Vocabulary Knowledge in L3 French: A Study of Swedish Learners’ Vocabulary Depth

Abstract

The overall aim of the present study is to achieve a better understanding of young instructed Swedish learners’ vocabulary knowledge in L3 French, by examining various aspects of vocabulary depth. Previous research has shown that this learner group’s vocabulary size increases systematically, and at a relatively fast pace, from grade 6 through grade 9 (i.e., from the first year of studies of French and onwards; from age 12 to 15). However, vocabulary size tests only give a quantitative estimation about how many words test takers know, and do not say anything about qualitative aspects of word knowledge. Vocabulary depth, on the other hand, concerns such aspects. In order to arrive at a more complete picture of learners’ word knowledge, both size and depth need to be examined. In the present study, aspects of vocabulary depth were analyzed in learners’ word choices in a written elicited production task. The data consist of 105 written retellings from students in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9. Word choices pertaining to various key elements in the retellings were included in the analysis, with a focus on orthographical, semantic, and morphological aspects of deep word knowledge. The results show that orthographical knowledge is similar throughout the years, with the same spelling difficulties occurring in all the grades at similar rates. Semantic and morphological knowledge seem to develop at a quicker pace, with the 8th and 9th graders having a deeper knowledge of these aspects. It can be concluded that some, but not all, aspects of deep knowledge start to develop during the first four years of studies of French.

1. Introduction

The overall purpose of the present study is to achieve a better understanding of Swedish learners’ vocabulary knowledge and development in French as a third language (L3) by examining aspects of vocabulary depth. Vocabulary depth can be defined as “how well a word is known” (Yanagisawa and Webb 2020, p. 371), while vocabulary size, another frequently studied aspect of vocabulary knowledge, relates to how many words learners know (without indicating how well these words are known). As stated by Schmitt (2010), it is an impossible task to examine all aspects of vocabulary knowledge in one single test battery. This is because of the complexity of vocabulary knowledge, including a large number of different aspects related to the words’ form, meaning, and use (cf. Nation 2020). Thus, vocabulary studies necessarily have to focus on a limited number of aspects, but taken together, different studies can provide a more comprehensive picture of vocabulary knowledge and development (Schmitt 2010). This is what the present study aims to do. It builds on previous research by Lindqvist (2018), who examined the vocabulary size of learners of L3 French in grades 6 through 9 (age 12–15) in the Swedish school system. In short, the results showed a relatively rapid and substantial growth in vocabulary size throughout the years, especially in comparison with previous studies on similar groups in other settings (Milton 2008; David 2008). However, as pointed out above, vocabulary size only measures how many words learners know (as estimated in a test), and does not say anything about how well the words are known. In a follow-up study, Lindqvist (2020) re-examined the results of the previous study, and showed that an important proportion of the known words turned out to have cognates—defined as words with similar forms and meanings in two or more languages—in either Swedish, English, or both of these languages. These results indicate that the vocabulary sizes might have been over-estimated, in the sense that learners may have indicated that they knew a word because they recognized it from their first language (L1) and/or their second language (L2). Knowing cognates, and taking advantage of this knowledge, is one of the factors that guide vocabulary acquisition (Laufer 1997; Peters 2020), and it is also well established that L1 and L2 lexical influences are part of learners’ vocabulary acquisition, knowledge, and use more generally (Booth and Clenton 2020; Ecke 2015; Ringbom 2007). In two other studies, Lindqvist (2015, 2019) examined L1 and L2 lexical influences in the same grades, but in a different task. This time, the learners were to retell a short cartoon in writing. The results showed that the learners made use of both their L1 and L2 to a large extent when writing in L3 French, with L2 English being the major transfer source.

Cognate knowledge, and other types of L1 and L2 lexical influences, are part of the qualitative dimension of vocabulary knowledge, i.e., vocabulary depth, while vocabulary size (or breadth) is a quantitative dimension (Yanagisawa and Webb 2020). Apart from cognates and L1 and L2 lexical influences, aspects such as orthography, pronunciation, meaning senses, and collocational knowledge are all part of vocabulary depth. Returning to the same data set as in Lindqvist (2019), the present study will examine some of these aspects in Swedish learners’ written production in L3 French, with a view to arriving at a more complete picture of Swedish learners’ vocabulary knowledge. Importantly, according to Yanagisawa and Webb (2020, p. 372), research on vocabulary depth has the potential to shed light on the ways in which vocabulary knowledge develops and how it is related to language learning in general. More precisely, the present study will focus on the use of certain key elements in the writings of the students and how they are rendered in terms of some of the qualitative aspects of form and meaning suggested by Nation (2020), namely spelling, form-meaning relationship, and word parts. In his well-known overview of what is involved in knowing a word, Nation (see Nation 2020, p. 16, for a recent version) makes a distinction between form, meaning, and use. These components are further divided into different aspects. The form component, for example, includes the aspects spoken, written, and word parts. These aspects are also all divided into receptive and productive knowledge. For the purposes of this study on written production, formal word knowledge primarily relates to spelling: “How is the word written and spelled?”, and word parts: “What word parts are needed to express the meaning?” (Nation 2020, p. 16). As for the meaning component, this study will examine the relationship between form and meaning: “What word form can be used to express this meaning?” (Nation 2020, p. 16). By using a retelling, where certain key elements need to be rendered in order to tell the story accurately, we will be able to examine whether the learners make use of appropriate word forms for a given meaning. Schmitt (2010, p. 224) calls this way of examining vocabulary depth the “dimensions approach” (others, such as Yanagisawa and Webb 2020, use the term “components approach” in accordance, one would assume, with Nation’s use of “components”). This approach “involves specifying some of the types of word knowledge one can have about lexical items, and then quantifying participants’ mastery of those types” (Schmitt 2010, p. 224). One of the advantages of such an approach is that it provides the opportunity to obtain a relatively comprehensive overview of word knowledge: “while measuring knowledge of several types of word knowledge is time consuming and limits the number of lexical items that could be studied, it can produce a very rich description of vocabulary knowledge” (Schmitt 2010, p. 224). Naturally, the dimensions approach does not come without limitations, as noted by Schmitt. Obviously, it is impossible to tap into all the different aspects that are involved in word knowledge in one single study. Nevertheless, as already mentioned, studying some aspects thoroughly will contribute to our knowledge about learners’ vocabulary depth, by adding to the existing research (see also Read 2000). The methodology will be explained in more detail in the next section (Materials and Methods).

Previous research on vocabulary depth has mainly focused on L2 English (e.g., Read 2000, 2004; Qian 2002; Schoonen and Verhallen 2008; Schmitt 1998; Webb 2005; Gyllstad 2009). However, if we are to gain more knowledge about vocabulary depth, and vocabulary learning in general, languages other than English need to be examined as well. As regards French, different aspects of vocabulary depth have been investigated in a few studies. Some of them examined some aspect of vocabulary depth, but did not interpret the results within a vocabulary depth framework. That is often the case with studies on collocations and lexical richness, for example (cf. Tidball and Treffers-Daller 2007; Forsberg Lundell and Lindqvist 2014a). Most of the studies seem to have looked at advanced learners, but they are very different in nature. Some of them used different tests in order to measure vocabulary depth (Greidanus et al. 2004; Forsberg Lundell and Lindqvist 2014b), while others looked into different types of language production data (Ovtcharov et al. 2006; Lindqvist 2010, 2012; Tidball and Treffers-Daller 2007). With regards to the studies that interpreted the results within a vocabulary depth framework, Greidanus et al. (2004) found strong correlations between receptive vocabulary size and receptive vocabulary depth in Dutch advanced L2 French learners. Forsberg Lundell and Lindqvist (2014b) examined vocabulary depth as part of a larger test battery in Swedish users of French as a second language, who had been living in France for several years. The results showed that the users, while approaching native-likeness on other aspects, did not perform in a native-like way on the receptive deep knowledge test and in the productive collocation knowledge test, which indicates that these aspects are difficult to master.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no study that is similar to the present one, considering target language, age groups, proficiency level, and lexical aspects. The reason why aspects of deep knowledge have mainly been studied in advanced learners is probably that many such aspects tend to develop at later stages during the learning process, in particular those related to meaning and use. There are, however, good reasons to examine to what degree deep knowledge occurs and how it develops at lower proficiency levels in order to gain more knowledge about this part of vocabulary knowledge and how it is related to language learning more generally. There is also a lack of studies examining vocabulary learning from an L3 perspective. It might not always be applicable, but in many cases the learners have acquired another foreign language in addition to the language being tested. L3 research has repeatedly shown that not only the L1, but also previously acquired L2s, even those in which the learners have a low proficiency level, influence the learning of an L3 (De Angelis et al. 2015; Ringbom 2007; Ecke 2015). It is therefore important to take all the languages the learners know into account. With respect to the learners of the present study, it is inevitable to adopt an L3 perspective, French being the second foreign language they learn in school, after English. As indicated above, previous research on this particular language combination clearly shows that English plays an important role during the language learning process. Crucially, L2 English seems to be an asset in several ways, especially as far as vocabulary comprehension is concerned. Whether English or other background languages play a role in Swedish learners’ vocabulary depth is still an open question. It is hoped that the present study will shed light on this question. The following research questions were asked:

• What characterizes Swedish learners’ vocabulary depth in French in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9?
• In what ways does Swedish learners’ vocabulary depth in French develop from grade 6 through grade 9?

The results indicate that while some aspects of vocabulary depth seem to develop over the years, at least to a certain degree, other aspects remain difficult to master even in the 9th grade, that is, after three and a half years of studies of French in school.

2. Materials and Methods

As noted in the introduction, vocabulary depth has been examined by using different types of tests in previous studies. Such depth tests have mainly been developed for L2 English, most of them tapping into learners’ receptive deep knowledge by asking them to rate their knowledge of specific words. Different scales have been proposed (e.g., Wesche and Paribakht 1996) but they have been questioned (Schmitt 2010). There are also other test formats, such as association tests (see Read 2020 or Yanagisawa and Webb 2020). For French, Bogaards (2000) developed the Euralex French Tests, which target semantic knowledge, fixed expressions, and cultural aspects. The tests are aimed at very advanced learners of L2 French and are therefore not suitable for the participants of the present study. Thus, as no appropriate test seems to exist, it was decided to use written retellings as material in this study and to focus on the words that the learners actually use.

Vocabulary depth was investigated in written retellings gathered from 105 Swedish students in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9 in a school in the Stockholm area. The students were asked to try to retell a one-page cartoon, The Dog Story (see Appendix A), in writing using only pen and paper. This short cartoon has been used in previous research on foreign language learning (e.g., Lindqvist 2015; Sánchez 2011). As explained by Lindqvist (2015), “it contains six pictures telling the story about two children, a boy and a girl, who, waving goodbye to their mother, leave their house for a picnic. They have brought a picnic bag with them. As they arrive in the woods it turns out that their dog had been hiding in the basket and that he has eaten all the food”. The students were given 20 min of an ordinary class to complete the task. They had to work individually and were not allowed to use dictionaries. The researcher and the teacher encouraged them to try to communicate as much as they could of what they saw on the pictures.

Vocabulary depth was examined in the learners’ word choices in the retellings. Word choice analyses are efficient because many aspects of word knowledge can be analyzed at the same time (Jarvis and Pavlenko 2008). The key elements included in the analysis are: mère (‘mother’), fille (‘girl’), garçon (‘boy’), chien (‘dog’), panier (‘basket’), manger (‘(to) eat’), dire (‘(to) say’). They were chosen because they are central to the story, which increases the chances that the learners try to use them. This selection will allow us to make more reliable comparisons between the groups. As explained in the introduction, the analysis will focus on spelling: “How is the word written and spelled?”; form-meaning relationship: “What word form can be used to express this meaning?”; and word parts: “What word parts are needed to express the meaning?” (Nation 2020, p. 16). More precisely, spelling will be analyzed in the first four words, form-meaning relationship in the last three words, and word parts (grammatical morphemes) in the last two words, i.e., the verbs. It is important to note that in studies on the development of word knowledge “target words can be the words that participants do not know, or words that are partially known; some components of word knowledge may be known while other components may not be known” (Yanagisawa and Webb 2020, p. 381). This is clearly the case with the selected words. Some of them, such as fille (‘girl’) and garçon (‘boy’) are introduced early in teaching materials and should not be new to any of the students, while others, such as panier (‘basket’) may not have been introduced yet. The chosen verbs should have been introduced in all grades, but one would assume that they are partially known considering the rich verb morphology of French.

After completion of the writing task, the students were asked to fill in a short background questionnaire regarding their experiences with other languages. They all had Swedish as their first language and English as their second language (see

Table 1. Background information about the students (n = 105).

Grade	Age	Number of Students	Semesters of Study of French	L1	L2(s)
6	11/12	17	1	Swedish	English (17) Finnish (1) Norwegian (1) Polish (1)
7	12/13	26	3	Swedish	English (26) Danish (1)
8	13/14	35	5	Swedish	English (35) Chinese (2) Spanish (16) German (1)
9	14/15	27	7	Swedish	English (27) German (2) Spanish (12) Chinese (4)

). They had been learning English from grade 1, 2, or 3, that is at the age of 7, 8, or 9. In general, Swedish students have a relatively good command of English from an early age, possibly because of constant input from various sources such as games, the Internet, and the surrounding society. Thus, it is safe to say that English is their L2, chronologically, and most likely also in terms of proficiency. Consequently, French is their third language (L3). The data collection took place in January/February. At that point, the 6th graders had been taught French for one semester, the 7th graders for three semesters, and so on. While the proficiency level of the students has not been tested, according to the national curricula students in grades 6 and 7 are supposed to have reached the A1.1 level according to the CEFR scale (Council of Europe 2001), students in grade 8 A1.2, and students in grade 9 A2.1 (Skolverket 2019). It is also worthwhile mentioning that Swedish learners do not receive much input from French apart from the language they encounter in the classroom. The French teaching focuses on both written and spoken language, and on reception as well as production and interaction. From grade 8, it is possible, but not mandatory, for pupils in the Swedish school system to start learning an additional foreign language, usually German or Spanish, which is why some of the students have knowledge of these languages. Some students also indicated that they had rudimentary knowledge of other languages thanks to relatives. All the foreign languages apart from the target language are labeled L2 (cf. Lindqvist 2015). Table 1 shows the background information regarding the students.

Ethical considerations were taken into account before the data collection. Consent was obtained from parents and teacher, and students as well as parents were informed that the data would be anonymized and used for research purposes only.

The total number of words as well as the average in the different grades are shown in

Table 2. Total number of words produced, range and average.

Grade	Words Produced	Range	Average
6 (n = 17)	503	7–74	26
7 (n = 26)	1835	18–164	66
8 (n = 35)	3516	34–197	100
9 (n = 27)	3066	62–263	114

. Clearly, there is a considerable variation in text length between the grades. This is expected, and is in all probability due to different levels of proficiency. The lowest number of words produced was seven (by a student in grade 6) and the highest was 263 (by a student in grade 9). It is also clear that the average number of words increases from year to year, with the lowest average in grade 6 and the highest in grade 9. The total number of words is highest in grade 8, though. This is because the number of students is the highest in this grade. Finally, it can be noted that the number of words produced has a considerable range in all grades.

3. Results and Analysis

This section presents the results pertaining to the three aspects of vocabulary depth: spelling, form-meaning, and word parts.

Table 3. Results—spelling (word types, occurrences, number of learners, accuracy rates).

Grade	Mère	Total	Acc.Rate	Fille	Total	Acc.Rate	Garçon	Total	Acc.Rate	Chien	Total	Acc.Rate
6 (n = 17)	mère (2, 2), mere (1, 1), mére (3, 2), maire (1, 1)	7	29%	fille (21, 12)	21	100%	garçon (16, 8), garquon (1, 1), garcon (6, 3), garzon (1, 1)	24	67%	chien (13, 10), chain (4, 1), chian (2, 1)	19	81%
7 (n = 26)	mère (19, 11), mére (5, 4)	24	79%	fille (48, 21), filles (1, 1)	49	98%	garçon (56, 18), garcon (2, 2)	58	97%	chien (68, 26), chienne (2, 1), chie (1, 1)	71	96%
8 (n = 35)	mère (41, 22), merè (3, 1), mére (10, 4), méré (1, 1), mere (1, 1), mèrè (3, 1)	59	69%	fille (87), fill (1, 1), filles (2, 2)	90	97%	garçon (71, 23), garcon (18, 4), garson (1, 1)	90	79%	chien (118, 33)	118	100%
9 (n = 27)	mère (27, 15), mere (5, 2), mére (6, 3), mèrè (2, 1)	40	68%	fille (29, 17), fill (5, 3), filles (5, 2)	39	74%	garçon (56, 17) garcon (3, 2)	59	95%	chien (86, 24), chain (2, 1), cien (1, 1), chein (6, 1)	95	91%

shows the number of occurrences of each spelling variant, followed by the number of learners using the form, as well as the accuracy rates for each target word—mère, fille, garçon, and chien—in the different grades. Overall, the results seem to suggest that spelling difficulties are consistent throughout the years, with practically the same variants occurring in each grade. According to these results then, the learners do not seem to develop their deep knowledge with respect to spelling.

Starting with mère (‘mother’), some differences between the grades appear when looking at the number of occurrences of each spelling variant. In particular, in grade 6 the variants are more equally distributed, while in the other grades the vast majority of the occurrences are correctly spelled, suggesting that the correct spelling is starting to stabilize from grade 7 onwards. Interestingly, the opposite is true for fille (‘girl’), with a 100% accuracy rate in grade 6. However, the spelling is nearly entirely correct in grades 7 and 8 too, with a few occasional uses of other variants, often by one learner only. There are more occurrences of incorrect spelling variants in grade 9. Taken together, the results seem to indicate that the spelling of fille is relatively stable over the years. As for garçon (‘boy’), the correct spelling along with the form garcon dominate in grades 7, 8, and 9, while the 6th graders seem to have more difficulties with this word, producing more variants. Finally, the spelling of chien (‘dog’) is largely mastered in all grades, with a few occurrences of other variants in each grade, with the exception of grade 8 where no variants are used.

In summary, the results regarding spelling seem to suggest that it is a difficult aspect to master overall, but at the same time most of the occurrences are correctly spelled. As noted by Yanagisawa and Webb (2020, p. 376), spelling is an aspect that can be known to different degrees. According to these authors, it can therefore be relevant to analyze strength of knowledge as well. The strength of knowledge can vary from no knowledge to partial knowledge to full knowledge. As regards spelling, partial knowledge may include “being able to write the word with an inaccurate but identifiable spelling,” while full knowledge would imply being able to “quickly produce the complete and exact spelling of a word” (p. 376). In Table 3, the accuracy rates relate to the degree of knowledge, where 100% would imply “full knowledge,” which is rarely attained. It can be argued that most of the spelling variants have been written “with an inaccurate but identifiable spelling,” suggesting that the learners have partial knowledge of the word form. As for mère, with the exception of maire, the different variants all contain the four letters m+e+r+e, but with incorrect use of accents. While some of the variants would result in a different pronunciation, it can still be argued that they are identifiable in writing. Undoubtedly, for somebody reading the retellings, these forms would be recognized and understood. This is not necessarily the case with maire, but it is a homophone to mère, so even if the spelling is incorrect, it would be perceived as correct in speech. It is unclear, however, if it would be perceived as a variant of mère in writing. The different spellings of fille (fill, filles) are also identifiable and recognizable, indicating a high degree of partial knowledge. Furthermore, they would result in a correct pronunciation. This is not true for all the variants of garçon, where only garson would be pronounced in a similar way. The other spellings would alter the pronunciation, with garcon and garquon resulting in a /k/ sound and garzon in a /z/ sound instead of a /s/ sound. However, it can still be argued that these forms are identifiable in writing, but it seems that the strength of knowledge is weaker for this word. Some of the suggested variants for chien: chain, cie, chein, and chian would probably not be immediately recognized as spelling variants unless the reader were familiar with the story. In grade 6, these variants represent six of the 19 occurrences, while in the 9th grade they constitute nine out of 91 occurrences. The strength of knowledge thus seems to increase over the years with regards to this word. Having analyzed the strength of knowledge, it can be concluded that full orthographical knowledge is rare overall, and that partial knowledge is more common in all grades. Moreover, the degree of the strength of knowledge seems to vary from word to word, and also between the grades.

Let us now look at the results with respect to the form-meaning aspect. As word parts will be examined separately, the verbs used are given in the infinitive form in

Table 4. Results—form-meaning relationship (occurrences, number of learners).

Grade	Panier	Dire	Manger
6 (n = 17)	korg (1, 1)	discuter (1, 1)	manger (1, 1), äta (1, 1 Sw. ‘manger’)
7 (n = 26)	panier (2, 1), basket (36, 15), basquette (3, 1), baskuette (2, 1), baskette (1, 1), korg (2, 1), box (3, 1), baskét (1, 1), baskèt (1, 1)	parler (1, 1), savoir (1, 1)	manger (6, 6), äta (2, 2 ‘manger’), comer (1, 1 Sp. ‘manger’),
8 (n = 35)	bascet (1, 1), korg (6, 3), basket (31, 10), bascett (5, 2), sac (5, 2), basquete (1, 1), basquet (1, 1), basquette (3, 1), valise (1, 1), bag (3, 1), bascette (3, 1) baskuette (1, 1), picnickbasket (1, 1), väskan (1, 1)	parler (5, 4), dire (2 1), säga (1, 1 ‘dire’)	manger (43, 21)
9 (n = 27)	panier (13, 4), boule (1, 1), basket (23, 10), basquet (4, 2), basquette (7, 2), bascet (2, 1), pichet (5, 1)	dire (4, 4), parler (2, 2), pouvoir (1, 1), faire (1, 1), shout (1, 1)	manger (33, 22)

.

Table 4 shows that only some of the 9th graders seem to be able to relate the correct target word form panier (‘basket’) to the intended meaning (there are also two occurrences of the word form in the 7th grade, both produced by the same learner). Moreover, these learners use other French words but with completely different meanings than the intended one: boule (‘ball’) and pichet (‘pitcher’, ‘jug’). The 8th graders also use other French words: valise (‘suitcase’) and sac (‘bag’), which are closer to the intended meaning. It is striking that many of the learners in grades 7, 8, and 9 make use of the English word basket, either as pure code-switches, or with different kinds of adaptations: basquette, basquet, bascet, baskuette, basquete, baskét, baskèt. There are also code-switches in bag and box, which could be either Swedish or English. The Swedish equivalent word korg is also used in all grades but grade 9. In grade 6, this is the only word used. In conclusion, the word panier is starting to become known only in the 9th grade. As regards strength of knowledge, it can be argued that the learners in this grade have partial knowledge of the form-meaning relationship, while in the other grades the learners have no knowledge of the French word form. In such cases, it is clear that the learners make use of their word knowledge in previously acquired languages, either by using the exact Swedish or English word form, or by trying to adapt a word form into French on the basis of English. Thus, their vocabulary is characterized by L1 and L2 influences to a large extent, and more so in the lower grades.

Moving on to the first verb, dire (‘say’) it is not used in grades 6 and 7, but it appears in grades 8 and 9. The verb parler (‘speak’) is frequently used, but it is not entirely appropriate in this particular context. Other suggestions in grade 9 with more general meanings are faire (‘do’) and pouvoir (‘can’) (both used as plain lexical verbs), as well as the English verb shout. As for the verb manger (‘eat’) it is used in all the grades, and it is the only choice in grades 8 and 9. The learners in grades 6 and 7 resort to the corresponding word in Swedish and Spanish. It thus seems that dire is better mastered from grade 8 onwards, while manger is known in all the grades, at least as far as the meaning is concerned. And again, the learners in the lower grades resort to their L1 and L2 (mainly Swedish but there is also influence from Spanish comer) when they do not know the French word form for the intended meaning. Let us now look at the learners’ knowledge of word parts with respect to these verbs.

To begin with,

Table 5. Results—word parts: verb forms (occurrences, number of learners).

Grade	Dire	Manger
6	-	mangez (1, 1)
7	-	manger (4, 4), mangé (1, 1), mange (1, 1)
8	dit (1, 1), disent (1, 1)	mange (17, 12), mangé (15, 13), manger (8, 3), mangons (2, 2), manche (1, 1)
9	dire (1, 1), dirent (1, 1), dis (1, 1), dit (1, 1)	mangé (11, 10), mange (11, 11), manger (4, 4), mangais (3, 1) manges (2, 2), mage (1, 1), mangeait (1, 1)

shows that the number of different verb forms increases from grade 6 onwards, most notably with regards to manger. In order to examine the learners’ word knowledge concerning word parts—what word parts can be used to express the meaning-the analysis will focus on verb morphology, that is whether the verb inflections are correct in terms of person and tense (there are no contexts in which a different mode than the indicative should be used). Starting with dire, it is only used twice in grade 8, in the present tense, and by the same learner. The inflections are correct:

1.

La mère dit aurevoire a les enfants

‘The mother says goodbye to the children’

2.

Les enfants sors et disent aurevoire à la mère

‘The children leave and say goodbye to the mother’

In grade 9, there are four occurrences of the verb dire, out of which one is correctly used:

3.

Et la mère dit—au revoir

‘And the mother says—goodbye’

These results indicate that dire is far from mastered, but perhaps mainly from a form-meaning perspective because few learners use the verb, indicating no knowledge. It is difficult to draw any conclusions with respect to morphological knowledge on the basis of such few occurrences of this verb. On the other hand, different forms of manger occur more frequently in the data. In grade 6, however, there is only one occurrence:

4.

Le chien a mangez

‘The dog has eaten’

In this example, the learner makes use of the second person plural ending –ez in the present tense, when trying to use the passé composé. The correct form would be mangé. However, the pronunciation of these two forms is identical, which would make mangez identifiable and accurate in speech (cf. discussion on strength of knowledge above).

There are six occurrences of three different forms of manger in the 7th grade, with one correct example of the verb in present tense in third person singular:

5.

Il mange les sandwichs

’He eats the sandwiches’

The other word forms were not used with the correct meaning, suggesting that the verb inflections of this verb are not mastered in grade 7.

Mange is the most commonly used form of the verb among the 8th graders. This form indicates the present tense in third person singular. Ten of the 17 occurrences are used in this sense, while seven are used with other meanings, for example in combination with an auxiliary verb, where the infinitive would have been the correct form (ex. 6). Mangé, the past participle form, is also frequently used. Eleven of the 15 occurrences are correctly used to express the passé composé (ex. 7). Finally, the infinitive is mainly used in instances where a finite verb would have been appropriate, which indicates that the inflection was not mastered (ex. 8).

6.

Nous allons mange

‘We are going to eat’

7.

Il a mangé

‘He has eaten’

8.

Le chien manger

‘The dog eat’

Mangé and mange are the most frequently used forms in grade 9 as well. The first form is correctly used in all occasions but one, while the second one is more inconsistently used with six correct uses and five incorrect. The incorrect uses mainly occur in cases where the third person plural mangent is required:

9.

La garçon et le fille mange le picnic… ils mange

‘The boy and the girl eat the picnic… they eat’

Again, this form would have been perceived as correct in speech. The infinitive manger is consistantly correctly used together with an auxiliary.

In summary, the results pertaining to word parts show that this is an aspect that develops over the years, with more verb forms in grades 8 and 9 and with more correct ones in grade 9.

4. Discussion and Conclusions

The present study set out to investigate vocabulary depth in Swedish learners of French. While vocabulary depth has often been examined in learners at more advanced levels (Greidanus et al. 2004; Forsberg Lundell and Lindqvist 2014b), the participants of this study were at the beginning stages in the learning process. The main objective of the study was to achieve a better understanding of these learner groups’ vocabulary knowledge. The analysis focused on word choices in writing retellings of a short picture story, and examined these by using a components, or dimensions, approach (Nation 2020; Yanagisawa and Webb 2020, Schmitt 2010). More precisely, three aspects of the dimensions of form and meaning were investigated: spelling, form-meaning relationship, and word parts (Nation 2020). The first research question was: What characterizes Swedish learners’ vocabulary depth in French in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9? The analysis of the data suggested that there are two clear characteristic traits. The first one is that the learners’ vocabulary knowledge is characterized by a considerable orthographic variation in all the examined words (mère, fille, garçon, chien). Following Yanagisawa and Webb’s (2020) suggestion to analyze the strength of knowledge with respect to spelling, it can be argued that few of the words are fully known. Rather, the words are known to different degrees, with many different spelling alternatives, indicating partial knowledge. In many cases, however, the alternative spellings would be identifiable, and thus probably comprehensible, in spite of the divergent orthography. Moreover, the cases where the divergent spelling would result in a pronunciation similar to the intended one would certainly not be perceived as ‘divergent’ in speech (this is also true for some of the divergent word parts). The second characteristic trait is the fact that the learners’ vocabulary is to a large extent influenced by the L1 and the L2. This is particularly obvious in the word choices related to panier, but there are also L1 and L2 influences with respect to dire and manger. L1 and L2 influences seemed to appear when the French word form was not known, that is with respect to the form-meaning relationship. The influences were manifested as both pure code-switches to Swedish, English, and Spanish, and as adaptations of word forms from English into French. These results corroborate the findings in many earlier studies within the L3 field, which have shown that both the L1 and the L2 are important sources of influence in lexical L3 learning (Ringbom 2007; Ecke 2015; Lindqvist 2015). Clearly, in cases where the learners do not know the target language word form, they usually resort to their L1 and L2 vocabularies.

The second research question was: In what ways does Swedish learners’ vocabulary depth in French develop from grade 6 through grade 9? The short answer to that question would be that while some aspects seem to develop, it appears that others do not. In fact, the results showed that there is considerable variation with respect to the aspects that were analyzed, and it is difficult to see clear patterns. As for spelling, it seemed that difficulties remained over the years, with indications of differences between grade 6 and the other grades. This is not surprising, given the well-known discrepancy between spelling and pronunciation in the French language. However, when applying Yanagisawa and Webb’s (2020) concept of strength of knowledge, it turned out that there was a relatively high degree of knowledge of all the examined words. Crucially, the spelling variants were often identifiable and would most likely be understood by a potential reader of the text.

There were clearer indications of development regarding the form-meaning and word parts components. The results suggested that these aspects are more clearly developed in grades 8 and 9, as opposed to grades 6 and 7. Furthermore, the learners in grade 9 master both aspects better than the learners in grade 8. It has often been pointed out that learners need to be at more advanced stages in order to develop vocabulary depth, which is probably why most previous studies have examined this aspect in advanced learners (Greidanus et al. 2004; Forsberg Lundell and Lindqvist 2014b). However, the present study has shown that some aspects do develop even at lower stages of proficiency. Recall that the learners of the present study are supposed to be at the A1–A2 levels according to the CEFR scale (Council of Europe 2001). While previous research has shown considerable vocabulary gains from grade 6 through grade 9 (Lindqvist 2018), that does not necessarily imply that deep knowledge develops at the same rate. It is therefore interesting to note that there seems to be some development, in particular with regards to form-meaning relationship and word parts.

In conclusion, the present study has shed light on some aspects of vocabulary depth in Swedish learners’ L3 French and in what ways they develop during the first years of study in school. There are limitations to the study in that only a relatively small selection of words and aspects were examined. Also, it would have been interesting to examine the correlation between text length and vocabulary depth. However, as pointed out, these kinds of limitations are necessary in this kind of study (Schmitt 2010). Along with previous research the study contributes to our understanding of these learner groups’ vocabulary knowledge. There are many avenues for further research. When it comes to these particular learner groups, more aspects of vocabulary depth need to be studied in order to arrive at a more complete picture of their vocabulary knowledge, for example, the relation between spelling and pronunciation, the associations between different words, and knowledge about derivations. At a more general level, future studies should focus on vocabulary in French as a foreign language in different learner groups and in different settings.