Babel Volume 47 Number 2 | Page 9

Tense / mode Olivia Patrick

Third person singular – impersonal verbs

First person singular

14 x c’ est 3 x il y a 1 x on veut

5x je fais 2x je joue 3x j’ aime / je l’ aime 2x j’ ai 1x je suis 1x je crois

14 36.8 % 2 x j’ adore 1 x je dois 1 x j’ aime 1 x je participe

2 x je fais 1 x j’ ai

1 x je crois 1 x je reçois( si clause) 1 x je préfère 1x je ne suis pas sur

Freq. %

9 29 %

12 38.7 %

Indicative Present – other 3 7.8 % 3 9.6 % Other tenses / modes

1 x past tense j’ ai commencé 2 x conditionals je voudrais + infinitif

Table 7: Complexity results: type and range of verbs use

3 7.8 % 2 x subjunctives

l’ école fait en sorte qu’ on réussisse … je voudrais un travail qui me laisse ….

1 x future 1 x progressive future je vais étudier 1 x conditional je voudrais + noun 2 x pasts

j’ ai trouvé je n’ ai pas pensé

7 22.5 %

What I love in my school, it is, it is, it is(…) * when there is an avenue for every single student

Extract 4: [ mais j’ ai trouvé:: que j’ a heu(…) j’ ai trouvé heu pardon(…)] // mais je crois:: que j’ ai trouvé ma filière préférée( Patrick, line 23)

[ But I have found that I * has heu(…) I have found heu sorry(…)] // but I think that I have found my preferred field of study

This might indicate a high reliance on rote learned chunks rather than dysfluency( see discussion below).

These findings align with the assessment of both assessors( Table 10). Patrick’ s overall mark for this section was 28 out of 30 for one assessor and 29 out of 30 for the other assessor. Olivia scored 18 and 19 out of 30 respectively.

DISCUSSION

Our discussion will first address research questions 1 and 2 and focus on accuracy complexity and fluency( research question 1) and relate these scores to the learners’ second language proficiency( research question 2). We will then discuss the impact of exemplar-based and rule-based language systems on all three aspects of the language and in relation to the prescribed assessment criteria( research question 3).

Accuracy, complexity, fluency and learners’ L2 proficiency

In our analysis of the two learners’ performance, we considered a range of measures of accuracy, complexity and fluency. The findings showed that both learners’ language showed low levels of accuracy( measured by the proportion of error free AS-units), and similar types of errors despite differences in second language proficiency. However, what a closer analysis of the transcripts suggested is that where proficiency seemed to affect accuracy was not in terms of accuracy scores but in terms of avoidance strategies. Olivia seemed to avoid errors by a restrictive use of prepositions and structures which require minimal grammatical agreement. Risk taking avoidance meant that she resorted to oversimplified structures to convey meaning, at the expense of complexity. This is evident in the high frequency of very short utterances consisting of a minimal verbal unit: subject-verb- one-word complement. The simplification of the language is also illustrated in the over use of c’ est

+ word( e. g. adjective, noun, verb) and other impersonal verb forms( Table 6). For instance:

Extract 5: je l’ aime // c’ est des exercices // et aussi c’ est très social( Olivia, line 3-4)

I like it // it is * exercises // and also it is very social

Extract 6: c’ est du courant, de la nager, du cricket, du badminton( Olivia, line 10)

It is * run, * swim, cricket, badminton

In contrast, Patrick used longer and more complex utterances and managed to diversify the vocabulary more often and more successfully.

Fluency was quite high for both Patrick and Olivia. The reasons for such high fluency may be related to the topic and familiarity. The conversation task is designed to elicit the learners’ life experience and interests( VCE Study Design, 2010b), topics which are expected to be quite familiar to the students, and hence encourage fluency( Skehan, 1998). The task implementation is also designed to provide learners with the opportunity to maximise their performance: topics to be discussed are prescribed in the VCE study design( VCAA, 2010b). The level

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