French - Doctoral Theses
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Item Native-nonnative-speaker interaction in second language acquisition: an exploration of turn management, topic management and negotiation strategies in L2 Chinese(University College Cork, 2026-03-07) Yang, Ning; Howard, Martin; University College CorkDuring one academic year at an Irish university, this longitudinal study tracked third-level Irish learners (n=10) of Chinese at the intermediate level as a second language (L2). The investigation sought to explore how learners manage topics and employ negotiation strategies when conversing with a native speaker and how they modify their language during the negotiation process. The current study focuses on two main directions. The first is about how nonnative speakers manage topics to keep the flow of conversation or expand it to develop and make the conversation more comprehensible. The second direction is how the learners employ negotiation strategies when there is a conversational breakdown and how they fix the issue to clarify the meaning and push the conversation forward. Against such a background, the current study selected naturally flowing conversations to observe the conversation between the native speaker and participants. The current study is a longitudinal one, with five data collection sessions arranged for each participant. The study ensured a two-month gap between each data collection session, and the entire data collection period lasted about 10 months to reveal longitudinal development. Based on the initial data analysis, the study noted noticeable differences among participants’ proficiency levels. In this case, the researcher further classified the participants into three subgroups based on their proficiency levels (namely, low-intermediate, mid-intermediate, and high-intermediate levels). Such an approach allowed the study to observe whether there were between-group differences when learners manage topics and negotiate for meaning and whether the native speaker employs different input and negotiation strategies toward participants at different proficiency levels. The study conducted both quantitative and qualitative analyses in the data analysis section. The results showed differences between participants at different proficiency levels regarding the negotiation strategies and modifications they resorted to when conversing with the native speaker. In terms of longitudinal development, sessions one and five demonstrate variations in specific negotiation strategies, and topic and turn management development.Item Cross-linguistic transfer in third language acquisition: a comparative study of Mandarin L2 and Guangxi Cantonese L3 learners of English(University College Cork, 2024) Mo, Na; Howard, MartinThis thesis investigates the possible source of transfer in third language (L3) acquisition by comparing bilingual Guangxi Cantonese and Mandarin learners of English (L3 learners) and Mandarin learners of English (L2 learners) in two writing tasks: story retelling and Chinese-to-English translation. The data constituted a self-built corpus of the written production of 35 university students with Guangxi Cantonese as their first language (L1), Mandarin as their second language (L2), and English as their third language (L3), as well as a further 35 participants with Mandarin as L1 and English as L2. Participants in each group were divided into two subgroups based on their English proficiency. In addition, there are 10 English native speakers who act as control group. The thesis explores the possible source of transfer on lexical and morphosyntactic aspects, based on error analysis and a comparative analysis among the two groups of L3 learners of English and L2 learners of English. In the error analysis, error category (omissions, additions, misformation, misordering), accuracy, and error rate are compared according to learners’ English proficiency level and linguistic background in the written retell and translation tasks. The results show that there is only a significant difference in the category of additions between the different proficiency levels in the L3 group in the written retell task and a significant difference in accuracy between the different proficiency learners regardless of their linguistic background. With regard to the translation task, significant differences were found in accuracy among the learners at different proficiency levels within the L3 group; and a significant difference was found in the error rate between the learners in that higher proficient participants produced more errors than lower counterparts did. The findings also illustrate that both L3 and L2 learners perform similarly in the productions of errors. In addition, by comparing lexis and morphosyntax in the participants’ English writing production from different linguistic backgrounds, the results demonstrate that subordinating conjunction redundancy, the preferred use of the word ‘have’, misuse of ‘this’ or ‘that’ to replace articles, prepositional use of the dative clause, and frequent use of existential and possessive constructions may reflect of L1 Guangxi Cantonese. While noun redundancy, the preferred use of the word ‘make’, the misuse of prepositions, double-object use of dative clauses, relative clauses, run-on sentences, serial-verb constructions, and morphological changes may derive from either the L1 Guangxi Cantonese or the L2 Mandarin. The finding also suggests that a universal error that may not be regarded as a phenomenon of transfer: misuse of articles, because it has been found in other languages that lack article systems like Guangxi Cantonese and Mandarin.Item As others saw us: the French grand reporter on the island of Ireland in the 20th century(University College Cork, 2023) O'Hanlon, Oliver; Hassett, Dónal; Ó Drisceoil, DonalThis thesis analyses how the political perception of Ireland evolved in France during the course of the twentieth-century. It looks at the work of a number of grand reporter journalists from five different French newspapers who reported on Ireland at times of conflict in the twentieth-century. The two seminal periods of conflict in Irish history, the War of Independence and the violent sectarian conflict which lasted for almost thirty years, known colloquially as the “Troubles”, attracted unprecedented media attention from the world’s press. In this source-driven longue durée study of newspaper articles produced by the grands reporters journalists, I show how the form of writing that they produced, grand reportage, evolved over time. It moved from an entertaining and engaging style of writing that was primarily aimed at attracting the reader’s attention and making them buy the next day’s newspaper, in much the same way that the roman-feuilleton was used in a previous generation, to more of an accurate reflection of what was happening on the ground in Ireland. During the Troubles, grands reporters did not need to add any of the Gothic style elements that their confreres would have used in the 1920s to add an air of mystery to the first-person narrative in order to make it as interesting as possible. This transformation in the form of grand reportage was driven by changes in media practise which were prompted by competition from other forms of media. Grand reportage was no longer being used to boost newspaper sales but remained a feature of the French press and was used to boost a newspaper’s credibility, as we see in the case of a new newspaper, Libération, that chose to report from Ireland and other locations around the world to show that it was willing and able to compete with more established newspapers. I show how the political perception of Ireland in France shifted from one of a peripheral land or romanticised exotic L’île verte that was locked in seemingly intractable conflict, to one of a modern outward-looking state that was a peer with France through their common membership of the European Union.Item Linguistic and sociolinguistic development in L2 speaking: a comparison between Chinese ESL learners in different learning contexts(University College Cork, 2023) Mu, Di; Howard, MartinThe aim of this longitudinal comparative study is to examine the impact of learning contexts on second language learners' linguistic and sociolinguistic development in speaking. To achieve this purpose, comparisons were made between the learning outcomes of two groups of Chinese ESL (English as a Second Language) learners studying in a SA (study abroad) or an AH (at home) learning environment over a three-month period. Specifically, the learning outcomes were assessed through linguistic development measured by grammatical accuracy and syntactic complexity in spoken English as well as sociolinguistic development measured by three indicators, namely -ing/in alternation, -t/d deletion, and use of contractions in spoken English. In addition, the quantitative correlations between the learners' linguistic and sociolinguistic development as well as between their linguistic/sociolinguistic development and different types of influencing factors (individual, contextual, stylistic, and linguistic) were explored in order to further analyze and compare the similarities and differences between the learners in the two learning contexts. A total of 16 SA learners and 10 AH learners participated in the research and completed pre-interview questionnaires, sociolinguistic interviews and reading aloud tasks at the beginning and end of the three-month study. By analyzing the data collected from the three instruments, this study provided answers to the four research questions. For the first question regarding linguistic development, it was found that neither group of learners made statistically significant progress over three months, but the comparison between the two groups at different time points showed that the AH context was overall more favorable to the acquisition of grammatical accuracy, and the SA context was generally more beneficial to the acquisition syntactic complexity. Similar results were obtained for the second question concerning sociolinguistic development—no statistically significant progress was observed in both groups over the three-month period, but the comparison between the two groups at the two time points indicated that the SA context in general provided greater benefits to the acquisition of -ing/in alternation in conversation and -t/d deletion in reading, as compared to the AH context. The third question explored the quantitative correlation between linguistic and sociolinguistic development. The findings revealed that the correlation between linguistic and sociolinguistic development was relatively low for learners in the SA group, while relatively high for learners in the AH group, suggesting that the SA learners’ sociolinguistic development was more independent than the AH learners. The last question examined the quantitative correlations between linguistic/sociolinguistic development and four types of influencing factors. The results suggested that all four types of factors, i.e. gender, contextual factors, speech style, and linguistic factors, exerted some extent of influence on L2 learners’ linguistic or sociolinguistic development, although the degree of influence varied between the two groups and/or between the different indicators. Despite some limitations, this study provided some pedagogical implications and suggestions for L2 acquisition researchers, university language learners and university language teachers.Item Processes and collaboration in French subtitling: a translator-centred analysis of two production contexts(University College Cork, 2024) Caseres, Sevita; Silvester, Hannah; Noonan, Mary; Irish Research Council; University College CorkThis thesis investigates the roles, tasks, and interactions of subtitlers in two distinct French subtitling contexts: fansubbing and industry subtitling. Audiovisual translation (AVT) has traditionally been analysed from a product-oriented perspective (Beuchert, 2017), while this thesis takes a sociological approach. Adopting a Translator Studies paradigm (Chesterman, 2009), this research project explores processes and collaboration in English-French subtitling production, placing emphasis on the concepts of community and production networks. The primary research question explores how the translators’ processes, practices, and collaboration patterns compare between fansubbing and industry subtitling. This research is based on two different datasets from two case studies. The first provides a comprehensive examination of fansubbing, non-professional collaborative translation performed by fans in online communities, utilising covert netnography – a form of online ethnography – in a French fansubbing community. The second case study focuses on industry subtitling, involving seven subtitlers in the French AVT industry working for cinema and Video on Demand (VOD) platforms. Employing a human-centred approach, this study includes introductory and retrospective semi-structured interviews as well as non-participant observations of each subtitler’s workday. The investigation uncovers the translators’ workflows and interactions within their production networks by examining collaboration with fellow translators and other agents – an aspect rarely explored in AVT research. This approach enables a comparative examination of subtitling processes. It identifies three primary workflows within the fansubbing community, and outlines the individual subtitling habits and processes of industry subtitlers, differentiating between two distinct production and distribution workflows in the French industry. The study also delves into the intricacies of collaboration in subtitling practices, shedding light on cooperation, communication methods, challenges, and the evolution of both environments over time. The findings of the first case study allow for the categorisation of four collaboration areas within the fansubbing community. In the second case study, three collaboration areas emerge within industry subtitling processes. The analysis extends to the translators’ community collaboration in each distinct context, both within the fansubbing community and within ATAA (Association des Traducteurs/Adaptateurs de l’Audiovisuel), the French association for audiovisual translators. While the benefits of community collaboration are evident in the case of fansubbing, in the industry, the increased vulnerability of subtitlers’ working conditions coupled with the lack of recognition for their pivotal role in the cultural industry, emphasises the essential need for a deeper understanding of the current social dynamics governing the subtitling profession. This understanding is crucial to address challenges to effective collaboration, which in turn can impact working conditions and, ultimately, subtitle quality (Abdallah, 2011). This leads to an innovative comparative thematic analysis of these aspects between both environments, providing a contemporary perspective on subtitling practices in two different production contexts. The study contributes to awareness of an overlooked profession and encourages learning from different types of translators, fostering a more comprehensive understanding of the intricacies of subtitling in varied settings.