Publication details
In quest of similarity: Raising cross-linguistic awareness among Erasmus students learning French
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| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Plurilingualism, defined as a person’s ability to communicate in more than two languages, plays an important role in numerous areas of social and professional life. The awareness of formal and semantic similarities can enhance language acquisition by triggering transfer from the native language into other languages (Otwinowska 2012). The role of the native language is often played by English which, as an international lingua franca, often fulfils the role of medium in various types of interaction, including instruction. Indeed, bilingual/multilingual speakers often learn L3 (or L4, Ln…) through English, which is also the case of international students who study the English programme ‘International relations’ at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Apart from other subjects, students can also enrol on a two-term course of French for Beginners, taught in English. This article presents results of a small-scale qualitative research conducted among Erasmus students who studied French as L3 during their stay at Masaryk University. Focusing on affective factors in language acquisition, such as motivation, attitudes, personality, emotions, beliefs, learning styles and anxiety, the paper delineates ways multilingual language users perceive their L2 and L3 learning experiences. It compares two groups of advanced students of L2 English, learning L3 French at two different levels of advancement (A1, A2), asking them to produce narratives on their L2 vs. L3 learning experiences in form of answers to ten questions devised by the teacher and submitted on a weekly basis throughout the term. The paper offers a comparison of learning experiences in terms of the subjects’ affective factors involved in the learning process (motivations, attitudes, learning strategies), as well as in terms of their perceptions of cross-linguistic influence between languages. Finally, based on the findings, implications for teaching French through English will be briefly described. |