne Allemagne CAP
âcheter acheter SEL
frommage fromage ADD
cafée café ADD
cours courses OM OM
sûr sur SEL
7 list liste OM 2 1 3 39 7.69
alle allé SEL
a à SEL
8 oef œufs OM OM 2 1 3 30 10
jeu jus SEL SEQ
9 oef œuf OM 1 1 2 1 5 63 7.94
fromache fromage SEL ADD
cafée café ADD
petit déjeuner petit-déjeuner JSS
Total 14 2 6 6 4 3 35 54.4 8.8

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Received: 2021-02-12
Accepted: 2021-08-09
Published Online: 2021-09-01
Published in Print: 2021-11-25

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