Innovation in Language Learning
French Article Learning for Adult Second Language Acquisition: Diagnostics and Mnemonics
Pu Meng, George Mason University (United States)
Abstract
French articles are more difficult to learn than English articles in second language acquisition due to gender. The purpose of this pilot study was to find a better way for adult SLAs to learn French articles.
The participants were French-speaking adult SLAs whose native language was not French. The pilot study was divided into two parts. The first part was a self-study followed by a pre-test. The second part was classroom instruction using diagnostics and mnemonics, followed by a posttest. For diagnostics, French and English articles were compared to identify similarities and differences; based on these similarities and differences, diagnostics were conducted to determine which article should be used in a
given context. For memorization, pictures corresponding to the sentences being taught are used, and the French and English articles are marked with two colored boxes to aid memorization (in conjunction with diagnosis). In this way, the learners were able to understand better and memorize the rules for the use of French articles. The study found that the participants could master the most basic French articles through self-study, but their mastery improved significantly after being taught through the diagnostic and mnemonic methods. Participants demonstrated greater accuracy and confidence, which suggests that this combined approach has a significant effect in improving the learning of French articles. In addition, this study found that the combined use of diagnostics and mnemonics helped learners gain a deeper understanding of French grammatical structures. Not only were learners able to use articles more accurately, but they also demonstrated better comprehension and application of other grammatical points. This result suggests that the potential of an integrated approach to language teaching is wider than the learning of articles. The results of this study can be applied to the actual teaching of French articles in SLA to help learners achieve a more efficient understanding of French and French articles.
Keywords: SLA, French article, diagnostics and mnemonics
REFERENCES
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