Metalinguistic explanations and self-reports as triangulation data for interpreting second language sociolinguistic performance

The study reported here explores the use of learners' metalinguistic explanations and self-reports of variable language production as triangulation data for interpreting second language (L2) sociolinguistic performance, focusing on the variable retention versus omission of the negative morpheme ne. Our central argument is that performance data alone are not sufficient for evaluating how L2 learners perceive social and stylistic variation in the language they are studying. To this end, an analysis of data from a variety of sources is presented. The results illustrate how multiple data sources can provide a multidimensional view of sociolinguistic performance that is not necessarily revealed when performance data alone are considered as a single source of analysis. Nous explorons l'utilisation d'explications metalinguistiques et d'auto-rapports de production langagiere variable d'apprenants en tant que donnees de triangulation pour l'interpretation de la performance sociolinguistique en langue seconde, tout en nous concentrant sur la retention et l'omission du morpheme de negation ne. Nous proposons que les donnees de performance ne sont pas suffisantes pour evaluer la comprehension de la variation sociale et stylistique de la part des etudiants dans la langue qu'ils apprennent. A cette fin, une analyse de donnees provenant de diverses sources est presentee. Les resultats montrent comment plusieurs sources de donnees peuvent fournir une perspective multidimensionnelle de la performance sociolinguistique, une perspective qui n'aurait pas ete revelee si nous n'avions considere que les donnees de performance.

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