This exploratory study investigates the development of personality dimensions related to multicultural effectiveness and its relation to amount of target language use and self-perceived progress in speaking during a sojourn abroad in seven European countries. The participants were 59 Swedish and Belgian university students. The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire – Short Form ( van der Zee, Van Oudenhoven, Ponterotto, & Fietzer, 2013 ) was administered at the beginning and the end of the semester, and data on self-reported weekly hours of target language use and self-perceived linguistic progress were gathered at Time 2. The main findings are the observed moderate or near moderate correlations between self-perceived progress in speaking and change in Cultural Empathy, and between amount of target language use and change in Cultural Empathy and Openmindedness. This points to the relevance of further studies on the role of target language use and progress in the development of personality characteristics.

This article examines linguistic complexity in the noun phrase in spoken L1 and L2 French. Research on linguistic complexity in L2 has often concentrated on syntactic complexity, subordination in particular. In this study, we focus on syntactic complexity at the phrasal level, i.e. in the noun phrase, following the assumption put forward by Norris and Ortega (2009: 564) that internal NP complexity provides an important measure of very advanced learners. The present study examines pre- and post-modification in the noun phrase in the oral production of very advanced non-native speakers (NNS) and native speakers (NS) elicited through an on-line retelling of a clip from Modern Times. The results confirm our main hypothesis, that there are differences between NS and NNS: NS use more complex NPs, NPs with a higher mean number of words and more NPs with multiple modifiers.

This study builds on the proposition that there are six developmental stages for spoken L2 French, based on morpho-syntactic criteria (Bartning and Schlyter 2004). In order to investigate developmental stages 'beyond stage 6', oral productions of several groups of advanced learners/users and native speakers are analyzed in terms of resources and obstacles. Among the resources, we investigate expected late features such as formulaic language and elaboration of information structure (Forsberg 2008; Hancock 2007). Morpho-syntactic deviances (MSDs), i.e. obstacles are also investigated. MSDs are expected to be almost absent beyond stage 6 (von Stutterheim 2003). Surprisingly, they continue to be present even at these very high levels. The results also show that formulaic language and information structure are promising measures of high levels, although the latter did not yield significant differences compared to lower stages. The study concludes with the proposal of a transitional stage with L2 users called functional bilinguals, which would constitute a stage between the advanced learner and the near-native speaker.

In this paper, we consider a student error produced in a French foreign language small-group seminar, involving four Swedish L1 first-term university students of French and a native French teacher. The error in question consists of a mispronunciation of the second vowel of the name Napoléon in the midst of a student presentation on the history of Corsica. Taking a conversation analytic approach to situated language use, the study considers the ways in which the erroneous pronunciation is turned into a resource whereby both teaching and learning opportunities are accomplished in teacher–student interaction. By tracking subsequent references to the initial error in a corpus of video-recorded small-group seminars, we explore some of the things that can be achieved by such referencing in later local contexts. The study demonstrates how not only students, but also the teacher, may learn in pedagogical interaction.

Nativelike expression in L2 speech is investigated by comparing quantity and distribution of different types of multiword structures (MWSs) in the speech of very advanced L2 speakers with native speakers. Swedish speakers of L2 English, L2 French and L2 Spanish (average LOR in the UK, France and Chile 7–10 years) performing two oral tasks, a role play, and an online retelling task, are compared with matching native speakers, totalling 140,000 words. The L2 groups were nativelike in their use of MWSs as social routines in the role play. Collocations, the dominant category in the retelling task, were underrepresented in all three L2 groups compared to the native groups. Furthermore, the English NNSs were nativelike on more measurements of MWSs than the French and Spanish NNSs.

The degree of ultimate attainment in a second language is a much debated issue within the field of L2 acquisition and L2 use. Although late development in grammar and lexis has been the object of a fair amount of studies, the same does not hold for pragmatic competence, and particularly little attention has been paid to features of advanced socio-pragmatic or socio-cultural learning. This study compares the behavior of Swedes, who have lived in Chile for a period between 5 and 14 years and who are highly proficient in their L2 Spanish, with that of native Chileans in a situation where the subjects are in an asymmetrical power relation with their interlocutor and have to deploy argumentative abilities.  The conversational analysis of the data reveals that the pragmatic alignment of the non-natives to native patterns is far from complete. Divergences are mainly found along two cultural dimensions: management of power distance and positioning with regard to displayed social distance.

With few exceptions the field of L2 pragmatics has focussed on intermediate and advanced learners and there is little knowledge to date regarding highly proficient, immersed L2 speakers' pragmatic performance. This study concerns L2 speakers having been immersed culturally and professionally for a considerable length of time. Our focus is on-line production of the request sequence by Swedish speakers of L2 English and L2 French having lived and worked approximately 10 years in the L2 country against matched native controls. The task is a role play between an employee and her/his boss implying high demands on the pragmatic knowledge of the participants. Our main results indicate that both groups of L2 users significantly underuse lexical and syntactic downgraders. It is argued in this paper that this underuse is not due to a lack of pragmalinguistic resources, i.e., they use the same types as the native speakers, but is of a socio-pragmatic nature, i.e., they do not downgrade to the same extent. Furthermore, L2 users significantly underuse 'situation-bound' routinized formulaic sequences for expressing the Head act. This result, in contrast, points to a lack of pragmalinguistic resources.

Cet article examine la compétence pragmatique des locuteurs quasi-natifs de français L2, comparé à celle des locuteurs natifs français. Plus précisément, l’étude s’intéresse à l’acte de langage de la requête, qui est analysé en termes d’acte directeur et actes subordonnés. Les modifications lexicales et syntaxiques au sein de celles-ci sont aussi étudiées. Ce qui nous intéresse, ce sont si les déviances entre locuteurs natifs et non-natifs sont de nature pragmalinguistique ou sociopragmatique. Afin de mieux comprendre l’origine de ces déviances, nous avons aussi inclus un groupe de locuteurs natifs suédois, qui nous permet d’étudier d’éventuels transferts du suédois dans la production des requêtes en français L2. Les résultats montrent que des différences existent entre locuteurs natifs et non-natifs du français, notamment au niveau des stratégies de requête utilisées et au niveau de la modification syntaxique. A partir des données suédoises, nous avons pu tirer la conclusion que les interférences suédoises sont surtout de nature pragmalinguistique pour cette analyse limitée.

The relationship between perceived nativelikeness and scrutinized nativelikeness is examined in very advanced L2 French and L2 Spanish. First, native speaker judges are asked to evaluate the speech of non-native speakers and native speakers of both languages, determining whether they pass as native speakers. Four non-native participants from each language group are then analyzed in more detail. Interviews with these speakers are analyzed with respect to formulaic language use and morphosyntax. No obvious differences between speakers who pass as native and those who do not are found. Subsequently, the short excerpts used in the evaluations are closely analyzed, in search for other possible differences. It is found that speakers who pass as native speakers use regional variation to a larger extent. It is thus proposed that there is no necessary connection between perceived nativelikeness and scrutinized nativelikeness and that ‘passing as a native speaker’ may be more linked to sociolinguistic competence than linguistic competence

This volume investigates cultural migrants: people who, from their own free will, move to another country because of their interest in the target language and culture. Chapters include studies on cultural migrants acquiring French, Italian, Spanish and English and consider linguistic, psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of language acquisition. Cultural migrants have social and psychological advantages when acquiring a second language as adults, and the study of their linguistic knowledge and production increases our understanding of the possibilities and limits of L2 ultimate attainment. The work thus fills a gap in our understanding of high-level proficiency and will be of interest to researchers working in the field of SLA, as well as to social scientists studying the relationship between language, culture and integration.

The aim of this study is twofold: first, to find evidence for additional advanced stages in L2 French. The continuum of Bartning and Schlyter (2004) is taken as a point of departure. It is hypothesized that a number of linguistic criteria will account for high-level proficiency. It was earlier found that besides morpho-syntax, formulaic sequences and information structure are interesting phenomena for highly proficient learners (Bartning, Forsberg and Hancock, 2009). Three more measures are now added, i.e. perceived nativelikeness, lexical richness and fluency. The second aim of this study is to contribute to the debate on the possibility of nativelike attainment. The study shows that several measures are prone to characterise nativelike performance in highly proficient users among whom some attain nativelikeness.

The present study investigates the relationship between productive collocation knowledge and advanced levels on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale. More precisely, the potential progression between the B2 and C1 levels of the CEFR is studied through the development of a productive collocation test in second language (L2) French. The test targets frequent verb-noun collocations in written L2 French, identified using the database Les Voisins de Le Monde. Three different pilot studies are presented, with both native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of French (with different first languages), for a total of 152 participants. The test is validated through a general proficiency test and through a test of reliability The final testing session, carried out with 47 NNSs of French, yielded a test with a total of 30 items, which showed significantly different results for the B2 and the C1 levels. In addition to constituting a useful tool in language assessment, this study confirms the key place of productive collocation knowledge at high levels of L2 proficiency.

The aim of the present exploratory study was twofold. The first was to investigate how indicators of high-level proficiency (collocations and grammaticality judgment) related to aptitude in late French L2 learners. Results showed a significant positive correlation between collocations and performance on the LLAMA D (Meara 2005). The second question concerned how personality relates to indicators of high-level L2 proficiency (collocations and grammaticality judgment). Two personality dimensions in the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (Van der Zee & van Oudenhoven 2000) were significantly and positively correlated with scores for collocations and the LLAMA D. The preliminary findings suggest that collocations are a valid measure for high-level L2 proficiency and that it is necessary to consider both personality and social-psychological factors when predicting successful L2 learning.

The present study investigates the possibilities for adult learners to attain nativelikeness in the domain of lexis. Aspects investigated are general lexical knowledge (C-test), receptive deep knowledge, productive collocation knowledge, and productive lexico-pragmatic knowledge in a group of longresidency Swedish French second language (L2) users in France and a matched native control group. The analysis includes correlations between these different vocabulary aspects as well as their relation to the length of residence in the target-language (TL) community. The study reveals that it is possible for L2 learners to attain nativelikeness in general lexical knowledge and lexicopragmatic knowledge, whereas deep knowledge and collocations are especially difficult for L2 learners, supporting earlier research findings. Furthermore, a strong correlation is found between general lexical knowledge and collocations, but surprisingly not between any of the other aspects, or between vocabulary aspects and length of residence. The results are discussed in light of individual differences in research.