The grammatical dimension of second language (L2) acquisition involves a multiplicity of theoretical and methodological approaches. Following the study days on phonology (2018 in Nantes), lexicon (2019 in Lyon) and pragmatics (2022 in Nice), the 2023 edition of the study days of the Second Language Acquisition Network (RéAL2) will be devoted to research relating to grammar in L2. These study days aim to bring together researchers interested in the relationship between grammar, taken in the broad sense, and L2 acquisition, to take stock of recent research in this area.
The polysemy of the term "grammar" is found in acquisition research, whether it is oriented according to theoretical approaches granting a different status to forms and meaning (from formal approaches to the emergentist perspective) (Goldschneider & DeKeyser 2005; Ellis 2008), whether it studies the development of learners' competence or language system (Klein & Perdue, 1992; Véronique, 2017), whether they are interested in the knowledge at stake in the appropriation processes or whether they raise the question of the type of grammatical teaching to be delivered (Norris & Ortega 2006; Beacco 2010).
For these study days, we therefore wish to approach the grammar(s) in a plural dimension; To do this, we propose to question the definition and the very notion of grammar(s) through approaches which will condition a conception of language, its functioning and its appropriation. We will also be interested in the developmental aspects of acquisition as they have been studied through research on acquisitional trajectories or learning itineraries, which can concern various formal aspects and apply to various contexts and audiences (Véronique, 2017; Bartning & Schlyter, 2004). Some of the work addressing these questions focuses on guided contexts, others analyze the unguided acquisition process or complex acquisition pathways. We are thinking here in particular of current migration situations (Véronique, 2021).
Research in L2 acquisition also questions the interface between different types of knowledge in language development (Godfroid, 2023; Granget & al., 2017) and often address grammatical skills in interaction with other skills (linguistic, discursive, pragmatic, interactional among others) or with targeted language activities (oral and/or written production or comprehension). More recently, studies based on usage-based approaches emphasize the interface between grammar and lexicon: cognitive approaches and construction grammars consider these two dimensions as constitutive of the same continuum, in which lexical and grammatical structures are articulated (Legallois, 2021). The interface between grammatical (syntactic), semantic and cognitive dimensions deserves, in this perspective, particular attention.
In connection with the linguistic conceptions and developmental perspectives described, it will certainly be fruitful for the debates to cross approaches and to put notions or methodological approaches into dialogue: we think for example of the possible crosses between grammar and contrastive typology, grammar in sign language, grammar and multimodality, grammar and sociolinguistic variation, or even the study of grammatical phenomena through learner corpora.
Finally, both from the point of view of approaches and methodologies, development trajectories, and that of the correspondence between teaching and learning grammars, the interface between language acquisition and teaching could also be questioned (Véronique, 2009).
The study days will be organized around two plenary conferences and several invited communications. Significant time slots will be devoted to posted communications. These communications may relate to any aspect of the acquisition of grammar in L2, in a non-exhaustive manner:
- Development trajectories
- Grammar and learner corpus
- Grammar and usage (variation, sociolinguistics, interaction)
- Grammar and multimodality
- Learning-teaching grammar in L2
- Translinguistic influences in grammar
- Grammar in sign language
- Typologies and contrastive analyzes
- Interface syntax, semantics, cognition