Oral Aspects in French as a Foreign Language Teaching


Denizci C.

Journal of Research in Social Sciences and Language, cilt.3, sa.2, ss.91-108, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

This study handles the specific aspects of oral communication at various linguistic dimensions  within  the  context  of  teaching  French  as  a  foreign  language.  Oral language is prone to a particular organization at the prosodic, morphosyntactic, and discursivedimensions, which interact once speech is brought into play. In order to delve  into  orality  in  French,  as  the  problematic  of  this  study,  and  to  draw  its pedagogical  implications,  a  linguistic  review  of  some  hypothetical  utterances  was first carried out. Then, an interview-based video retrieved from an open source was analyzed  in  terms  of  its  specific  oral  aspects  by  excluding  lexical  and  kinesic characteristics. The findings show the relevance of some oral features which bear a close relationship with eachother. As far as the prosodic aspects are concerned, it is  found  that  the  filled  pause,  the  false  start,  the  contraction,  the  syllable lengthening,  and  most  importantly  the  intonation,  which  plays  a  distinctive  role when conveying meaning, are utilized inoral communication in French. The relevant morphosyntactic features of orality in the scope of French include the thematization, the  omission  of  the  first  negative  adverbial  particle,  the  use  of  presentative structures,   neutral   demonstrative   pronouns   as   well   as   that   of   bivalent indefinite/personal  pronoun,  and  the  recourse  to  direct  speech  or  to  various corrections/repetitions/reformulations.  Concerning  the  specific discursive  aspects of  French,  the  findings  reveal  the  use  of  phatic  markers  as  pragmatic  discourse organizers. Lastly, based on the findings, a communicative-linguistic activity in the form of a task was proposed for didactic purposes.

Keywords: Oral communication, prosody, morphosyntax, discourse analysis, French teaching.