scholarly journals Relationships of language learning variables in the acquisition of third languages in a multilingual context

Author(s):  
Jeffrey Dawala Wilang ◽  
Thanh Vo Duy

<p>This paper reinforces the importance of third language acquisition research in a multilingual context focusing on language experience, vocabulary learning strategies, emotional self-regulation strategies, and language anxiety. This study explored three languages: Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese, to know if there are significant relationships between the above variables in third language acquisition. Three specific sets of survey questionnaires were distributed to various students enrolled in foreign language courses offered in a language department in a university. To focus on the relationships of language learning variables of a foreign language, correlational design was used to analyze the survey questionnaires' responses for each language course. Among students who were enrolled in Chinese, significant relationships were established between language anxiety and language experience, language anxiety, and emotional self-regulation strategies. Significant associations were found between emotional self-regulation strategies and language experience, emotional self-regulation strategies, and vocabulary strategies, and language performance and language experience for those students enrolled in the Korean language. In learning Vietnamese, significant relationships were found between language anxiety and vocabulary strategies, language performance, and language anxiety. Teachers may need to re-evaluate prepared teaching and learning materials, for example, material difficulty, to help students alleviate anxiety in learning.</p>

Author(s):  
Helen Forsyth ◽  

Existing research indicates a qualitative difference between Second Language Learning and Third Language Acquisition, and certain psycholinguistic and developmental aspects to multilingual learners merit investigation. The present paper examines stages in receptive learner acquisition of English as a Third Language at Italian-medium primary schools in South Tyrol in Italy employing a picture selection task and implicational scaling analysis. It highlights the role that processing approaches to acquisition proposing constraints on developmental readiness and cross-linguistic influence may play for the emergence of receptive competence in morpho-syntactic structures.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hie Ling Ting ◽  
Jiin Yih Yeo ◽  
Vicky Chin

Learning Mandarin as a foreign language or third language can be very difficult for non-Chinese learners. In the process of learning Mandarin, non-Chinese learners may experience certain level of foreign language anxiety. The objectives of this study are to investigate Mandarin language anxiety level and its associated factors among non-Chinese learners. This study involved 221 non-Chinese learners who enrolled in Introductory Mandarin Language in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Sarawak. The instrument for this study included the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) developed by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1986). The collected data were analysed using Statistical package for Social Science (SPSS) 22. The results of the study indicated that most of the non-Chinese learners experienced a moderate level of anxiety while learning Mandarin. The main factor that contributed to their language anxiety was communication apprehension, followed by fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety.


2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 571
Author(s):  
Mehtap Bademcioglu ◽  
Hakan Karatas ◽  
Atilla Ergin

Individual differences are considered as important factors in the language learning process. Apart from individual differences, affective factors such as attitudes and motivation of individuals and their anxiety levels which affect the individuals’ language learning directly or indirectly are also believed as significant impacts in this process. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between self-regulation strategies, motivational beliefs, attitudes, speaking anxiety and foreign language classroom anxiety and to investigate the predictive power of these variables for foreign language classroom anxiety. The relational model was used in the current study. The research group included 320 male (65.6 %) and 168 female (34.4 %) English preparatory students at Istanbul Technical University. Attitudes toward English Lesson Scale, Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety Questionnaire, The Motivational Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale were used as the data collection tool. The statistical methods used for analyses were correlation and multiple regression. The findings indicated that there is a significant positive correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and self-regulation, test anxiety, and foreign language speaking anxiety. Also, there is significant negative correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and self-efficacy intrinsic value perception, and attitude towards English. Moreover, self-efficacy, test anxiety, attitude towards English, and foreign language speaking anxiety are predictors of the university students’ foreign language classroom anxiety. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-280
Author(s):  
Petar Todorov ◽  

The article presents the possibilities for integrating an innovative methodology in third language acquisition – Duolingo for schools. The Duolingo language learning platform is one of the leaders in the world with millions of registered users as the access to it is entirely free of charge. The article presents the leading research in the field by emphasizing the fact that none of it is yet to use Duolingo for schools. After dwelling upon Duolingo’s methodology, it is pointed out that Duolingo for schools can be integrated by teachers/lecturers in their syllabi to create a controlled environment. In the context of learning languages by Bulgarians, it is recommended using Duolingo for schools in third language acquisition, as Duolingo does not offer learning Bulgarian, neither can Bulgarian be used to learn another language.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0247976
Author(s):  
Jorge González Alonso ◽  
Eloi Puig-Mayenco ◽  
Antonio Fábregas ◽  
Adel Chaouch-Orozco ◽  
Jason Rothman

The study of linguistic transfer—understood here in terms of the copying of previous linguistic representations—seeks to reveal how domain-relevant prior language knowledge impacts the acquisition and development of new mental representations more generally. Studying sequential multilingualism offers a natural laboratory to observe cognitive-economical mechanisms that avoid redundancy in language learning. One of the key dividing questions between theories of transfer in sequential multilingualism is the extent of transfer, that is, whether a whole previous grammar is transferred (full transfer) or a potentially different source language is selected for each linguistic property (property-by-property transfer). We adopted a novel methodological approach to this question, examining four different linguistic properties from unrelated domains of grammar across the three languages of a heterogeneous population of highly proficient, early Catalan/Spanish bilinguals with different degrees of language dominance and order of acquisition, at the very beginning of (adult) L3 English. Results are variably complex across the different properties, but compatible with a scenario where one of the previous languages, Catalan, was selected as the basis for the initial L3 English grammar of these speakers. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings.


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