Production et prononciation des consonnes liquides /R/ et /l/ du français standard chez des apprenants non francophones. Le cas du cours de phonologie à l’Université de Calgary.

Abstract

This thesis focuses on the pronunciation of non-francophone university students enrolled in a phonology course (FREN 489.01) by analyzing the oral production of two phonemes of standard French, /R/ and /l/. This is done to determine whether or not they achieve a more native like pronunciation. We will analyze a corpus of learners enrolled in the course mentioned above and a control group of students not enrolled in this course by using recorded speech samples, questionnaires and evaluations of the recorded speech samples by a group of francophones. We also propose to do a comparative study of the study group’s results with the results of the control group in order to determine whether the phonology course helped learners improve their pronunciation. In addition to analysing production at the segmental level, we will also discuss production at the suprasegmental level, particularly in regards to accent, intonation and fluency. By learning the fundamental elements of language and the differences between their L1 (first language) and L2 (second language), students can deepen their connection and understanding of culture and its language in both oral and written formats.