The acquisition of intensifying constructions in Dutch and English by French-speaking CLIL and non-CLIL students : cross-linguistic influence and exposure effects

Hendrikx, Isa [UCL]

In times of globalization, multilingualism is considered a strong social and economic asset. In Belgium, a multilingual country comprising three official languages and four linguistic areas, good language skills are highly valued. The pedagogical approach of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is promoted by the European Union to enhance widespread multilingualism. Within the context of a longitudinal multidisciplinary research project on CLIL in French-speaking Belgium, the present PhD explores the relation between CLIL and the acquisition of intensifying constructions by French-speaking learners of English and Dutch. Such constructions include an amplifying modifier that strengthens the meaning of an adjective (e.g. heel leuk ‘very nice’, brand-new). Language-specific preferences for particular types of intensification and differences in productivity between the L1 and the target language (TL) constructions may interfere with the acquisition process. As intensifiers are not always subject to explicit language instruction, the acquisition of intensifiers may depend largely on implicit learning and the amount of target-language exposure may be key to a target-like acquisition. It is therefore expected that more input and use of the target language (through CLIL) will lead to faster acquisition of intensifying constructions and that learners will benefit from similarities between intensifying constructions in their L1 and TL. Overall, the results corroborate the hypotheses. Cross-linguistic similarities between English and French appear to result in fewer mistakes in the English learners’ use of intensifiers. Secondly, CLIL correlates positively with a more target-like use of intensifiers, in terms of the variety, structural and semantic types of intensifiers and more target-like patterns of co-occurrence between intensifiers and adjectives.