imprint:
Cantonal and University Library Fribourg, 2014
Published in:Travaux neuchâtelois de linguistique
Language:
Not determined
DOI:
10.26034/tranel.2014.2909
ISSN:
2504-205X;
1010-1705
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:p>This paper reports a study that investigated self-corrections in spontaneous oral narratives. Seventeen adults students of French as a foreign language were asked to imagine the story from a cartoon and a short silent film. Their performances were recorded and then transcribed. The corpus obtained contains 17255 words. The aim of the study is to provide surface descriptions and classifications of self-corrections and to determine their relationships to linguistic error. Four major types of self-corrections were distinguished: morphological, syntactic, semantic and lexical. The analysis shows that self-corrections are not only a mecanism used to repair errors but also a strategy used by the learners to buy time for lexical search and to promote greater oral fluency. Different cases of improved fluency via self-corrections are discussed, where prefabricated language also seems to play a strategic role.</jats:p>