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Article published In:
Written Language & Literacy
Vol. 24:1 (2021) ► pp.81–109

Spelling patterns of plural marking and learning trajectories in French taught as a foreign language

 | University of Luxembourg
 | University of Luxembourg
 | University Clermont Auvergne | CNRS 63000 Clermont Ferrand
 | University of Luxembourg | Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse
Although French plural spelling has been studied extensively, the complexity of factors affecting the learning of French plural spelling are not yet fully explained, namely on the level of adjectival and verbal plural. This study investigates spelling profiles of French plural markers of 228 multilingual grade 5 pupils with French taught as a foreign language.
Three analyses on the learner performances of plural spelling in nouns, verbs and pre- and postnominal attributive adjectives were conducted (1) to detect the pupils’ spelling profiles of plural marking on the basis of the performances in the pretest, (2) to test the profiles against two psycholinguistic theories, and (3) to evaluate the impact of the training on each spelling profile in the posttest.
The first analysis confirms the existing literature that pupils’ learning of French plural is not random but ordered and emphasizes the role of the position for adjectives (pre- or postnominal) on correct plural spelling. The second analysis reveals the theoretical difficulties of predicting spelling of adjectival and verbal plural. The third analysis shows that strong and poor spellers both benefit from a morphosyntactic training and provides transparency and traceability of the learning trajectories.
Together, the descriptive analyses reveal clear patterns of intra-individual spelling profiles. They point to a need for further research in those areas that have empirically provided the most inconsistent results to date and that are not supported by the theories: verbs and adjectives.
Keywords: French, spelling, written plural, silent orthographic marker, syntactic marker, processability theory, cognitive learning based theory
Article outline
  • 1.French plural markers without correspondence in phonology
    • 1.1Plural spelling development in French in L1 and L2 learners
    • 1.2The particularities of adjective plural
    • 1.3Teaching French plural spelling
  • 2.The present study
    • 2.1Learning theory 1: Learning based theory (LBT)
    • 2.2Learning theory 2: Processability theory (PT)
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Materials and procedure
      • 3.2.1The training program
      • 3.2.2The pretest and posttest
      • 3.2.3Test design
      • 3.2.4Spelling patterns
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Individual spelling patterns of plural agreement (prior to training, pretest)
    • 4.2Compatibility of the plural spelling patterns with the learning theories LBT and PT
    • 4.3Impact of the training: Intra-individual spelling patterns of plural agreement
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Individual spelling patterns of plural agreement
    • 5.2Compatibility of the plural spelling patterns with the learning theories
    • 5.3Impact of the training: Intra-individual spelling patterns of plural agreement (posttest)
    • 5.4Theoretical and practical implications
    • 5.5Limitations and perspectives of the present study
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 10 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00048.wet
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