Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

Summer 2025

Abstract

Exposure to a second language is a common experience in the American education system, but the impacts of second language learning on one’s linguistic identity are often overlooked in studying the process of language acquisition. This study compared a focus group of six individuals who had studied French in the past with two case studies consisting of two current graduate students in French and one native speaker. All participants were from the central Ohio region. The participants were asked to tell a fictional narrative based on the book Frog, Where Are You? by Mercer Mayer, once in English and once in French. Afterwards, the participants were asked to describe their fluency subjectively and objectively by filling out a language history. In order to examine expression of linguistic identity, the narratives told by participants were analyzed for use of verb tense and the establishment of temporal frames throughout the story. Taken with the information provided by participants about their language learning, it was found that students employed a larger variety of verb tenses in their French narratives in order to establish background and temporal boundaries, while the adults tended to tell narratives in the present tense with less complexity. This is reflective of the difference between a population currently studying French, who would have more access to increased complexity of language, and a population receiving little to no formal instruction in the language during this time. Linguistic identity was expressed, however, in a contradictory manner, with students expressing less attachment to the French language and culture and adults experiencing a strong nostalgia about their time as a student of French.

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