Teaching French Linguistics to students of French: aims, methods and outcomes

Glyn HicksGlyn.Hicks@soton.ac.uk

University of Southampton, Modern Languages

Background to the presentation

Students of Modern Languages (unlike Linguistics or JH Language & Linguistics students) are less likely to have chosen specifically to do linguistics.

Challenge: not only must the content of linguistics courses/modules be relevant to the interests and needs of language learners (see Treffers-Daller 2003), but our teaching methods may need to explicitly demonstrate this relevance. The aim is for language students to feel the relevance for themselves, not just to be told about it.

UG Linguistics at Southampton

UG Students choose a French, German, Spanish degree (with combined honours options)

For all students, Linguistics modules are options within a languages degree

Some students opt for a programme with a named Linguistics component (French Linguistic Studies)

Where possible, Linguistics modules are open to all students, without prerequisites

Module: Exploring French Linguistics

Single semester Year 2 UG module on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the French language

Description and analysis on the levels of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax

Core for BA programmes in the ‘French Linguistic Studies’ pathway

Optional for all other BA programmes in French

No Linguistics prerequisite

Recognising diversity of the cohort

Treffers-Daller (2003): Language students and JH Language & Linguistics students have different needs in terms of linguistics

Due to the flexibility of the programme this cohort does not divide so easily, containing essentially both types of student and a range in between

Result: a tension between teaching topics that will be of practical benefit to language learners and topics that will engage students who have experience of linguistics; choosing one or the other cannot be the answer.

Recognising the common ground

Nevertheless, all the students are likely to:

have English as L1

have broadly similar competence in French as an L2

have learnt French in very similar settings and from a traditional school perspective

be about to go on a year abroad to a francophone country

Capitalising on the common ground

We can level the playing field by:

Employing comparisons between the behavior of English and French

Recognising and reconceptualising familiar/common language difficulties for L1 English learners

Using traditional grammar treatments as a point of departure for working towards alternative linguistic treatments.

Shifting from practical to theoretical

One way of managing the requirement to show practical benefits of linguistics to language learners is to demonstrate them early on, and gradually shift emphasis towards more theoretical matters.

The structure that follows first introduces topics that are clearly useful but often not covered in language classes (phonetics and phonology) before extending the approach to show that it can replace arbitrary stipulations with principled generalisations and explanations.

Phonetics

An articulatory account of the sounds of French may help to develop awareness of own pronunciation in terms of:

Sound systems; monophthong vs. diphthong vowels; nasal vowels, etc.

Individual sounds; [e] vs. English [eɪ], etc.

Phoneme contrasts not observed in L1; [y] vs. [u], [ø] vs. [œ], etc.

Phonology

Introducing relevant phonological properties demonstrates other factors that determine accent, e.g.

Influence of phonological position on realisation of sounds; use/omission of [ə]; [e] vs. [ɛ] etc.

We start to introduce principled phonological ‘rules’ – both as the outcome of a linguistic investigation, and also for practical benefit to allow students to develop pronunciation.

Morphology

We can demonstrate that French morphology looks very different across written and spoken codes; inflection can be analysed in alternative ways from traditional approaches. E.g.:

Regularities in verb stems only emerge when their phonological forms are considered (and written forms or ER/IR/RE endings are ignored)

The masculine form of adjectives is derived from the feminine form by removing a consonant (not vice versa, and adding an ‘e’)

Syntax

A syntactic approach reveals how a range of apparently different word order differences can be given a unified explanation. The Inflection head position attracts different items in English and French, explaining for example:

The position of adverbs with respect to verbs

The position of certain object pronouns

The position of negative elements

The behaviour of verbs in inversion contexts

Syntax

Tu ne le regardes jamais vs. I never watch it

You NEG it watch never

Summary

For each topic, there is always a familiar starting point (an L2 problem, traditional grammar approach, etc.)

Shift in the nature of the coverage across the individual topics from a comprehensive grounding (phonetics/phonology) towards the ‘highlights’ (morphology and syntax)

Shift in focus from the obviously practical to a theoretical understanding

Some broader aims

Looking beyond their immediate study, this approach should help students to:

capitalise on the linguistic data they are exposed to during the year abroad (reflecting on register, variation, etc.)

reflect on their own language skills beyond the degree (when there is no more instruction)

understand that the ‘mysteries’ of foreign languages can be explained and mastered

Conclusion

Language students are likely to expect that linguistics can impact on their competence or performance in the L2

Much of the potential impact is not direct or immediately identifiable. This suggests a development from directly applicable elements of linguistics at the outset towards the less directly (but no less) applicable.

The reasons we study and teach linguistics to language students are complex and varied

References

Hornsby, D. (2003) ‘Starting from scratch: French linguistics courses at Kent’. In LLAS Occasional Papers, October, 11–12. Southampton: LLAS Subject Centre

Rowlett, P. (2002) ‘Principles of programme design: joint honours: linguistics and a modern foreign language’. In Web guide to good practice in teaching and learning in languages, linguistics and area studies. Southampton: LLAS Subject Centre

Rowlett, P. (2004) ‘Teaching linguistics to students of modern languages’. Lecture at the LAGB Workshop, University of Surrey Roehampton, August 2004.

Treffers-Daller, J. (2003) ‘Variation in teaching: two perspectives on teaching linguistics’ LLAS Occasional Papers, October, 12–14. Southampton: LLAS Subject Centre