L’accord du participe passé en français chez les étudiants bilingues anglophones de l’université de Yaoundé I

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the knowledge of the central point of French grammar of Bilingual English students at the University of Yaoundé I, using the theoretical framework of Larry sekinler's interlanguage (1970) and Noam Chomsky's generative grammar (1950). This study explores five different types of past participle agreement based on data collected in 2023 from 70 students at the three levels concerned. Statistical analysis of the data collected in the course of this research indicates that the learners surveyed have not yet fully mastered the basic grammatical rules that emerge from these different types of agreement in French. However, decoding also revealed a low rate of correct agreement, given that some students have a slight mastery of the rule for agreement of the past participle with the two auxiliaries both. Our analysis shows that these errors are due to the complexity of the rules of past participle agreement in French. In view of the statistical results, bilingual English learners need to practice past participle agreement regularly and intensively. They must commit to studying specific grammatical rules in order to improve their skills, to achieve a balance between the source language and the target language. Students are required to store the common exceptions to each type of agreement, to practice targeted exercises on an ongoing basis with the aim of reinforcing their understanding and handling of the target language.