On the learning of auxiliary use in the referential variety by speakers of New Brunswick Acadian French

This study investigates the learning of Referential French by speakers of Acadian French at the university level. One difference between the two varieties lies in their use of auxiliaries in compound tenses. In Acadian French, avoir is used categorically in compound tenses with verbs of inherently directed motion and pronominal verbs, while Referential French uses etre. A controlled-production task and an acceptability judgment task were administered to 80 speakers of New Brunswick Acadian French who were students at a francophone university in New Brunswick, 40 first-year students and 40 fourth-year students. Results show that, while there is still variability in the fourth-year students' auxiliary use, their performance is significantly closer to Referential French than that of the first-year students.