| This research explores aspects of the development of discourse and linguistic competencies by Ontario French immersion students. It represents a new front for second language (L2) acquisition and immersion research in that, firstly, it provides an in-depth analysis of the mastery by immersion students of several polysemous and polyfunctional words (i.e., comme/ like; donc/alors/(ca ) fait que/so; bon; la), words playing key roles in the expression of fundamental semantic notions (e.g., comparison, consequence, location) and discursive functions (e.g., emphasis, topic shifting, turn yielding). Secondly, it offers insight into the use of discourse markers by immersion students, an as yet under-researched area. Finally, it documents the influence on L2 learners' discourse and linguistic competencies exerted by a range of independent factors, many of which have not before been applied to research on the development of these competencies.;To determine to what degree the immersion students' discursive and non-discursive uses of these expressions conform to native and teacher norms, the students' speech collected during taped interviews is compared with that of same-age Canadian Francophones recorded in the same situation of communication and with the in-class speech of Ontario French immersion teachers.;The findings of this research underline, firstly, the important role of first language (L1) transfer in the students' frequency of use of the expressions and the range of discursive functions this use fulfills. Secondly, they demonstrate that the students' sex and/or social class impact on the use of only those expressions with English discursive equivalents. Thirdly, they show that greater curricular and extra-curricular L2 exposure for the students correlates with increased use of four of the six French expressions. Finally, the findings show that, while the students' rank order of frequency of use of the expressions matches almost exactly that of the immersion teachers, it is far from approximating native norms.;This research concludes that explicit in-class teaching of the discursive and non-discursive uses of the expressions under study is needed to redress the students' over-reliance on their L1 familiarity. In addition, greater extra-curricular L2 exposure would provide the students additional linguistic models and allow them to more closely approximate native norms. |
