Second grammatical gender system and gender linked connotations in adult emergent bilinguals with French as a second language

Abstract

Aims and Objectives/Purpose/Research questions: This paper explores the connotations that emergent bilinguals attach to grammatical gender and discusses the difficulties adults experience when learning a second grammatical gender system. The results from a study of emergent bilinguals with French as a second language suggest that these difficulties can be partly explained by gender connotations associated with the grammatical gender of the lexical item in the bilingual’s first language. The paper also discusses the dynamic side of these gender-linked connotations, by asking if they are modified when learning the grammatical gender of the lexical items in a second language. Design/Methodology/Approach: In the study, we surveyed 282 adult French L2 learners who were studying at two university language centres. Participants performed a voice attribution task, followed by a French grammatical gender production task. Data and Analysis: We analysed answers to the voice attribution task using a generalized linear mixed model. Findings/Conclusions: The results of this study reveal a strong influence of the objects’ L1 grammatical gender, while no effects of L2 French grammatical gender on voice attribution were found. However, an effect of the grammatical gender participants assigned to objects in the French grammatical gender production task was observed. It appears that L2 grammatical gender has an influence on the voice attribution task, but that the effects are related to the participant’s own L2 French gender assignment, rather than to the correct French grammatical gender of the object. Originality: This research investigates the difficulties experienced by adults learning a second grammatical gender system by tasks used in studies on grammatical gender and (bilingual) cognition. Significance/Implications: The results of this paper enable a discussion of the effects of grammatical gender on (bilingual) cognition, by its focus on L2 grammatical gender learning.