25.5067, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acquistion; Socioling: Durham (2014)

[The LINGUIST List via LINGUIST]

LINGUIST List: Vol-25-5067. Fri Dec 12 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.5067, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acquistion; Socioling: Durham (2014)

Moderators: Damir Cavar, Indiana U <damir at linguistlist.org>
            Malgorzata E. Cavar, Indiana U <gosia at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org
Anthony Aristar <aristar at linguistlist.org>
Helen Aristar-Dry <hdry at linguistlist.org>
Sara Couture, Indiana U <sara at linguistlist.org>

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Do you want to donate to LINGUIST without spending an extra penny? Bookmark
the Amazon link for your country below; then use it whenever you buy from
Amazon!

USA: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-20
Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-21
Germany: http://www.amazon.de/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistd-21
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-22
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistc-20
France: http://www.amazon.fr/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistf-21

For more information on the LINGUIST Amazon store please visit our
FAQ at http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.

Editor for this issue: Sara  Couture <sara at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 16:41:16
From: Andrew Lavender [jjlavender at albany.edu]
Subject: The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Lingua Franca Context

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=25-5067.html&submissionid=35493637&topicid=9&msgnumber=1
 
Discuss this message: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=35493637


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/25/25-1065.html

AUTHOR: Mercedes  Durham
TITLE: The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Lingua Franca Context
SERIES TITLE: Second Language Acquisition
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2014

REVIEWER: Andrew Jordan Lavender, State University of New York at Albany

Review's Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

This book intends to study the phenomenon of English as a lingua franca (ELF)
in global communication, particularly the sociolinguistic implications of
non-native variation in global English. 

In Chapter One, Durham begins the discussion on the role of ELF in continental
Europe, and particularly Switzerland, a region outside of the historical areas
of both native English speakers and second language speakers of English
resulting from British colonization. Together with other ELF researchers,
Durham wishes to avoid the classification of “native” and “non-native” in her
discussion and, instead, to focus on ELF as an “autonomous” variety of
English, which necessitates the acknowledgement of the heterogeneity found in
ELF. An example of this reorientation of thought can be seen in the discussion
of “error” versus “variant” on page 10, where innovations in ELF, distinct
from native constructions, are viewed of as evidence of inherent variability
in ELF, rather than errors in need of correction. This latter point brings up
the rationale for her research, which is to bridge the gap between
sociolinguistics and SLA in regard to the study of ELF and, potentially, other
lingua francas. 

Chapter Two discusses the relation between sociolinguistics, and language
variation in particular, and second language acquisition (SLA). These fields
have different understandings of what exactly the study of variation entails.
The former focuses on sociolinguistic competence which results in variability
in the target language: however, SLA researchers focus on cross-linguistic
influences in language learning. Durham classifies these as two types of
variation associated with the target language: target-based variation (TBV)
and learning-related variation (LRV). The lack of focus in SLA research on
variation in TBV is due to the fact that it has been generally viewed as ‘free
variation’, lacking observable patterns, although current research tends to
discredit this notion. Durham notes that SLA research should clearly
distinguish between ‘language learners’ and ‘language users’, of which the
latter exhibit more variation in the target language. Language learners are
not usually exposed to informal variants in their learning materials and,
because of this, typically only acquire non-standard forms through
extra-curricular activities such as study abroad and more importantly, in
naturalistic contexts. The issue of how ELF can fit into current SLA research
and language pedagogy is an issue which Durham will address throughout the
book by looking at the nature of the problem in Switzerland. 

Chapter Three discusses the nature of English as a lingua franca in modern
Switzerland. Durham presents the unique linguistic situation found in
Switzerland, where there are four national languages, each supposed to receive
equal attention and use by government officials. The four official languages
are: German, French, Italian, and Romansch, listed in numerical order of the
number of speakers. The linguistic situation is complex in other ways given
that most speakers exhibit diglossia in their use of standard varieties of
these languages at work and school and their use of regional dialects in the
home and community. There has been a noticeable increase in the use of English
since 1990 among Swiss citizens in both work and school. Durham attributes the
rise of English to four factors. First, it is regarded as a neutral language
and allows equality among the Swiss, national languages. Second, in what she
terms an ‘economy of expression’, it involves less effort to begin in English
because a majority of the population understands it, while they do not
necessarily understand other Swiss languages. Similarly, comprehension of
English is generally higher than comprehension of other national languages.
Finally, because of the diglossia found in Switzerland, people who have
studied German will not necessarily be able to understand the Swiss dialect of
German, and for this reason it is easier to provide materials in English. All
of this functions as background to Durham’s principal research question: how
speakers of ELF will use the language and to what degree they will emulate the
variation patterns of native speakers. 

Chapter Four presents the data used for the study, which was collected from
e-mail communication of students from the International Federation of Medical
Students’ Associations -- Switzerland (IFMSA-CH). Additionally, oral
interviews were conducted to compare both oral and written registers. The
students represent the linguistic diversity of the country and employ ELF for
the reasons enumerated above. Durham makes a comparison with a comparable
native data source, taken from a medical association in the United Kingdom. 

Chapter Five discusses the methodology used to study the acquisition of
sociolinguistic competence in Swiss ELF, which is compared with several
features where native speakers exhibit variation. Durham uses multivariate
analysis, adopted from comparative sociolinguistics, in order to analyze
potential cases of non-native variation in ELF. She handles the issue of
acquisition by differentiating between TBV and LRV in non-standard features.
The features which deviate from native-like variation but which are commonly
found in all three Swiss language groups will be considered as variables in a
Swiss ELF. The four features analyzed in the study are: 1) the future tense,
2) relative pronouns, 3) the complementizer ‘that’, and 4) the additive
adverbials ‘also’, ‘as well’, and ‘too’. The following chapters discuss the
findings in relation to these features. 

Chapter Six presents the study of variation in use of the future tense. Durham
focuses on two possible future constructions in English: the ‘will’ future and
the ‘going to’ future. The former, according to prescriptive grammar, is to be
used as a type of prediction, and other studies have shown that it is the most
common way of expressing futurity in English. The latter is used as a “future
fulfillment of present intention” (Quirk et al., in Durham 68). Swiss students
are taught these prescriptive rules in their acquisition. In regard to the
native languages, French and Italian have a morphological future, while German
has a construction similar to the ‘will’ future. 

The results of the study show that Swiss speakers of ELF have not fully
acquired native-like variation in their use of the future tense. They show
overall lower rates of ‘going to’ constructions, much lower than native
speakers’ rates. Additionally, they do not exhibit a register-based
distinction in regard to their use of the ‘going to’ structure, which is
usually used in oral register by native English speakers. The results do
follow native speaker patterns in one aspect, that is, in the use of ‘going
to’ with non-first person subjects. However, the majority of the cases of
variation are attributed to acquisition, rather than native-like variation
patterns. 

Chapter Seven presents Durham’s findings about the use of relative pronouns in
ELF. The nature of relative pronouns in English presents a clear case of
syntactic variation whereby multiple forms can be used in the same context
without altering the meaning of the sentence. A number of factors restrict the
use of the particular forms available (‘who’, ‘which’, ‘that’, and the zero
form), most notably animacy and the syntactic function of the relative clause.
The use of relatives in the source languages is markedly different from the
English pattern and the source languages differ among themselves. In contrast
to the use of the future tense, Durham found that the speakers of ELF in
Switzerland follow the native patterns of variation and exhibit few instances
of LRV in their communication.

Chapter Eight presents the results found on the use of complementizers in ELF.
The two variants considered are ‘that’ and the zero morpheme. English is
different from  French and Italian in its use of the zero morpheme as a
complementizer, although German does have both a complementizer form and a
zero morpheme. Previous researchers have found that grammatical person, verb
tense, and the presence of additional elements in the verb phrase (VP) are
significant internal factors that condition variation in native English in
regard to choice of complementizer. Additionally, the formality of register is
a significant factor in complementizer selection as well as the association of
a certain list of verbs with greater zero-morpheme usage. Durham found that
overall her participants showed a lesser number of cases of the zero-morpheme,
although their usage generally reflects native patterns; this result reflects
the capability of ELF speakers to acquire native-like variation patterns
without being formally presented with these patterns in their acquisition
process.  

Chapter Nine considers lexical variation in the form of adverbial placement,
specifically the additive adverbials, ‘also’, ‘as well’, and ‘too’, which were
selected because  their complicated distribution in native English prevents 
studying their placement f. The distribution of the additive adverbials in
native English was found to be affected by style, register, and clause
structure. The source languages have less lexical variation in regard to these
adverbials, all of which mainly rely on one form, with significantly
lesser-used alternatives. Both native and non-native groups use ‘also’ with
the most frequency. However, the non-native groups show high rates of LRV in
regard to this variable with both cases of non-native placement of the
adverbials and the use of variants with ungrammatical meanings. 

Chapter Ten presents a discussion of the implications of this study to the
broader fields of SLA and sociolinguistics. This research can speak to the
question of which features non-natives acquire best. Durham’s study also shows
a relative lack of transference of structures from the source languages. Her
research confirms some hierarchies of acquisition of sociolinguistic
competence established in previous research. For instance, the results suggest
that morphosyntactic variation is acquired before lexical variation,
considering the native-like acquisition of features such as the variability of
relative pronouns and complementizers in comparison to the delay in acquiring
lexical variation. The linguistic variables analyzed indicate that features
conditioned by internal factors are acquired before features conditioned by
external factors. Frequency of usage is linked to LRV in the sense that the
overall frequency of an item allows it to be observed in context and
subsequently acquired. In relation to LRV, there are still many questions to
answer, “At this stage, it is not clear if there are high rates of LRV because
the feature has not been acquired natively or if the high rates of LRV inhibit
a native-like acquisition of the feature” (151). In relation to pedagogy,
Durham’s study does not link overt teaching of native variation to the
acquisition of it; for example, the speakers of ELF acquired most natively the
use of complementizers, a feature that was not formally presented to them, yet
did not completely acquire the use of future, which was presented to them.
Finally, her research speaks to the overall usefulness of ELF as an
opportunity for language use and the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence
as well as for the continual development of specific features in European ELF.

EVALUATION

Durham presents an interesting study of the use of English as a lingua franca
in Switzerland, a country known for extensive multilingualism, as noted in
detail in Chapter Four. The chapter provides a good background to the complex,
multilingual situation that exists in Switzerland with German, French,
Italian, and Romansch sharing co-official status, although with different
levels of usage among the Swiss population. This study will provoke
interesting debates on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence and the
capacity of non-native speakers to master native-like variation in the
academic community 

The findings of this study are directly relevant to a number of linguistic
subfields, particularly second language acquisition and sociolinguistics.
Durham specifically set out to integrate both the methods and concerns of
second language acquisition with the methods of variationist sociolinguistics.
The study will provide additional foci for research in these fields as well as
for researchers interested in global English and lingua francas, additionally
suggesting interesting questions for language planners in considering how to
incorporate or not incorporate explicit instruction in sociolinguistic
competence in the classroom. 

This book can easily be adapted for use as a textbook in a variety of types of
courses. Most obviously, it would be of primary interest to SLA classes,
particularly discussing the role of variation in language acquisition.
However, it would also be extremely useful in courses on bilingualism and
language contact, which often involve the use of a lingua franca. It could
also be adapted for use in a general sociolinguistics course, serving as a
type of rapprochement between the two fields.

Researchers in second language acquisition will likely find Chapter Six and
Chapter Eight of particular interest considering the relation of instruction
to the results found. In the case of Chapter Six, the students were presented
with the distinction between the different uses of the future tense in English
but not presented with the ways in which it is used in variation. However, in
Chapter Eight, the results of Durham’s study show that non-native speakers are
capable of acquiring sociolinguistic competence without explicit instruction,
which will certainly raise interesting questions about the relation of
explicit instruction and acquisition of native-like features. Additionally the
nature of the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence opens the door to a
new way of considering variation in L2 speakers.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Jordan Lavender is a PhD student at the University at Albany, State University
of New York. He conducts research on the effects of language contact in the
Spanish spoken in Catalan-dominant areas. His primary research interests
include sociolinguistics, morphosyntactic variation, language contact, and
bilingualism.








----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-25-5067	
----------------------------------------------------------