Social and learner-specific factors in the acquisition of nativelike phonetic contrasts by study abroad students in Paris, France

Nicholas, Jessica Amanda

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/100914 Copy

Description

Title

Social and learner-specific factors in the acquisition of nativelike phonetic contrasts by study abroad students in Paris, France

Author(s)

Nicholas, Jessica Amanda

Issue Date

2018-03-27

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

• Fagyal, Zsuzsanna
• Mroz, Aurore

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Fagyal, Zsuzsanna

Committee Member(s)

• Escobar, Anna Maria
• Koven, Michèle
• Roy, Joseph

Department of Study

French and Italian

Discipline

French

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

French, study abroad, sociolinguistics, second language acquisition, phonology, nasal vowels

Abstract

This dissertation explores the influence of the social and learner-specific aspects of the study abroad experience on learners’ developing nativelike phonology, overall proficiency, and motivation for second language learning. Its guiding research questions draw on theory and methodologies of both sociophonetics and second language acquisition. This research examines to what extent the attitudes and motivations of American university students studying in Paris influence their acquisition of the previously documented counter-clockwise rotation of nasal vowels in Northern Metropolitan French. Participants in this study were twelve students from an American university who participated in a study abroad program in Paris for one semester. The study employs a battery of qualitative and quantitative instruments (in a mixed methods design) to monitor students’ attitudes and motivations, French proficiency, ideologies about the host community, contact with the French language in the host community, and locally-specific nasal vowel perception. These instruments included a cloze test and an elicited imitation test for proficiency, a battery of motivational and attitudinal questionnaires, questionnaires about participants’ language backgrounds and contact with the target language, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, and a nasal vowel perception experiment that was compared to the results of a native speaker control group. Results show that most participants were more likely to improve in their locally-specific nasal vowel perception if they demonstrated positive attitudes about their local host community, had relatively high proficiency levels, lived with a well-matched host family, spent more time interacting and reading in French, and spent less time interacting in English during the study abroad program. These results suggest that dialect-specific phonological acquisition may be influenced by a learner’s motivation to identify with the host community.

Graduation Semester

2018-05

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/100914

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2018 Jessica Nicholas

Owning Collections