El desarrollo de la competencia léxica en la adquisición del francés como segunda lengua extranjera en la ESO

Résumé

The present research focuses on the development of lexical competence in French as a second language in the context of Spanish Secondary Education (ESO). To this end, we processed the data obtained from a sample of 81 ESO students enrolled in a secondary school in Badajoz. The students filled in a motivation test and three tests measuring their receptive knowledge, productive knowledge and lexical availability respectively. We were thus able to measure their receptive and productive vocabulary breadth together with the vocabulary they had available, while at the same time analysed the different variables influencing these results. The variable with the greatest influence is the students' grade. Motivation results, however, are conflicting as they correlate with productive vocabulary but not with receptive vocabulary or lexical availability. Sex did not have an influence as no difference was found between boys and girls in any of the vocabulary measures. As for the model of instruction in the first foreign language, we only found differences in productive vocabulary in favour of those students enrolled in a bilingual section. Finally, the number of hours of instruction in the first foreign language also had no influence. The present thesis represents the first attempt to analyse the vocabulary of L2 French learners in Spain, an underexplored area needing further research which will allow to go deeper into this field of learning.