Abstract :
[en] Inaudible syntactic markers are especially difcult to spell. This paper examines
how 455 fourth graders spell silent French plural markers in a dictation with real
and pseudowords after one year of formal French instruction (L2). The Generalized
Linear Mixed Model analysis shows frst that noun plural spelling (real and pseudo)
is a strong predictor for verb and adjective plural spelling. Second, the performance
on real verb plural is higher than the performance on real adjective plural. In con‑
trast, the performance on pseudoadjective plural is higher than on pseudoverb plural.
Our fndings indicate the strong infuence of semantics and frequency in instruction
input on plural spelling: noun plural is semantically grounded, and nouns are most
frequent in the curriculum. Verbs and verb plural are also frequent, and infection
is mostly taught by means of memorizing the verb infection paradigm. Adjectives
are taught least frequently. The fndings are discussed in the context of French L2
instruction, as the extremely low results on adjectives and pseudoverbs seem to be a
consequence of instruction methods.
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