​Minority language speakers' discourse and morphosyntax: error or variation?

Abstract: Ontario's French-language schools are located in minority language communities. The purpose of this longitudinal exploratory study was to analyze the spontaneous speech and morphosyntactic elements produced by 20 children from these communities and to compare them four years later. A total of 22,682 utterances were transcribed and coded. In kindergarten, the children used mostly French to communicate, whereas in grade 4, they used English more intraphrastically and interphrastically. The frequency of code-switching to English was 31% in grade 4 and 6% in kindergarten. Syntax remained rudimentary in grade 4, which may lead to the misdiagnosis of a developmental language disorder. These results emphasize the importance of exposure to the minority language in ensuring the development of a new speakerness that approaches standard French. In addition, explicit instruction in the various morphosyntactic forms as well as activities that allow for academic dialogic discourse are needed.
Keywords: Minority language; French schools; developmental language disorder; bilingualism; morphosyntax; new speaker

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