The aim of this dissertation is to observe how Swedish learners of French monitor their speech output when confronted with a linguistic problem. The study is based on empirical data consisting of recorded interviews and tasks made with first year university students.

L1 speech production is often interrupted by hesitations revealed through a variety of phenomena ranging from silent pauses to comments. Most of these interruptions are caused by the action of a control system, a “monitor” which checks our speech internally while it is produced or after the production has reached the articulation level. Speech is checked against an internal model of lexical and grammatical correctness. If the demands of the monitor are not met, a reparation may take place so that the speaker’s production eventually reaches the expected level of correctness.

In the same way, the speech of L2 learners is controlled during and after production. The pattern of work of the monitor is much the same as for the L1, but the reparation is not necessarily conducted in a similar way because the learner’s internal grammar and lexicon are not complete and cannot be consulted as quickly as the L1 lexicon and grammar. L2 learners rely on a certain amount of acquired knowledge but they also need to be given time to refer to learned rules and patterns since the retrieval of these has not yet been made automatic.

In this study, we observe the speech production of Swedish students learning French during the first semester of their academic studies. The recasts students make when trying to reach a correct solution to a linguistic problem are in focus. We can see a step-by-step process through which the speakers elaborates their production by putting forward hypotheses, each one usually containing a small modification, and try to reach an acceptable solution. In some cases we can see that the speaker might choose to focus on the communicative aspects instead of focusing on the formal correctness of the speech. On the background of L1 and L2 acquisition theories, this study focuses on two areas of difficulty for the Swedish learner: the production of –ment adverbs and the production of conjugated verbs.

Abstract

L1 speech production is often interrupted by hesitations revealed through a variety of phenomena ranging from silent pauses to comments. Most of these interruptions are caused by the action of a control system, a  “monitor“, which checks our speech internally while it is produced or after the production has reached the articulatory level. Speech production is checked against an internal model of lexical and grammatical correctness. If the demands of the monitor are not met, a repair may take place so that the speaker’s production reaches the expected level of correctness. It would seem that the result of constant interruptions, followed by repairs, would bring disorder into our speech but, in most cases, the listener is not disturbed by these interruptions, since his perception system brings order and re-establishes the linearity of the propositional content.

The speech of L2 learners is controlled during and after production. Even if the monitor follows the same pattern of work when controlling L2 production, the repair is not necessarily done in a similar way because the learner’s internal grammar and lexicon are not complete and cannot be consulted as quickly as L1 lexicon and grammar. L2 learners rely on a certain amount of acquired knowledge but they also need to be given the time to refer to learned rules and patterns because the retrieval of these has not yet been automaticized.  As teachers, we often resent hesitations as disturbing and as an indication of the learner’s incapacity to produce correct speech.

In this study, we observe the L2 speech production of learners of French and their behaviour when meeting linguistic problems. The study is concentrated on repetitions and recasts produced when the learner hesitates and shows signs of an effort to retrieve learned knowledge. These repetitions and recasts are presented as different hypotheses put forward by the learner in his/her attempts to reach a solution to a linguistic problem. They show the L2 speech production as a step-by-step process. The focus here is on repetitions and recasts in connection with French  -ment-adverbs.