The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a Welsh immersion context

Young, Katharine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2438-888X 2024. The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a Welsh immersion context. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Previous research in Canada shows that French immersion students acquire a limited range of registers available to L1 speakers and do not reach full sociolinguistic competence (Mougeon et al. 2010). Welsh immersion differs insofar as pupils from Welsh-speaking and non-Welsh-speaking homes are taught together. However, no studies compare the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence between these groups. The first aim of the research was to conduct a variationist analysis of the stylistic repertoires of students who speak Welsh at home. The second aim was to compare these patterns with those of students who do not speak Welsh at home to determine whether sociolinguistic competence is acquired. Data were collected from two areas—one with frequent Welsh use in the community and one without—to assess whether sociolinguistic competence is more easily acquired with greater community exposure, as shown in study abroad (Regan et al. 2009) and migrant contexts (Ryan 2018). Data were elicited in three speech contexts of differing formality. To identify style-shifting patterns, three stylistically variable features of Welsh—possessive pronouns, past tense verbs, and intensifiers—were examined. Findings reveal that by the age of 17, immersion students have acquired many of the same constraints and patterns of use, regardless of home language background. More formal contexts elicited higher rates of more formal variants for each of the three features. Furthermore, I found that those who did not speak Welsh at home were more likely to use informal variants overall, showing that they are more likely to be modelling their speech on their peers, rather than the more formal educational variety, which sets this study apart from other variationist work on international immersion. This finding shows that combining pupils of different home languages is likely to promote the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence among young immersion pupils.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > English, Communication and Philosophy Schools > Welsh
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PE English
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	16 April 2025
Last Modified:	16 Apr 2025 15:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/177751

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