The description of second language acquisition by adult immigrants in a natural setting raises specific methodological questions. This paper attempts to clarify some of these problems using the European Project data (Perdue, 1982) in three different areas: (1) the acquisition and use of the over-generalized marker <se> (c'est in target French); (2) the acquisition of reference to time; and (3) the acquisition of reference to space by adult Spanish speakers in France.

It has been observed that learners of French as a second language at different stages of the acquisition process tend to use forms and rules that are comparable to those of French-based creoles or pid-ginized French. The more advanced learners employ rules and forms akin to dialectal variants of French or to French as spoken in isolated areas such as Old Mines, Missouri. The learners produce non-standard forms considered unacceptable by the purist tradition of French grammarians. It has been noted that the observed similarities between interlanguage, regional dialects, etc., occur in given “sensitive” zones of French morphology and syntax such as the use of verbs and auxiliaries, morphology and placement of clitic pronouns, over-generalization of given prepositions, those very areas which are problematic in the acquisition of French as L1. Since the 17th century, these have been the object of a strict codification by purist grammarians who disregard actual usage in various dialects. It is hypothesized that such similarities between the interlanguage forms at various stages of development, French regional dialects, and areas of conflict over the elaboration of norms in standard French can be partly accounted for if one considers the dynamics of the target language. To explain the functioning of this process, we posit a “system” comprising the learner-speaker, the specific linguistic system itself (including pressure to conform to the norm), and the interactions with native speakers. Through self-regulation, this system devises solutions which perforce pertain to that common area which in any language is at the crossroads of variation, language change, and acquisition. This hypothetical zone (called français zéro by Chaudenson, 1984) is the point of convergence of the self-regulating processes which are responsible for the formal and functional similarities between French-based interlanguages, language change, norm conflicts in the standardization of French, and the creolization process.

In this article the foreign language classroom is argued to be a legitimate and important arena for educational and linguistic research. First, a survey of the research which has been conducted in France on the analysis of the foreign language classroom is presented. Secondly, two research projects currently underway at the University of Paris VIII are discussed. The first looks at the foreign language classroom through diary studies, and the second, through classroom analysis by teachers and pupils.

In this article, the bilingual speech of members of Spanish, Portuguese, and Algerian communities in France is examined. After having conducted a systematic inventory of all the instances of code-switching in the corpus, the authors propose a model for their classification. This is followed by a quantitative analysis of a sample of interactions. Finally, a qualitative analysis is presented which aims to determine the different functions fulfilled by code-switching according to the speaker's intentions and the dynamics of the interaction.

In this article the relationship between the source language (Spanish) and the target language (French) in the construction of lexis during the first phases of target language acquisition is examined from a psycholinguistic perspective. After an analysis of two case studies, it is hypothesized that there are two types of approaches to the construction of lexis used by Hispanophones learning French: systematic and non-systematic.

This article describes processes of facilitation involved in exolingual conversation, i.e., interaction between partners who are dynamically adjusting their respective linguistic performances. The type of exolingual conversation examined in this paper is that between foreign learners and native speakers.

The foreign learner's linguistic competence, known as interlanguage, and his performance, which I refer to as intertalk, give rise to certain strategies in exolingual conversation. By studying these strategies, linguists can describe communicatively competent behavior in second language acquisition.

I conclude that such behavior is dynamic and creative, incapable of being described and defined within predetermined structures.

This study deals with the acquisition of narrative competence in French as a second language by an Arabic-speaking migrant worker in interaction with a target language speaker. In particular, it is devoted to an analysis of the role played by certain forms like voilà and il [madi] / moi je [di] in narratives. On the basis of a significant difference in the occurrence of these forms in successive encounters in the course of a longitudinal study, hypotheses are formulated about the polyfunctional uses of voilà, il [modi] / moi je [di] as a way for the learner to differentiate the narrative planes, to mark the chronology of events in the narrative, or to introduce quoted speech.

This paper analyzes the characteristics of exolinguistic communication, a type of asymmetric communication. The data base contains five dialogues between French speakers and Latin American Spanish speakers. The subjects did not have any knowledge of French before their arrival in France. The recording situations were as authentic and varied as possible.

In exolinguistic communication two speakers actively work together with varying degrees of cooperation and complementary strategies to achieve mutual understanding. In this study we examine the role of repetition, simplification, and facilitation (breaking up information, paraphrases, types of questions which warn of difficulties, etc.) and analyze the characteristics of asymmetric exchanges made up of three- or four-turn sequences which allow speakers to check understanding and avoid misunderstanding.

This leads to several hypotheses on natural second language acquisition and, more specifically, on the “guidance” offered by the native speaker and on the role of metalinguistic activities.

Pages 125, 126, 128: Columbia should read Colombia

Pages 216, 220: Cambridge, MA should read Cambridge [England]