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Approaches and Methods in French Second Language Acquisition Research
Edited by Martin Howard
[Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 9] 2025
► pp. 263–285

Chapter 11
Researching L2 French input and instructed learning

 | University of Fribourg, Switzerland
This chapter presents the main approaches and methodologies for studying the relationship between input and the development of L2 French in general and in instructional settings. The chapter first introduces research methods that target the description of French as linguistic input to L2 learners of French and, second, research methods in instructional settings. These two research fields are illustrated with examples mainly from recent publications and address the study of French as input to L2 (classroom) learners, corpora as a research tool and (experimental) classroom interventions designed for the study of specific teaching activities on L2 learning. The chapter concludes with a number of ethical considerations specific to these two methodological approaches, followed by a conclusion and suggestions for future research.
Keywords: input, implicit/explicit, corpus linguistics, experimental research, intervention studies, French L2, French language
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Research methods for the study of French linguistic input
    • The study of French as input to L2 learners
    • Corpus-based research
    • Concluding remarks
  • Research methods in instructional settings
    • Implicit versus explicit teaching and learning
    • Studying linguistic characteristics of input in the L2 French language classroom
    • Studying the influence of specific teaching activities
    • Concluding remarks
  • Ethical issues in research on input and instructed learning
  • Conclusion and future directions
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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