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Teaching English as a Third Language
Abstract
In many countries in the world, English is identified as a foreign language with no official status but is increasingly used
as the language of wider communication. In a number of these countries it is common that English is learned as a third language.
Recent psycholinguistic research on third language acquisition and trilingualism has made clear that the acquisition of an
L3 shares many characteristics with the acquisition of an L2 but it also presents differences. Accordingly, the educational
aspects of teaching English as an L3 differ from those of teaching English as an L2 and have more implications concerning
the optimal age for the introduction of the different languages and the desired level of proficiency in each. In the Basque
Country there are two official languages, Basque and Spanish, and English is taught as a third language. Several projects
have been carried out in order to improve proficiency in English: the early introduction of English in kindergarten, the use
of content based approaches, and the use of English as one of the languages of instruction. This chapter describes the characteristics
of these projects and discusses their outcomes as they relate to specific research conducted on third language acquisition.
... Regarding discourse-context information, Zheng (2019) indicates that the context of the learners' experience determines their acquisition of language. These varied experiences could be offered by different approaches in the target language or the mother tongue of the learners; Jessner (2018) and Jessner and Cenoz (2019) note that metalinguistic awareness helps learners to learn language both through and with their knowledge in other languages. In terms of institutions, the outline of the curricular plan of the Cervantes Institute (PCIC) consists of sections such as grammar, functions, pragmatic strategies, and so on. ...
... Nevertheless, the results of this study tend to support the conclusion that the presentation of "virtual" images and animation-even in this restricted scope-can help learners' comprehension of PIN and PIM. In addition, following Jessner (2018Jessner ( , 2019, although the main instruction language in our video classes was Mandarin Chinese, the mechanism of metalinguistic awareness allowed our learners to obtain language development in Spanish. Also critical is the interaction and integration of an extralinguistic, physical context in learning in the L2 classroom, as is the integration of the learning environment or the context created by multimedia equipment (input), plus the virtual discourse context generated by learners themselves when combining their experience in real life with their comprehension derived from the verbal information and classroom input. ...
This work explores and evaluates the effect of teaching the Spanish past tense aspect (indefinite preterit and imperfective preterit) to Chinese learners in a discourse context compared with the traditional teaching of grammar. We postulate that this teaching methodology—which integrates the content of traditional grammar programs with implicit and explicit instruction on how to interpret discourse-contextual information—will be more effective for Spanish L2 learning in the Chinese university context. In order to test the effect, we conducted a study with two groups of students under two different conditions. The experimental group contained 18 subjects, and the control group, which was taught in a traditional grammar program, contained 17 subjects. Using a teaching experiment that involved three online video-based grammar classes and the gathering of students’ data from pre- and post-tests consisting of comprehension task and multiple-choice tasks, we observed that the instruction of how to interpret aspectual information in a discourse context improved the learners’ ability to analyse and comprehend the target grammar point. However, the learners did not show more accuracy in their use of stative verbs in the post-test than that in the pre-test. FUNDING INFORMATION. This research was funded by National Social Science Foundation of China (20CYY001).
... Bilingualism and multilingualism have been associated with possible advantages in the acquisition of additional languages (see Cenoz 2013;Jessner and Cenoz 2019). The basic idea is that monolinguals and multilinguals are not on equal footing when facing the task of acquiring an additional language. ...
... There is now a growing body of research on multilingualism, and it is necessary for research to take a more holistic approach considering multilingual speakers and their whole linguistic repertoire instead of isolating and focusing only on one language at a time. Studies on the acquisition and use of three or more languages has been a big step because they analyze the differences between second and third language acquisition and analyze the effect of previously acquired languages (Jessner and Cenoz 2019). However, it is necessary that research in these areas adopt a more multilingual lens by looking at the whole multilingual repertoire and the way it is used by multilingual speakers. ...
... Asimismo, la evolución de las metodologías hasta el Marco común europeo de referencia para las lenguas (MCER) y el enfoque orientado hacia la acción no dejan de aumentar su envergadura. Pero varios estudios anteriores (por ejemplo, Cenoz, Hufeisen y Jessner, 2001; De Angelis, 2007; Jessner y Cenoz, 2007; Jarvis, 2014, entre otros) han podido mostrar que la adquisición de la segunda lengua (L2) es distinta a la de la tercera lengua (L3), cuarta lengua (L4) o más lenguas adicionales. En efecto, el aprendiente de una L2 solo aprovecha las experiencias de adquisición de la primera lengua (L1), mientras que el aprendiente multilingüe que quiere aprender otra lengua adicional ya tiene las experiencias de todas estas lenguas, lo que constituye a su vez una ventaja en lo que se refiere a las estrategias y los conocimientos metalingüísticos. ...
... (17) "He visto Ф Julio esta mañana" (2º); (cf. a Julio). (18) "No temen Ф la muerte" (2º); (cf. no temen a la muerte). ...
This exploratory study analyzed the errors made by Beninese university students of Spanish as a Foreign Language (n = 100) in situations of spontaneous speech both inside and outside the classroom, in order to characterize them linguistically. The corpus contains 10 hours of high quality recorded spontaneous conversations or interactive communicative activities. The results indicate the main categories of interference of the available languages, heterogeneous sources of errors, highlighting the creativity and the dynamism of the participants’ linguistic practices, showing a tendency to mix or switch the codes of their repertoire. Finally, possible pedagogical and curricular suggestions are explored.
... Recent research on "beyond two" multilingualism (Aronin & Singleton 2012) suggests a great complexity in the factors involved in multiple language acquisition as opposed to second language acquisition, where the mutual influence of the two linguistic systems is bidirectional (Jessner & Cenoz 2007). In tri-and multilinguals, all language systems can influence each other, and production and acquisition are influenced by factors such as typological relatedness, cultural similarity, proficiency level, and language status (Williams & Hammarberg 1998). ...
... (Council of Europa 2001: 168) 1 . Recent research on third or multiple language acquisition suggests a great complexity in the factors involved in the process, which is influenced by variables such as typological relatedness, cultural similarity, proficiency level, and language status (Jessner & Cenoz 2007, Williams & Hammarberg 1998. ...
The present paper describes a study of Norwegian EFL teachers’ self-perceived preparedness to work with multilingual students. The study employed an online survey to examine teachers’ self-perceived preparedness to work with multilingual students, the training they had received in the area of multilingualism, their beliefs about knowledge, skills and resources needed to work with multilingual students, and their interest in receiving additional training. The findings suggest that, while the majority of the teachers have not received specific training on multilingualism, most of them feel confident about their ability to work with linguistically diverse student populations. Implications for practice in EFL teacher education programs are discussed.
... Bilingual individuals with high levels of proficiency in two languages experience cognitive advantages in terms of linguistic and cognitive flexibility (Jessner and Cenoz 2007). In fact, according to his Threshold Hypothesis (Cummins 1976(Cummins , 2000 the learner has to reach the first critical threshold in proficiency of both languages to overcome the negative effects of bilingualism, and the second threshold to profit from the cognitive and academic benefits. ...
... Following the assumptions of the Threshold Hypothesis as extended to multilinguality (Cummins 2000, Jessner andCenoz 2007), it can be claimed that in order to linguistically and academically benefit from the knowledge of L3, one has to pass a certain proficiency threshold. De Angelis (2007) claims that there is a threshold level beyond which the prior language knowledge positively affects learning of the target language. ...
The article presents a reflection on the ways multilingual language users perceive their L2 and L3 learning experiences in retrospect. Emphasis is placed on sequential learning of foreign languages in classroom settings for learners/users homogenous in terms of their learning histories, with L1 Polish and L2 English (advanced), but at two different levels of advancement in L3 French. Twenty beginning and twenty advanced learners of L3 French were asked to produce retrospective narratives on their L2 vs. L2 learning experiences. In the article, we offer a comparison of those learning experiences in terms of the subjects' motivations, attitudes, learning styles and strategies and their perceptions of cross-linguistic influences between the languages. The narratives are analysed in terms of features stable (similar) and different for both L3 learning contexts. It seems that there is a huge discrepancy between the less and the more advanced learners of L3 with respect to all the features enumerated. Thus, an attempt is made to interpret the differences between the L3 beginning and advanced learners within the threshold hypothesis framework.
... This fairly new perspective implies the introduction of multilingual norms instead of monolingual or traditional norms in linguistics. Although in a number of studies in second and third language learning, well-trodden paths have already been left, it is clear that a number of problems still need to be solved in order to arrive at a holistic perspective of the multilingual learner or user (see also Jessner and Cenoz, 2007). Some of these will be discussed shortly in the following. ...
... As already indicated above, research on third language acquisition has shown that learning a second language differs from learning a third one. For the teaching context this has implications with regard to the level of proficiency to be reached in each of the languages in the curriculum , the starting age for each of the languages and the nature of crosslinguistic contact between the languages of the curriculum, with a special focus on prior language knowledge and language learning experience in multilingual learners (Jessner and Cenoz, 2007). The typology of the languages offered in a curriculum also plays an important role in the order of acquisition, as was shown by Grießler (2001) in her comparative study of level of proficiency in English in three Austrian schools. ...
... The research on third language acquisition (TLA) or multi-language acquisition has been conducted using the same guidelines as second language acquisition (SLA) [1]. However, SLA lacks the metalinguistic skills and meta-cognitive strategies developed from prior language learning knowledge [2], given that SLA is achieved through the first language. In contrast, all the previously acquired languages influence TLA [3]. ...
Third language acquisition (TLA) research, as a novel area of study both domestically and internationally, has garnered significant attention from scholars worldwide in recent years. Previous studies on third language acquisition have extensively focused on interlingual transfer, but there has been limited attention given to grammatical transfer, especially related to the subjunctive mood. Additionally, Spanish has received less discussion than other languages. This present study aimed to investigate the language transfer of Chinese and English on learning Spanish subjunctive mood in a Spanish writing test conducted by 20 Chinese university students. The data were analyzed using frequency analysis and descriptive analysis in SPSS. The study revealed the following major findings: (1) Chinese transfer affects Spanish through changing verb form and the choice of tenses. (2) English transfer affects Spanish through the wrong verb form in the adverbial clause of purpose. Thus, the negative transfer from L2 to L3 is stronger than the one from L1 to L3.
... This innate mechanism is activated through environmental linguistic stimuli received by the individual (Cook & Newson, 2014;Doughty & Long, 2008). The mother language precedes the other language chronologically and is the dominant language of the speaker (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). ...
This research focuses on attitudes and beliefs of professors of secondary education regarding the teaching of Modern Greek as a second/foreign language to students. Initially, are mentioned the multiculturalism models and the basic principles of intercultural education. It is very important to distinguish the mother language (L1) from second (L2) and foreign (FL) language and to find the factors that influence their acquisition or learning. In the research part, is described the research methodology and the main purpose of research. More specifically, the sample of survey was 70 professors of Greek language and the research tool was the questionnaire. The attitudes of teachers are investigated with correlation to gender, level of education and years of teaching experience. Finally, follows the results in comparison with the results of other similar researches. Although teachers seem to support and apply to a large extent effective teaching practices for an intercultural education, do not seem to feel ready to support non-native speaker students in learning Greek. Therefore, it is necessary to be made radical changes to educational system in order to tackle assimilation and help teachers have confident to promote a real multicultural education.
... This innate mechanism is activated through environmental linguistic stimuli received by the individual (Cook & Newson, 2014; Doughty & Long, 2008). The mother language precedes the other language chronologically and is the dominant language of the speaker (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). ...
This paper focuses, at first, on models of multicultural education. More specifically, intercultural education is the most appropriate model as it is based on mutual recognition and respect among different cultures. In this context, many students are pushed to learn a new language besides their mother language. It is important to distinguish the mother language (L1) from second (L2) and foreign (FL) language and to find the factors that influence their acquisition or learning. In such way teachers will be prepared to deal effectively in the classrooms with non-native speaker students and to organize the learning process in order to help them to face any difficulty.
... Phillipson (2007) writes about the difficulty of applying the term foreign language to all contexts in the Expanding Circle equally in his aptly titled chapter "English, No Longer a Foreign Language in Europe?", but the question remains as to what the correct term would be. English as an additional language seems to be a possible candidate, but in the Anglosphere this term is already in use for either English as a language of education for non-native speakers in an English-speaking environment (e.g., Leung 2016) or as an additional language of instruction in schools and universities outside the English-speaking world (e.g., Jessner and Cenoz 2007). ...
With the global spread of English, young people are exposed to it while still acquiring their first language. As the impact of English in Slovenia is relatively under-researched, this study investigates how often and in what situations university students in Slovenia use English, and what attitudes they have to it compared to Slovene. The results are based on 365 respondents, all students of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, who filled out an online questionnaire. The results show that Slovene still dominates in everyday communication, but that English has become an essential skill which goes beyond the traditional function of a foreign language. In addition, many respondents already feel it to be an additional first language, with a sizable group reporting a preference for English as their intimate language.
... Regardless of the ability to communicate in more than one language, bilingualism and mul tilingualism have been debatable proven to be different in some aspects. Studies on third lan guage acquisition have highlighted the differen ces between the second (SLA) and third langua ge acquisition (TLA), and the advantages of multilingualism in the acquisition of additional languages (Jessner and Cenoz, 2019). Bilingua lism is defined by Jessner (2014) as the use of two languages in a person' s mind, while multi lingualism means the use of three or more lan guages by an individual. ...
INTRODUCTION. In a multilingual classroom, teachers play an essential role in encouraging and fostering a multilingual attitude and behavior at the school, as their actions can considerably influence their students. This study is intended to explore the teachers’ attitudes towards multilingual policy and multilingual pedagogy. Therefore, theories on language educational policy and multilingual pedagogy and practices are discussed as guidance. METHODS. The study used a survey research design, and the questionnaires were sent online to gather the data. The participants were 100 foreign language teachers who teach at high schools in an Indonesian province. They were asked to voluntarily respond to three main themes: Multilingual education knowledge, language education policy in Indonesia, and multilingual classroom practices in the questionnaire in the questionnaire. T-test and MANOVA were employed to investigate the difference between variables. RESULTS. The descriptive and inferential analyses revealed that the attitudes towards multilingual pedagogy implemented in Indonesia were almost uniform across different foreign language teachers having a positive attitude. Out of 18 statements, the high mean scores are related to the belief that learning another language could foster openness to other people’s language and culture and learning different languages can build students’ ability to use languages within a context. DISCUSSION. Taking for granted that participants have different ages, teaching experience, gender, and foreign language, there is no significant difference in their attitude towards multilingual education and practices. Most of the participants of this study believe that multilingual education contributes to some benefit for their students. Yet, the results also show that participants also view that the government has neither provided nor accommodated proper support for multilingual education.
... Significant emphasis in the science has been made on the problem of studying of trilingual connections in foreign language teaching (Baryshnikov, 2014;Bim, 1997;Braun, 1937;Jessner & Cenoz, 2007;Hawkins, 1999;Magiste, 1984;Shcherba, 1974). Defining the features of Russian students' trilingualism, we can make a conclusion that the most important characteristic of it will be its educational (artificial) character. ...
... Studies on third language acquisition have highlighted the differences between second and third language acquisition and the advantages of multilingualism in the acquisition of additional languages (Safont Jordà, 2017;Jessner & Cenoz, 2019). These advantages are usually linked to the broader linguistic repertoire of multilingual speakers and to the metalinguistic awareness and learning strategies they have developed in the process of acquiring previous languages (Cenoz, 2013). ...
This article reports on a study of primary and secondary school teachers in Basque schools where Basque, Spanish and English are included in the curriculum. Traditionally, the three languages have been taught separately and the possible benefits of using the whole linguistic repertoire to establish links between the languages had not been acknowledged. New trends in multilingual education focusing on the whole linguistic repertoire and translanguaging have provided opportunities to change traditional approaches to teaching and to explore the potential advantages of translanguaging (May, 2013; Cenoz & Gorter, 2015). In this study, a group of teachers from different trilingual schools were provided with theoretical and practical information about translanguaging and were asked to implement pedagogical translanguaging in their own class. Teachers were given a guideline for the implementation and were asked to prepare a lesson plan including activities that involved the use of two or more languages for pedagogical purposes. Then, the teachers taking part in this study used translanguaging for at least one lesson, received feedback from their students and reflected on the implementation. The results of this study show that pedagogical translanguaging can provide new opportunities for language learning and language awareness in the context of multilingual education.
... Furthermore, in the SLA literature, the term "L1" is often used purely in reference to a learner's native language, and "L2" to their second or additional language(s). However, as Jessner and Cenoz (2007) point out: ...
Despite the growing interest surrounding the use and role of the first language in the second language classroom, the vast majority of research in the field has been conducted in classrooms where English is taught as a second language in English-speaking countries. Very little research has investigated the role of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in other language learning environments, such as those in which Japanese is learnt as a second language (JSL) in Japan. This paper investigates the purposes for which ELF is employed, and the perspectives of learners from multilingual and multicultural backgrounds on the use of ELF, in the JSL classroom. The findings show that English is employed to varying degrees in relation to proficiency level, and that learners themselves are generally welcoming of this use. The author suggests that learners seek security and comfort in what they already know, with ELF easing the gap between their L1 and their developing Japanese skills.
... Although the acquisition of an L3 (English, in this case) shares similar characteristics with the acquisition of an L2, the underlying processes are somehow different because learning an L3 is a more complex phenomenon. TLA might be influenced by L2 learning, and L3 learners might be characterized by better metalinguistic awareness, more experience and strategies (Cenoz & Jessner, 2000;Jessner, 2006;Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). ...
The present study was aimed at investigating literacy skills in English as a foreign language in three different groups of children: monolinguals with Dyslexia (n=19), typically-developing bilinguals (language-minority) (n=19), and a control group of monolinguals (Italian) (n=76). Bilinguals were not expected to fail in English measures and their gap with monolinguals would be expected to be limited to the instructional language, due to underexposure. All participants were enrolled in Italian primary schools (4th and 5th grade). A non-verbal reasoning task and Italian and English literacy tasks were administered. The Italian battery included word and nonword reading (speed and accuracy), word and nonword writing, and reading comprehension; the English battery included similar tasks, except for the nonword writing. Bilingual children performed similarly to typical readers in English tasks, whereas in Italian tasks their performance was similar to that of typical readers in reading speed but not in reading accuracy and writing. Children with dyslexia underperformed compared to typically-developing children in all English and Italian tasks, except for reading comprehension in Italian. Profile analysis and correlational analyses were further discussed. These results suggest that English as a foreign language might represent a challenge for students with dyslexia but a strength for bilingual language-minority children.
... Yet while English may be the universal language of choice for international and intercultural communication, it is not necessarily the language spoken in the domestic and personal spaces. For many transient migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds, English is a second and sometimes a third or a fourth language (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). While living, studying and/or working in Australia and Singapore though, English is the language used. ...
Gomes provides a much-needed profile of transient migrants in Australia and Singapore. Focusing on their ability to adapt to different overseas environments, Gomes points out that transient migrants use a range of interrelated everyday activities to make a home for themselves in their respective host nations. Here Gomes notes that transient migrants already arrive with experiences of diversity, with some coming from multicultural and multilingual backgrounds while others have previous experience in transience as students and workers. This chapter highlights the role played by digital technologies particularly social media in helping respondents adapt to everyday life in transience. This chapter ends with a section on the implications of the research on policy and practice.
... Yet while English may be the universal language of choice for international and intercultural communication, it is not necessarily the language spoken in the domestic and personal spaces. For many transient migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds, English is a second and sometimes a third or a fourth language (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). While living, studying and/or working in Australia and Singapore though, English is the language used. ...
This project offers an understanding of the transient migration experience in Asia through the lens of communication and entertainment media. It examines the role played by digital technologies and uncovers how the combined wider field of entertainment media (films, television shows and music) are vital and helpful platforms that positively aid migrants through self and communal empowerment. This book specifically looks at the upwardly mobile middle class transient migrants working in two of the Asia-Pacific’s most desirable transient migration destinations – Australia and Singapore, providing a cutting edge study of the identities transient migrants create and maintain while overseas and the strategies they use to cope with life in transience.
... Yet while English may be the universal language of choice for international and intercultural communication, it is not necessarily the language spoken in the domestic and personal spaces. For many transient migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds, English is a second and sometimes a third or a fourth language (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). While living, studying and/or working in Australia and Singapore though, English is the language used. ...
Gomes and Tan provide fascinating insights into the role Christianity plays in allowing transient migrants in Australia and in Singapore feel a sense of community and belonging in the host nations. Here they describe how Christianity among transient migrants allows both those born into the faith and those who converted while in the host nations a way of dealing with loneliness and homesickness. Here Gomes and Tan note that while Australia has a Christian tradition, Christianity is also the fastest-growing religion in Singapore while Asian religions such as Buddhism and Taoism are fast declining. However, Gomes and Tan also point out that while Christianity may seem to provide a bridge between transient migrants and the local citizenry, this does not happen since respondents formed Christian communities with fellow transient migrants and thus parallel Christian societies in Australia and Singapore respectively. This chapter ends with a section on the implications of the research on policy and practice.
... Yet while English may be the universal language of choice for international and intercultural communication, it is not necessarily the language spoken in the domestic and personal spaces. For many transient migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds, English is a second and sometimes a third or a fourth language (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). While living, studying and/or working in Australia and Singapore though, English is the language used. ...
In this chapter Gomes points out how transient migrants’ national identities and the ability to express these function as strategies for living in transience. These strategies, Gomes notes, allow them to not only remind themselves of and keep connected indirectly to the home nation but also to navigate everyday life overseas such as through their friendships with co-nationals in transience in the host nations. At the same time, the practice of national identity becomes representative of the tensions transient migrants face in their home nation which they bring with them while in transience.
... Yet while English may be the universal language of choice for international and intercultural communication, it is not necessarily the language spoken in the domestic and personal spaces. For many transient migrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds, English is a second and sometimes a third or a fourth language (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). While living, studying and/or working in Australia and Singapore though, English is the language used. ...
Gomes provides a compelling narrative of the aspirations for further transnational mobility expressed by transient migrants in Australia and in Singapore. This chapter describes how transient migrants see themselves as living and working in the big cities of Europe, North America and Asia and the steps they take in order to achieve this such as bettering their English-language skills. Here transient migrants see themselves as global citizens and the English language as the global language for transnational transience. While there are transient migrants who would like to stay in their host nations as permanent residents, they are not concerned too much if their lives do not take this direction. At the same time, this chapter notes that transient migrants would eventually like to return to the home nation in their latter and retirement years and find communication technology vital for them when connecting back to family and friends there in the meantime. This chapter ends with a section on the implications of the research on policy and practice.
... Part of this difference is the enhanced metalinguistic and metapragmatic awareness inherent in multilinguals due to their prior knowledge and experience of multiple language systems; what Herdina and Jessner (2002) call the 'M[ultilingualism]-factor'. Jessner (2008) argues that the M-factor plays a crucial role in the catalytic effect of bilingualism on third language acquisition. Ongoing research in early pragmatic development has shown the effect of bilingualism on L3 request modification (Safont, 2005Safont, , 2011Safont, , 2012and that interacting language systems increase young learners' metapragmatic awareness ...
This study provides qualitative data on the potential for exposure to Situation-Bound Utterances (SBUs) in English language children's cartoons. The SBUs are described according to their pragmatic context, and possibilities for pragmalinguistic inference going beyond the scope of traditional learning environments are discussed. The study also notes how those SBUs are dealt with in the Spanish and Catalan dubbed versions of the same cartoons. To achieve this analysis two episodes of the children’s cartoons Peppa Pig and Charlie and Lola have been selected. First the original English versions were analysed for the occurrence of SBUs, after identifying certain sequences in which they are present, these same sequences were analysed in both the Spanish and Catalan dubbed versions in order to determine what happened to the SBUs. The study explores and highlights the considerable gains in pragmatic competence which can be taken advantage of through the use of ‘out of school’ materials, and, secondarily, adds another perspective to the discussion that, in the Spanish context, the subtitling of children’s programming would be far more advantageous than the current tendency toward dubbing.
... For more than a decade, scholars working in the multilingual field have argued that the acquisition of a third language (L3) is a process fundamentally different from the acquisition of a second language (L2) (Cenoz, 2000;Cenoz & Jessner, 2000) and that mainstream second language acquisition (SLA) research needs to properly account for the complexities of multilingualism (Jessner & Cenoz, 2007). Nevertheless, most SLA scholars, as Dörnyei (2009a) notes, still tend to underplay or even ignore the differences between L2 and L3 acquisition, adopting what De Angelis (2007) describes as a 'no difference assumption'. ...
In this Swedish case study of four upper secondary students engaged in simultaneous second language (L2; English) and third language (L3; Spanish, French and Russian) learning, a possible selves perspective was used to investigate the impact of English on L3 motivation. Using a maximum variation sampling strategy, participants were selected from a larger dataset (n=101). Semi-structured interviews were conducted using interpretive phenomenological analysis techniques. In analysing the data, Markus and Nurius’ theory of the working self-concept was used to examine the components and processes active in cognition in L3 learning situations. The results indicate that for these individuals an L2 English self-concept can, in L3 learning situations, be an active constituent in the working self-concept and that it has a referential function. To offset the potentially negative effects of the incursion of the L2 English self-concept, some individuals recruited different forms of positive self-knowledge into the working self-concept. For one participant, the systematic referential effect of English was such that it became difficult to sustain a viable L3-speaking/using self. The results suggest that the inclusion of a working self-concept component in possible selves motivational research may be methodologically rewarding, particularly in multilingual settings and/or where contextual or process factors are in focus.
Language teaching constantly needs to be adapted to changing societal realities, such as the spread of English as an international language or the growing linguistic complexity in Europe. A key question is whether and how languages could be treated together in school programmes to cater to a multilingual milieu. This article analyses a plurilingual pedagogical approach that is adopted in a few primary schools in the Italian province of South Tyrol. The research is a qualitative case study and draws on various theoretical perspectives, including the method model developed by Richards and Rodgers (1982, 2001, 2014). The dataset comprises analogue and digital data gathered through participant observation, field notes, personal communications, audio recordings, and school documents. Results show how a multilingual turn has taken root in the context examined, while reinforcing English acquisition.
Third language acquisition in educational contexts is nowadays expanding in monolingual and multilingual contexts. One reason is the mobility of the population that results in an increasing number of home languages that are different from the school languages. Another reason is the spread of the teaching of English as a third language in multilingual school contexts where two other languages are also taught. Third language acquisition is a complex phenomenon that shares many characteristics with second language acquisition but also has some specific differences related to the effect of bilingualism on third language acquisition, multilingual learners’ repertoires and the specific role of metalinguistic awareness in language learning. The aim of this paper is threefold: 1) to look at the potential advantages of bilingualism on L3 considering the great diversity of situations in which an L3 is learned in school contexts; 2) to look at the similarities and differences between second and third language acquisition and 3) to discuss how pedagogical translanguaging can enhance bilingual resources so that L3 learners can develop an optimal use of their resources.
Over the past two decades, efforts have been made to enrich curriculum studies internationally. Among the field’s new theories which have emerged in recent years is itinerant curriculum theory (ICT), proposed and developed by João Paraskeva. Its aim is to free curriculum from the dominance of Western discourses and make room for diverse international epistemologies. The purpose of this article is to explain and analyse ICT. After explaining the meaning of this theory and its three basic components – global cognitive justice, the “river” and “the South”, and concerns about the type and application of language –, the author goes on to analyse these basic components. In his analysis, he considers (1) ICT’s view of the Western and non-Western worlds; (2) ICT’s perception of the meaning and territory of what is referred to as “the South”; (3) ICT and advancements of curriculum studies at national and international levels; and (4) ICT, internationalisation and increasing participation of countries in the generation and sharing of curriculum knowledge. The article concludes with a summary of the advantages of ICT, complemented by some suggestions how it could be further strengthened.
The article touches upon the problems of teaching English as a third foreign language in higher educational institutions of the Republic of Armenia. The students’ mother tongue, in this case, is Armenian. Russian is the first foreign language and French is the second one. Considering the fact that the students’ 2nd (French) and 3rd (English) foreign languages have significant similarities that can cause both positive transfer and negative interference, the teaching/learning process of English should be organized by paying special attention to the similarities and taking into account certain peculiarities. Accordingly, the use of correctly selected exercises can help in organizing the teaching/learning process more quickly and effectively. The author also introduces some “dangerous” language phenomena that may bring about undesirable interference in learning English after French. In addition, a number of exercise samples are provided that might be used to develop the students’ lexical, grammatical and phonological competences in teaching/learning English as a third foreign language.
We investigate the interrelations between pronunciation and writing skills in French as a foreign language produced by two groups of bilingual learners (German-Russian; German-Turkish) and a monolingually raised German control group (each n = 10). As an indicator of the learners’ pronunciation skills, we refer to a perceptually relevant acoustic feature of stop production, “Voice Onset Time” (VOT). Our aim is to explore whether the learners’ proficiency at the level of pronunciation is mirrored in (1) their global language competencies and (2) their writing skills. We applied an extreme-cases approach based on the learners’ VOT productions in L3 French. Both positive and negative deviations from the French target pronunciation were found in all groups. In orthography, bilinguals showed lower correctness scores as compared to monolinguals. The VOT measurements yielded more target-like results for the bilinguals. For the monolinguals, the results reveal no correlation between pronunciation and general language proficiency as well as writing skills. In the bilinguals the investigated phenomena were more interrelated. Our analysis of semi-focused interviews conducted with all participants revealed that more target-like VOT productions correlate with a greater degree of phonological and multilingual awareness. This suggests that phonological and cross-linguistic awareness should be fostered in today’s multilingual classrooms.
Το βιβλίο «Μια εισαγωγή στην Πολυγλωσσία» εξετάζει πολλές από τις πτυχές που άπτονται του πολυδιάστατου φαινομένου της πολυγλωσσίας και επιχειρείται μια επισκόπηση των σύγχρονων εξελίξεων στην έρευνά του. Ο αναγνώστης εξοικειώνεται με την ορολογία και τις πτυχές του πολύπλοκου φαινομένου της πολυγλωσσίας, τους ορισμούς που έχουν προταθεί γι’ αυτήν, καθώς και την προβληματική που έχει αναπτυχθεί αναφορικά με τους διάφορους τύπους πολυγλωσσίας, τα στοιχεία που επιτρέπουν τον χαρακτηρισμό ενός ομιλητή ως πολύγλωσσου, ενώ εξετάζεται και η τυπολογία των πολύγλωσσων ομιλητών.
Επιπλέον, διερευνώνται οι γραμματισμοί και γίνεται ιδιαίτερη αναφορά στον τρόπο και στις συνθήκες ανάπτυξής τους, παρουσιάζεται η έννοια του διγραμματισμού και πώς ο αναδυόμενος διγραμματισμός αναπτύσσεται στην προσχολική και σχολική ηλικία. Αναλύεται η έννοια της διαγλωσσικότητας και οι τρόποι που μπορεί να εφαρμοστεί και να βοηθήσει την διδασκαλία στην δίγλωσση εκπαίδευση, καθώς επίσης και η έννοια των πολυγραμματισμών παρουσιάζοντας τους τρόπους με τους οποίους αυτή μπορεί να περιγράψει αφενός την όλο και αυξανόμενη σημασία της πολυμορφίας σε επίπεδο γλωσσών και πολιτισμών και αφετέρου την έννοια του κριτικού γραμματισμού.
Γίνεται παρουσίαση επίσης των ιδιαίτερων χαρακτηριστικών που συνθέτουν την προσωπικότητα των πολύγλωσσων, με ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στον δυναμικό, μη γραμμικό και πολυεπίπεδο χαρακτήρα του φαινομένου της πολυγλωσσίας για το άτομο, τις ομάδες και τις κοινωνίες.
Τέλος, παρουσιάζεται ο τρόπος αλληλεπίδρασης των γλωσσών στους πολύγλωσσους και εξετάζονται τα βασικά χαρακτηριστικά του γλωσσικού προϊόντος ενός πολύγλωσσου ομιλητή, όπως τα φαινόμενα της παρεμβολής και η εναλλαγή και μείξη κωδίκων ενώ ειδική αναφορά γίνεται στους παράγοντες που επηρεάζουν την διαγλωσσική επίδραση.
The aim of this paper is to present how Oxford’s taxonomy of language learning strategies (LLS), published in 1990, was extended by the author for multilingual learners. The impetus for this research is the assumption that L3 acquisition is different form L2 acquisition and that multilinguals reach heightened degrees of language learning awareness. It is hypothesised that multilingual learners, as a particular learner group, tend to develop specific strategies that monolingual L2 learners could not apply. The multilingual strategies integrated into the taxonomy stem from the author’s empirical studies and the literature review in three areas: strategy research, research on multilingualism (TLA), and didactics of plurilingualism. In language teaching methodologies that foster multilingualism in learners, the strategy choice may depend not only on didactic goals but also on the languages and contents involved as well as the treatment of such. The three latter features are used as criteria for classifying these methodologies so as to analyse the LLS they exploit. The extended version of Oxford’s taxonomy and the new strategy questionnaire for multilinguals Multilingual Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (M-SILL) are sought to contribute to the continuity in strategy research from SLA to TLA.
Previous scholarship has assumed a monolingual norm. This norm has been noted across disciplines and societies, where it demands assimilation and language shift. However, socially responsible language scholars have increasingly rejected this norm in favour of renewed interest in language contact, and associated complexity. Many social institutions in which interpreters and translators work in modernist nation states view languages as separate, separable units which come into contact in highly regularised ways and can therefore be highly regulated. I argue instead that a renewed focus on ethics in the study and practice of translation and interpreting involves recognising forms of communication which are increasingly common and diversified due to superdiversity.
This paper describes an investigation into multilingual language practices in four changing UK cities, using Linguistic Ethnography. The study’s own approach to ethical practice is first evaluated. I then ask how increased study of multilingualism can contribute to interpreters’ and translators’ work and how this work fits with contemporary patterns of language use, drawing on distinctions between the ethical and moral. I suggest that, whilst translating and interpreting can offer an ethicised approach to language contact, a truly moral approach may require rich understands of contemporary superdiverse societies.
The main goal consisted in identifying and bringing together strategies of multilinguals as a particular learner group. Therefore, research was placed in the intersection of the three fields: language learning strategies (LLS), third language acquisition (TLA), and the didactics of plurilingualism. First, the paper synthesises the major findings of research on LLS applied by multilinguals learning additional (European) languages. Then two interrelated empirical studies combining quantitative and qualitative research methods are reported. The strategies identified in the literature and in the mixed-method study 1 (n = 18) were integrated into Oxford’s[(1990). Language learning strategies: What every teacher should know. Boston, MA: Heinle and Heinle] taxonomy and into a new strategy questionnaire for multilingual learners Multilingual Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (M-SILL). Almost 90% of the strategies tested in the large-scale survey study 2 (n = 271) were reported by the multilingual participants as applied with a high or moderate frequency. A significant correlation was detected between the learners’ degree of multilingualism and the use of the M-SILL strategies, with a major increase in L3 learning. This finding provided an additional support to the claims that there is a ‘threshold’ effect in L3 learning and that TLA is different from SLA.
Due to a significant increase in interest in the phenomenon of multilingualism, research on multilingualism and multilingual education has grown over the last two decades. Some influential developments in research on second language acquisition and bilingualism have begun to exert an impact on second language teaching and bi‐ and multilingual education. These concerns include the symbiosis of the hitherto isolated fields of second language learning and bilingualism; the introduction of the concept of multicompetence, reflecting a bilingual view of bilingualism; and the application of dynamic systems theory to second language acquisition and multilingualism.
These new developments will be described in more detail, and the most important areas of research which have provided contributions to the development of multicompetence approaches to language proficiency will be examined. A central theme of the paper is that multilingual education can only be successful if the cognitive potential of multilingualism is explicitly acknowledged on the societal level.
Due to a significant increase in interest in the phenomenon of multilingualism, research on multilingualism and multilingual education has grown over the last two decades. Some influential developments in research on second language acquisition and bilingualism have begun to exert an impact on second language teaching and bi- and multilingual education. These concerns include the symbiosis of the hitherto isolated fields of second language learning and bilingualism; the introduction of the concept of multicompetence, reflecting a bilingual view of bilingualism; and the application of dynamic systems theory to second language acquisition and multilingualism.
These new developments will be described in more detail, and the most important areas of research which have provided contributions to the development of multicompetence approaches to language proficiency will be examined. A central theme of the paper is that multilingual education can only be successful if the cognitive potential of multilingualism is explicitly acknowledged on the societal level.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of age on learning English in Saudi Arabia. It aims at encouraging the learning of English as a foreign language at an early age in KSA. The populations of the study are English language teachers and Saudi students in elementary schools compared with intermediate school students in Dawadmi town. The study found out that age affects EFL learning because early exposure to language instructions constantly results in better performance. The results show that start learning English at an earlier age is an important factor in enhancing the skills of English language learners.
This study is aiming at investigating the impact of encouragement on Sudanese learners when learning EFL. The main question of the present study is asking about the influence of encouragement on learning EFL in Sudanese setting. Population of this study are English teachers and students in Eddueim Locality's schools in Sudan. Questionnaire was used as a main tool for this study. A brief review of literature on the previous research on the effect of encouragement on a foreign language learning was made. The researcher uses SPSS to analyze the collected data. The data is analyzed and recommendations made. According to the findings of the study, encouragement has great influence on language learning.
This study explores teaching English as a foreign language in the West Bank, Palestine. It investigates the perspectives of a group of faculty, preservice, and in-service teachers about teaching and learning English in the primary grades under the overarching harsh realities of political conflict and instability. The study demonstrates the importance of addressing socio-political contexts to make teaching meaningful and to set pedagogical strategies that correspond to the context of the students in teacher preparation programs. Participants interviewed responded to open-ended questions about teaching English as a foreign language and discussed major issues and challenges they face.
The last decade has witnessed a rapid increase in interest in multilingualism. Whereas a number of scholars in language acquisition research still base their work on the monolingual native speaker norm, others have developed more realistic viewpoints. This article provides an overview of international research on third language learning and teaching, including examples mainly from a European background. It describes sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and educational aspects of multilingual teaching and emphasizes current research trends in this fairly young area of language teaching. The challenging ways which have been suggested to achieve multilingualism for all necessarily have to address learners, teachers, educators and policy makers. It will be argued that multilingual education can only be successful if language teaching in general is restructured and oriented towards multilingual norms.
Irregular F is an open access online journal that publishes work from all areas and traditions of philosophy. High-quality theoretical research in social sciences and humanities may also be accepted. The journal focuses on research addressing novel or scarcely treated subject matter, remaining nevertheless faithful to the norms and standards of academic research. Irregular F promotes dialogues between various disciplines and the work of young researchers, but any valuable contribution from the aforementioned fields of study is welcome.
This study conducted in the Basque Country compares attitudes towards the three languages in the curriculum in different grades. The results indicate that younger students present more positive attitudes towards English, Basque and Spanish than older students.
Bilingual education, for the purposes of this chapter, is defined as a program at elementary or secondary school where two (or more) languages are used as media for content instruction. In Canada, due to the success and popularity of French immersion, bilingual education programs tend to follow an immersion model, described in more detail later. In this chapter, we consider three main forms of immersion in Canada: (1) French immersion (FI), originally mainly for English-speaking majority students, but now also populated by learners from nonofficial minority language backgrounds (Taylor 2010) (2) heritage language (HL) programs for students with backgrounds in nonofficial languages such as Ukrainian, German, and Mandarin; and (3) indigenous language programs for aboriginal students (e.g., students of Inuit, Mohawk, or Cree backgrounds). Despite some differences, in general, each program type respects two fundamental principles: (1) additive bilingualism is the assumption that acquisition of a second language brings personal, social, cognitive, and economic advantage without negative effects on first language or academic development, and (2) learning a language when it is used as a medium of general curriculum instruction (e.g., in mathematics and science) in an intensive and extensive time period is effective. We begin by summarizing early developments in each program type and then describe the evolution of each along with trends in recent research. We conclude by proposing a number of issues that warrant further research.
Bilingual education, for the purposes of this chapter, is defined as a program at elementary or secondary school where two (or more) languages are used as media for content instruction. In Canada, due to the success and popularity of French immersion, bilingual education programs tend to follow an immersion model, described in more detail later. In this chapter, we consider three main forms of immersion in Canada: (1) French immersion (FI), originally mainly for English-speaking majority students, but now also populated by learners from nonofficial minority language backgrounds (Taylor 2010) (2) heritage language (HL) programs for students with backgrounds in nonofficial languages such as Ukrainian, German, and Mandarin; and (3) indigenous language programs for aboriginal students (e.g., students of Inuit, Mohawk, or Cree backgrounds). Despite some differences, in general, each program type respects two fundamental principles: (1) additive bilingualism is the assumption that acquisition of a second language brings personal, social, cognitive, and economic advantage without negative effects on first language or academic development, and (2) learning a language when it is used as a medium of general curriculum instruction (e.g., in mathematics and science) in an intensive and extensive time period is effective. We begin by summarizing early developments in each program type and then describe the evolution of each along with trends in recent research. We conclude by proposing a number of issues that warrant further research.
This article looks at the general effects of bilingualism on cognitive development and highlights the specific effects of bilingualism on third language acquisition. First, it examines the effects of bilingualism on cognitive development, metalinguistic awareness and communicative skills and then, it focuses on the specific effects of bilingualism on third language proficiency by discussing the results of several research studies conducted in different settings and contexts. An important distinction is made between studies focusing on the acquisition of general proficiency in the third language and studies that examine specific aspects of third language proficiency. The effects of bilingualism on third language acquisition are discussed as related to the experience acquired by third language learners in the process of second language acquisition and the effects of bilingualism on metalinguistic awareness and communicative skills. These effects are also discussed with reference to the concepts of additive bilingualism(Lambert, 1974), the threshold hypothesis(Cummins,1976) and the distinction between control of attention and analysis (Bialystok, 1991).
This paper describes a project carried out in thirty schools in the Basque Country during the academic year 1992–93 to introduce a foreign language—in this case English—to eight‐year‐olds three years earlier than previously. The paper looks briefly at the situation of teaching primary English in the Basque Country and then goes on to describe the aims and implementation of the project. The paper further analyses the general attitudes towards the project, the process of teacher development and the progress in language learning. Finally, some concluding remarks are made concerning the implications of the project.
A project introducing English as a third language in 30 elementary schools in the Basque Country (Spain) is described. The program, emerging from a national curriculum reform effort, begins English instruction when students are eight years old, three years earlier than previously. Students are already bilingual in Spanish and Basque, both official languages, and some feel that because the two languages are not related, students experience some confusion in learning both. Addition of a third, also unrelated language is seen as a special challenge in this area. At the program's inception in 1992, the University of the Basque Country was designated as the coordinating institution. Teachers were trained in English language instruction in the United Kingdom and had regular meetings for discussing instructional issues and exchanging ideas. An activity-based and thematic syllabus evolved from this process. Program coordinators observed classrooms several times a year. A formative evaluation used observation, an attitude survey of teachers, parents, and administrators, a teacher survey, and English language testing. Results suggest the program fostered a favorable attitude toward English language teaching, highlight the important role of the teacher, and provided a significant opportunity for teacher development. Areas for improvement were also identified. A bibliography is included. (MSE)
This book discusses cognitive and psycholinguistic aspects of third language acquisition and trilingualism, and explores the key role of linguistic awareness in multilingual proficiency and language learning. In view of the widespread acquisition of English by those who are already bilingual or are also acquiring a regional lingua franca, this study contributes to the current discussion of multilingualism with English in Europe and beyond, as well as the understanding of multilingual speech processing. The author supports a dynamic view of multilingualism by stressing the cognitive advantages that the contact with more languages can offer, and uses this approach as the basis for future language teaching and learning. Chapters cover topics such as performing in a third language, metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals and in multilingual education, and English as a third language in Europe.
Unlike many recent books on L2 vocabulary and processing, this volume does not set out to offer a complex perspective of the L2 lexicon, but rather represents a sustained attempt to come to grips with some very basic questions clustered around the relationship between the L2 mental lexicon and the L1 mental lexicon. It provides a substantial review of L1 and L2 lexical research issues such as similarities and differences between the conditions of L1 and L2 acquisition, the respective roles of form and meaning in L1 and L2 processing, and the degree of separation/integration between L1 and the L2 lexical operations. New research into the L2 lexicon from the Trinity College Dublin Modern Languages Project is considered in the latter part of the volume.
This book discusses cognitive and psycholinguistic aspects of third language acquisition and trilingualism, and explores the key role of linguistic awareness in multilingual proficiency and language learning. in view of the widespread acquisition of English by those who are already bilingual or are also acquiring a regional lingua franca this study will contribute to the current discussion of multilingualism with English in Europe and beyond, as well as the understanding of multilingual speech processing. The author supports a dynamic view of multilingualism by stressing the cognitive advantages that the contact with more languages can offer and uses this approach as the basis for future language teaching and learning. Chapters cover topics such as performing in a third language, metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals and in multilingual education, and English as a third language in Europe. Key Features: *The first study of the important role metalinguistic awareness plays in multilingual proficiency *Includes a unique comparison of both second and third language acquisition *Useful for students and scholars of applied linguistics, language education, language planning, psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics and the study of the English language.
The study of translation ability provides an avenue to understanding the cognitive-linguistic experience that is particular to bilingual children. Translation is a bilingual skill; it has also been called a metalinguistic skill par excellance. There has been little research on translation ability in bilingual children, despite calls for such research based on anecdotal and indirect evidence. This chapter reports the findings from a series of studies that have shown that grade school students are competent translators who are not easily misled by deliberate translation pitfalls, and who show no evidence of linguistic confusion when translating.
For all the obvious gains that the use of English in education brings to Asian bilingual systems, the language is often viewed with openly expressed suspicion by planners, politicians and academics in several Asian countries. This can in part be explained by events in the language's past association with these countries. But only in part. Some other reasons are relatable to what the English language does, on one hand, to those who succeed in joining the English users' 'fellowships' (Kachru, 1985) and, on the other, to the rest of English language's 'stakeholders' (Tickoo,1991) and to the other languages that serve these systems. With its main support in the teaching and use of English in India, this paper attempts two things: it explores parts of this phenomenon in looking at its what, how and why and then sketches an educational alternative capable of making the language a shared resource for all its stakeholders.
This article deals with the language development of two children, now aged eight and five, who acquired two languages, Spanish and German, simultaneously from birth, and a third, English, when very young. The different circumstances of the acquisition of the third language have resulted in distinct patterns of linguistic development and proficiency. The article first considers certain linguistic aspects of language development and goes on to take into account wider social and psychological factors which have influenced the children's rate of acquisition, the proficiency attained and the communicative strategies employed. Reference is made to the largely similar acquisition of the phonological, grammatical and lexical systems of German and Spanish. This is followed by a brief outline of their acquisition of English, which followed a slightly different process in the case of each child. Mention is also made of the older child's experience of learning to read in her first two languages. The overall aim is to make a contribution to longitudinal case studies of the development of bilingual children. Attention is therefore focused on the issues normally associated with this development, including social and psychological aspects: patterns of interference and code‐switching, language dominance, the role of parents, the social environment and the child's personality.
This article argues that language teaching would benefit by paying attention to the L2 user rather than concentrating primarily on the native speaker. It suggests ways in which language teaching can apply an L2 user model and exploit the students' L1. Because L2 users differ from monolingual native speakers in their knowledge of their L2s and L1s and in some of their cognitive processes, they should be considered as speakers in their own right, not as approximations to monolingual native speakers. In the classroom, teachers can recognise this status by incorporating goals based on L2 users in the outside world, bringing L2 user situations and roles into the classroom, deliberately using the students' L1 in teaching activities, and looking to descriptions of L2 users or L2 learners rather than descriptions of native speakers as a source of information. The main benefits of recognising that L2 users are speakers in the own right, however, will come from students' and teachers' having a positive image of L2 users rather than seeing them as failed native speakers.
The central thesis of this paper is that a cognitively and academically beneficial form of bilingualism can be achieved only on the basis of adequately developed first language (L1) skills. Two hypotheses are formulated and combined to arrive at this position. The “developmental interdependence” hypothesis proposes that the development of competence in a second language (L2) is partially a function of the type of competence already developed in L1 at the time when intensive exposure to L2 begins. The “threshold” hypothesis proposes that there may be threshold levels of linguistic competence which a bilingual child must attain both in order to avoid cognitive disadvantages and allow the potentially beneficial aspects of bilingualism to influence his cognitive and academic functioning. These hypotheses are integrated into a model of bilingual education in which educational outcomes are explained as a function of the interaction between background, child input and educational treatment factors. It is suggested that many evaluations of bilingual education programs have produced uninterpretable data because they have failed to incorporate the possibility of these interactions into their research designs.
In general, discussion of cross-linguistic influence has focussed almost exclusively on the role of L1 in L2 production, both in the form of cross-linguistic influence on the learner's interlanguage and in the form of language switches to the L1 during L2 production. As yet, there has been little work done on the influence of a learner's other previously learned L2s in the acquisition of a new language (L3). The few studies that have been been carried out on the role of L2 in L3 production however show that L2 does play an important role in L3 acquisition. This paper presents the results of ongoing research on non-adapted language switches, using data from a two-year longitudinal case study of an adult learner of L3 Swedish with L1 English and L2 German. Our study is based on 844 non-adapted language switches. We identified four main types of switch, three of which had pragmatic purpose, namely: (i) EDIT (marking self-repair, beginning of turntake etc.), (ii) META (used for asides, to comment on L3 performance or ask for help) and (iii) INSERT (use of non-L3 items to overcome lexical problems in L3), and the last of which we refer to as Without Identified Pragmatic Purpose (WIPP switch; cf. 'non-intentional switches', Poulisse and Bongaerts 1994). We found that while L1 English prevailed in EDIT, META and INSERT functions, almost only L2 German occurred in WIPP switches. Most of these WIPP switches were function words. We also noticed that a number of the English utterances used in INSERT function appeared to show German influence, although this was not the case when English was used in META function. Our results show that in this case study of L3 acquisition, L1 and L2 play different roles. We suggest that L2 German, which was shown to be the non-L3 language predominantly used to supply material for lexical construction attempts in the L3 (Williams and Hammarberg 1994), is activated in parallel to the L3 interlanguage, underlying L3 production and even L1 production. We refer to this as the DEFAULT SUPPLIER role. L1 English, on the other hand, is more seldom used in lexical construction attempts in the L3 or activated in parallel but rather is kept separate from the L3 and used largely with a metalinguistic function. We refer to this as the INSTRUMENTAL role. We propose a developmental model of L3 production based on de Bot's (1992) model of bilingual speech production but involving role assignment to the background languages, such that only the language which has been assigned the role of DEFAULT SUPPLIER is regularly activated in parallel to the L3 interlanguage. Over time, these two roles are largely taken over by the L3 itself. We suggest that these roles also exist in L2 acquisition but since there is only one background language, this takes over both roles and overt distinctions between them collapse.
The paper begins by describing some language‐related projects undertaken by the European Community to promote multilinguality and improved cross‐national communication. Then it describes four systems of bilingual education operating in individual Member States: the national system of Luxembourg, the Foyer and European School projects in Belgium, and the bilingual systems operating in the Catalan and Basque regions of Spain. As a basis for comparison, Canadian immersion programmes are also briefly characterised. There follows a comparison of all these systems in an attempt to state some general hypotheses that account for their various strengths and weaknesses and also to indicate the important factors that would have to be considered in any application of European models in an Asian context.
The development of competence in two or more languages can result in higher levels of metalinguistic awareness. These facilitate the acquisition of language by exploiting the cognitive mechanisms underlying these processes of transfer and enhancement. In this paper, the role of metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals is discussed within the framework of a systems-theoretic approach to multilingual proficiency as taken in the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism. Selective data from trilingual adults (bilingual Italian/German learners of English) on their use of certain problem-solving behaviour in think-aloud protocols during the process of academic writing are shown to provide evidence of certain processes taking place while performing in a third language. At the same time, this study of metalinguistic thinking isused to point to applied perspectives of research on third language acquisition, going beyond second language research. It is argued that prior language knowledge should be reactivated in the language classroom and that consequently multilingual education should also focus on the similarities between languages in order to increase metalinguistic awareness in both teachers and students.
This paper reports on a project on trilingualism currently in progress. A brief literature review indicates the diversity of trilingualism and trilingual situations. The paper then focuses on three sets of trilinguals in Melbourne-Dutch-German-English, Hungarian-German-English, and Italian-Spanish-English, and considers interlingual strategies employed by them. The three main types are: conversion rules indicative of a multilateral competence covering closely related languages, interlingual identification based on correspondences between two of the languages, and code-switching in which English transfers or bilingual compromise forms trigger switches between two other languages. Depending on the typology of the languages, trilinguals will differ in their strategies. Implications for processing models are given some preliminary consideration.
A particular view of bilingualism — the monolingual (or fractional) view — has been given far too much importance in the study of bilinguals. According to it, the bilingual is (or should be) two monolinguals in one person. In this paper, the monolingual view is spelled out, and the negative consequences it has had on various areas of bilingual research are discussed. A bilingual (or wholistic) view is then proposed. According to it, the bilingual is not the sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals; rather, he or she has a unique and specific linguistic configuration. This view is described and four areas, of research are discussed in its light: comparing monolinguals and bilinguals, language learning and language forgetting, the bilingual's speech modes, the bilingual child and ‘semilingualism’.
An attempt is made in the present paper to resolve inconsistencies between the results of recent studies which have reported that bilingualism is associated with positive cognitive consequences and earlier studies which suggested that bilingualism might adversely affect cognitive and scholastic progress. Because recent studies involved balanced bilinguals and were carried out in "additive" bilingual settings, the bilingual subjects in these studies are likely to have attained a high level of competence in the second language (L2) at no cost to their level of competence in the first language (L1). However, earlier studies tended to involve bilingual subjects from language minority groups whose L1 was gradually being replaced by their L2. Thus, it is not surprising that many of these earlier studies produced evidence of a "balance effect," i.e., that a bilingual paid for his L2 competence by a lowering of his L1 competence. On the basis of the differences in linguistic competence attained by the bilingual subjects in earlier and more recent studies it is hypothesized that the level of linguistic competence attained by a bilingual child may mediate the effects of his bilingual learning experiences on cognitive growth. Specifically, there may be a threshold level of linguistic competence which a bilingual child must attain both in order to avoid cognitive deficits and allow the potentially beneficial aspects of becoming bilingual to influence his cognitive functioning. (Author)
The proposed theoretical framework emphasizes the interaction between sociocultural, linguistic, and school program factors in explaining the academic and cognitive development of bilingual children. It is theorized that bilingualism that is cognitively and academically beneficial can be achieved only on the basis of adequately developed first language (L1) skills. This position is based on two hypotheses. The "developmental interdependence" hypothesis proposes that the development of competence in a second language (L2) is partially a function of the type of competence already developed in L1 at the time when intensive exposure to L2 begins. The "threshold" hypothesis proposes that there may be threshold levels of linguistic competence that bilingual children must attain both in order to avoid cognitive disadvantages and to allow the potentially beneficial aspects of bilingualism to influence their cognitive and academic functioning. This model of bilingual education explains educational outcomes as a function of the interaction between background, child input, and educational treatment factors. Attention is also directed to problems with bilingual education program evaluations that fail to consider these potential interactions. A review of relevant literature and studies is included. (Author/SW)
Trilingual primary education is a growing phenomenon in Europe. However, trilingual primary education is just an umbrella term. There are various different manifestations of the phenomenon. In this contribution an attempt is made to develop a first typology of trilingual primary education. The typology proposed is based on three dimensions: (1) the linguistic context in which trilingual education takes place, coupled with (2) the linguistic distance between the three language varieties at issue, and (3) the organisational design of the teaching of the three school languages. The result is a classification consisting of 46 distinct types of trilingual primary education.