Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Thematic progression in written argumentative paragraphs of Chinese advanced learners of French

Résumé

It is generally recognized that many second language (L2) learners, especially non-European students, have difficulties in writing coherent and cohesive texts and in using appropriate types of thematic progression (Hawes, 2015). According to our research, there are not many studies that examine the thematic progression for Chinese L2 learners of French. We would like to answer the following questions. Firstly, what types of thematic progression do native French speakers and Chinese advanced learners of French use in argumentative paragraphs? Secondly, are there some problems of cohesion and coherence in the productions of these L2 learners? In our study, we collected a corpus of written productions from 22 Chinese learners at roughly B2 level. The corpus consists of short protest letters (250 words) addressed to the mayor of a city, giving cultural, touristic and economic arguments for not cancelling a concert. Their productions were contrasted to those of French native speakers (n=30) who had similar socio-cultural profiles. All participants were given the same instructions to write by hand under the same examination conditions. The results show that learners principally use constant progression (46%), while French native speakers prefer linear progression (38% of cases). Indeed, linear progression is much less frequent in the productions of learners (18%). Concerning derived progression, it is used in only 2% of cases by French native speakers and it is entirely absent from the productions of learners. These results show some of the difficulties experienced by the learners in using linear progression in their productions and to privilege constant progression. It confirms the results of previous works on textual cohesion in the L2 productions of non-native students of English (Bloor & Bloor, 1992; Wang, 2007). We can conclude that Chinese L2 learners would benefit from further instruction in notions of thematization and thematic progression.

Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-04787886 , version 1 (18-11-2024)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04787886 , version 1

Citer

Tatiana Aleksandrova. Thematic progression in written argumentative paragraphs of Chinese advanced learners of French. Learner Corpus Research Conference, Sep 2024, Tartu (Estonie), Estonia. ⟨hal-04787886⟩

Collections

43 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

  • More