The following statement yields for all subjects in the corpora: They all volunteered to take part in the project, and were not subject to any selection process.

I. The core of the InterFra corpus – the FFL groups (French as a Foreign language)

Ia) The secondary school students

This group was recorded in 1996 and 1997. Data from 20 learners were collected after 3 years of study and 13 the next year, thus after 3.5 years. As is typical in school contexts the average amount of hours per week is around 3 hours and the term consist of 15 weeks. Their periods abroad are limited to a couple of weeks. The tasks consisted of interviews, retellings of video clips and picture stories, thus the same as in the other sub-corpora of InterFra.

(G) Table Secondary school students (249 Kb)

Ib) The university students

The beginners

This corpus was collected in 1999-2001. The learners (19-25 years old) were followed during two terms at the university at 7 occasions, the first after 3 weeks. 18 were followed during the first term on four occasions, and around 8 during two terms on 7-10 occasions. Most of the informants are true beginners with very short periods in French-speaking countries, if any. The tasks consisted of interviews, retellings of video clips and picture stories. There is also written material by the same learners.

(N) Table Beginners (415 Kb)

The 1st and 2nd year students

This was the first InterFra corpus. It was collected in 1988/89-1990 during two years. The first group is a longitudinal group of 8 students followed during four terms, the second one is a cross-sectional group of 18 students who were interviewed in the first month during their first term at university. They had been studying French at school during 3.5 – 6 years of study. Data from the longitudinal group were collected at four occasions during four terms, every time with the same tasks, interviews, video and picture retellings. There is also a collection of retrospective data and written argumentative texts performed by the same informants.

(L) Table Longitudinal (362 Kb)

(T) Table Cross-sectional (159 Kb)

The future teachers

We collected these six students at four occasions, one before their period abroad during three months in Rennes, and three times after in 1992. The first occasion was during the third term at university and the three others were during the third and the fourth term. These students thus had studied French for between 7 and 8 years and many had spent a considerable time abroad in French-speaking countries. The tasks were the same as in the other groups, interviews, video and picture retellings. The design of this corpus permits investigations of a potential influence on the students’ proficiency during the period abroad.

(R) Table Future teachers (201 Kb)

The doctorate students

In 2002/2003, 10 doctorate students working at our department were recorded in the same type of tasks (interviews, picture narrations). They had been studying French for 9-10 years and were working on their theses at the time for the recordings. All of them have spent considerable time in French-speaking countries.

(D) Table PhD students (125 Kb)

II. The very advanced groups of the InterFra corpus – the FSL groups (French as a Second Language)

IIa) FSL Juniors

Recorded in 2006, this corpus consists of the oral production of 10 young adults aged 25-30 years living and working in Paris with a length of residence of 5-15 years. They also arrived in France at the age of 18-19. The tasks were interviews in French, retellings cartoons and video clips.

(F) Table FSL juniors (61 Kb)

IIb) FSL Seniors

Also recorded in 2006, this corpus consists of the oral production by 10 Swedish-speaking adults living in France (Paris) with a length of residence of 15-35 years. They are 40-50 years old, live in bilingual families and also work in bilingual settings (Swedish-French). They arrived in France at the age of 18-19. The tasks were interviews in French and in their L1, the retelling of cartoons and video films as well as grammatical judgement tests. All these tasks were made by the the same person as the earlier InterFra sub-corpora.

(Q) Table FSL seniors (131 Kb)

IIc) FSL Multi-task group

In 2008, so called multi-tasks were performed by 10 non-native speakers with the same profile as the Juniors FSL group above and 10 native speakers as controls. The tasks were the following: telephone conversations (one with a restaurant and the other with the persons’ boss), the ‘Frog Story’, ‘Modern Times’ in on line narrations, and interviews Life stories, all tasks were made by the same informants.

(M) Table Multi-task group NNS (165 Kb)

III. Control groups of native speakers (NS)

IIIa) The ERASMUS exchange control group (parallel to I)

For comparison, the same tasks as those of the groups of 1st and 2nd year students were performed by a group of 20 French-speaking (Northern France) ERASMUS students in 1992-1993.

(C) Table Erasmus exchange control group (164 Kb)

IIIb) Control group of junior NS (parallel to IIa)

In 2006 data from a group of native speakers, Junior NS (6 informants), parallel to FSL juniors, were collected in the same type of tasks, namely interviews in French, videos and cartoons retelling.

(J) Table Control group of junior NS (47 Kb)

IIIc) Control group of senior NS (parallel to IIb)

In 2006 data from a group of native speakers, Senior NS (8 informants), parallel to FSL seniors, were collected in the same type of tasks, namely interviews in French, videos, cartoons retelling and grammaticality judgement tests.

(S) Table Control group of senior NS (72 Kb)

IIId) Multi-task control group (parallel to IIc)

A control group of 10 native speakers parallel to the FSL Multi-task group.

(K) Table Multi-task control group (162 Kb)