Taking a multi-level perspective on language-in-public-space policy, this study investigates the way Tunisia's dominant languages are dealt with in three independent but interrelated activities of language policy: official texts, public talk, and the actual practices of business actors in five commercial districts in metropolitan Tunis. Detailed…

Despite much research on how multilingual learners view the linguistic properties of language, how they perceive languages as cultural capital has been far less investigated. Drawing on the theories of social cognition, this study explores how multiple foreign language learners' impressions, as a lens to observe their multilingual awareness, are…

Largely banished from language instruction following the adoption of communicative approaches, some researchers now encourage the use of translation as a valuable resource for the language classroom. While increasingly embraced in theory, there remains a need to better understand, through empirical research, the implementation of translation-based…

Spoken word recognition depends on variations in fine-grained phonetics as listeners decode speech. However, many models of second language (L2) speech perception focus on units such as isolated syllables, and not on words. In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated how fine-grained phonetic details (i.e. duration of nasalization on…

This study aims to advance the understanding of sociolinguistic competence among near-native speakers and to further knowledge about the acquisition of variable structures. We conduct a quantitative analysis of variable future-time expression in informal conversations between near-native and native speakers of French. In addition to examining…

Despite their permeation in standard French, language variations, such as "argot" and "verlan" are seldom included in the curriculum of French university language programs in the U.S. Variations are often perceived negatively, leading to stigmatization towards the social groups who use them (Bourdieu 1982; Devereaux and Palmer,…

This study focuses on L2 French spoken in two different Laurentian settings in Canada: L2 French spoken by anglophones who have developed bilingual community practices in Montreal, where French is the majority language; and L2 French spoken by anglophones who have learned French in a formal context in Ontario, where French is a minority language.…

Non-binary individuals comprise one third of the transgender population and may be especially vulnerable to marginalization. The study of languages such as French, grammatically based in a binary gender system, offers unique challenges to non-binary learners for representing themselves in accordance with their identity. Grounded in a…

The article deals with the problems of colloquial interrogative sentences having the function features in the source and target fiction texts. The importance of the research of interrogative sentences is defined by frequent use of questioning in the process of communication and a close connection of the problem of questioning with other…

Research has pointed to the importance of introducing social aspects of language at the beginning stages of second language (L2) acquisition (Yates, 2017). This proof-of-concept study therefore sought to determine if an explicit pedagogical intervention consisting of various types of sociolinguistic awareness activities could be implemented with…

The study compares the uses of the native-speaker concept as a legitimizing resource in language-standard ideologies and normative discourse in five languages of European origin. Much research and international discussion has focused on the native speaker of English, a symbolically international language. We aim to show how the native-speaker…

In this work, based on an oral corpus of semi-directed interviews conducted in French with 40 L1 Chinese speakers learning French in France and in English with 29 L1 Chinese speakers learning English in the United States, I investigated the quotative system in non-native speech of English and French as it is used in the Chinese diaspora in Paris…

This article discusses a sociocultural usage-based perspective on the development of sociolinguistic competence. Previous research has focused on learners' acquisition and use of alternative ways of 'saying the same thing' (i.e. native-like variation) in relation to study abroad, contact with native speakers, and pedagogy. Missing from the…

This paper argues for bringing insights from linguistics into the world language classroom. At any level of study, such insights can add intellectual interest to the study of a target language (TL), and can also help students accept and acquire aspects of the TL that are different from their first language or that are inherently challenging. As a…

This study examines how language choice in epitaphs in Alsatian cemeteries mirrors language shifts in Alsace, a region in Eastern France that changed nationalities between France and Germany four times between 1870 and 1945. Language choice on tombstones was expected to be made according to the language of the ruling power, but the results show…