L'expression de la localisation et du mouvement dans les descriptions et les récits en L1 et en L2

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Henriëtte Hendriks, Marzena Watorek, Patrizia Giuliano : L'expression de la localisation et du mouvement dans les descriptions et les récits en L1 et en L2. Recent research in language acquisition suggests that an important factor causing the difference between child L1 and adult L2 acquisition is the capacity to engage in complex verbal tasks. Thus, the construction of discourse (with its conceptual and linguistic complexities) seems constrained in the adult L2 case mainly by a lack of linguistic means; in the child L1 case by the gradual development of conceptual and communicative capacities. We tested this hypothesis by analysing reference to space in two tasks, a narrative and a description, as produced by child L1 and adult L2 learners of various source and target languages. Results confirm the hypothesis, and show that whereas both types of learners adapt to language-specific means available in the target, children have more problems conceptually with the task, whereas adults can compensate for their linguistic problems, given their understanding of the communicative situation.