Spelling patterns of plural marking and learning trajectories in French taught as a foreign language
Constanze Weth | University of Luxembourg
Sonja Ugen | University of Luxembourg
Natalia Bîlici | University of Luxembourg | Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse
Although French plural spelling has been studied extensively, the complexity of factors affecting the learning of
French plural spelling are not yet fully explained, namely on the level of adjectival and verbal plural. This study investigates
spelling profiles of French plural markers of 228 multilingual grade 5 pupils with French taught as a foreign language.Three analyses on the learner performances of plural spelling in nouns, verbs and pre- and postnominal attributive
adjectives were conducted (1) to detect the pupils’ spelling profiles of plural marking on the basis of the performances in the
pretest, (2) to test the profiles against two psycholinguistic theories, and (3) to evaluate the impact of the training on each
spelling profile in the posttest.The first analysis confirms the existing literature that pupils’ learning of French plural is not random but
ordered and emphasizes the role of the position for adjectives (pre- or postnominal) on correct plural spelling. The second
analysis reveals the theoretical difficulties of predicting spelling of adjectival and verbal plural. The third analysis shows
that strong and poor spellers both benefit from a morphosyntactic training and provides transparency and traceability of the
learning trajectories.Together, the descriptive analyses reveal clear patterns of intra-individual spelling profiles. They point to a
need for further research in those areas that have empirically provided the most inconsistent results to date and that are not
supported by the theories: verbs and adjectives.
Keywords: French, spelling, written plural, silent orthographic marker, syntactic marker, processability theory, cognitive learning based theory
Article outline
-
1.French plural markers without correspondence in phonology
- 1.1Plural spelling development in French in L1 and L2 learners
- 1.2The particularities of adjective plural
- 1.3Teaching French plural spelling
- 2.The present study
- 2.1Learning theory 1: Learning based theory (LBT)
- 2.2Learning theory 2: Processability theory (PT)
- 3.Method
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Materials and procedure
- 3.2.1The training program
- 3.2.2The pretest and posttest
- 3.2.3Test design
- 3.2.4Spelling patterns
- 4.Results
- 4.1Individual spelling patterns of plural agreement (prior to training, pretest)
- 4.2Compatibility of the plural spelling patterns with the learning theories LBT and PT
- 4.3Impact of the training: Intra-individual spelling patterns of plural agreement
- 5.Discussion
- 5.1Individual spelling patterns of plural agreement
- 5.2Compatibility of the plural spelling patterns with the learning theories
- 5.3Impact of the training: Intra-individual spelling patterns of plural agreement (posttest)
- 5.4Theoretical and practical implications
- 5.5Limitations and perspectives of the present study
- Acknowledgements
-
References
Published online: 10 December 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00048.wet
https://doi.org/10.1075/wll.00048.wet
References
Ågren, M.
Ågren, M., Granfeld, J., & Schlyter, S.
Ågren, M., & Van De Weijer, J.
Ågren, M., & van deWeijer, J.
Arciuli, J., & Monaghan, P.
Arseneau, R., & Nadeau, M.
(2018) Expérimentation des dictées métacognitives: quels effets sur l’apprentissage de l’orthographe grammaticale en
contexte francophone minoritaire? [Experimentation of metacognitive
dictation: Effects on syntactic spelling learning in French minority context?]. Canadian Journal
of Applied
Linguistics, 21(2), 126–153. 

Bahr, R. H., Silliman, E. R., Berninger, V. W., & Dow, M.
Bartning, I., & Schlyter, S.
Betzel, D.
(2015) Zum weiterführenden Erwerb der satzinternen Großschreibung. Eine leistungsdifferenzierte Längsschnittsstudie in
der Sekundarstufe I. [On the acquisition of capitalization in advanced learners: a
longitudinal study in secondary level differentiating performance
groups]. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag.
Bîlici, N., Ugen, S., Fayol, M., & Weth, C.
Blondel, C., Brissaud, C., & Rinck, F.
Boivin, M.-C.
Brehm, L., & Bock, K.
Brissaud, C., & Cogis, D.
Brissaud, C., & Fayol, M.
(2018) Écrire et rédiger. Rapport scientifique. Étude de la langue et production
d’écrits [Spelling and composition. Scientific
report]. Paris. Retrieved from http://www.cnesco.fr
Bryant, P., Nunes, T., & Bindman, M.
Cogis, D.
Elalouf, M.-L., Cogis, D., & Gourdet, P.
Ellis, N. C.
Encrevé, P.
Fayol, M., Hupet, M., & Largy, P.
Fayol, M., Totereau, C., & Barrouillet, P.
Fisher, C., & Nadeau, M.
Funke, R., & Sieger, J.
Gauvin, I., & Thibeault, J.
Geoffre, T.
Geoffre, T., & Brissaud, C.
Granfeld, J.
(2005) Direkt Profil et deux études sur la morphologie verbale et les stades de
développement [Direkt Profil and two studies on verbal morphology and
development stades]. In J. Granfeld & S. Schlyter (Eds.), Acquisition
et production de la morphologie
flexionnelle (pp. 65–85). Lund: Petites études de l’Institut romanes de Lund.
Granget, C.
(2005) Développement de l’accord verbal avec un sujet pluriel dans les récits d’apprenants germanophones scolarisés du
français [Development of verbal agreement with plural subject in
compositions written by German learners of French]. In J. Granfeldt & S. Schlyter (Eds.), Acquisition
et production de la morphologie
flexionnelle (pp. 111–123). Lund: Petites études de l’Institut romanes de Lund.
Gunnarsson, C.
Gunnarsson, C., & Soum Favaro, C.
(2008) Liaison et production écrite: l’écrit comme moyen d’étudier un phénomène de
l’oral [Liaison and written production: Looking on spelling to analyse an
oral phenomenon]. In D. Alamargot, J. Bouchand, E. M. Lambert, V. M. Millogo, & C. Beaudet (Eds.), Proceedings
of the International Conference “de la France au Québec: l’Ecriture dans tous ses
états”. Poitiers.
Guyon, O.
Hudson, R.
Kemp, N., Nilsson, J., & Arciuli, J.
Largy, P., Fayol, M., & Lemaire, P.
Lecoq, P.
Lefrançois, P.
Manesse, D., & Cogis, D.
Mortamet, C.
Nunes, T., Bryant, P., & Bindman, M.
Ouellette, G.
Pienemann, M.
Pienemann, M., Keßler, J. U., & Itani-Adams, Y.
Sandra, D.
Silliman, E., Bahr, R. H., Nagy, W., & Berninger, V. W.
Sprenger-Charolles, L., Siegel, L. S., Béchennec, D., & Serniclaes, W.
St-Pierre, M.-C., & Béland, R.
Thévenin, M.-G., Totereau, C., Fayol, M., & Jarousse, J.-P.
Thibeault, J.
(2017) Regard socioconstructive sur le développement de la compétence lexicomorphogrammique qui permet l’accord du
verbe en nombre chez des élèves de la fin de l’ordre élémentaire dans le Sud-Ouest
ontarien [Socioconstructive perspective on the development of
lexicomorphogrammatical competence of verbal agreement in primary school pupils in Ontario]. PhD
thesis. Université d’Ottawa. 

Totereau, C., Brissaud, C., Reilhac, C., & Bosse, M.
(2013) L’orthographe grammaticale au collège: une approche sociodifférenciée [Syntactic spelling at secondary school: a sociodifferentiated approach]. A.N.A.E.
Approche Neuropsychologique Des Apprentissages de
l’enfant, 1231, 164–171. Retrieved
from https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00945209
Totereau, C., Thevenin, M.-G., & Fayol, M.
Treiman, R., & Bourassa, D. C.
Turnbull, K., Deacon, S. H., & Kay-Raining Bird, E.