scholarly journals Acquisition of Adjective Placement by L3 Learners of English: Evidence for the L2 Status Factor

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Ghezlou ◽  
Mansour Koosha ◽  
Ahmad Reza Lotfi
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
Linguistic Methodology ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
General English Proficiency Test ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Test Current ◽  
Determining Factor

This study attempts to tease apart the effect of first (L1) and second (L2) language knowledge on the acquisition of syntactic properties of L3 English in order to test current generative theories in the field of third language acquisition (L3A). The property under investigation is adjective placement. Participants are L1 Azeri / L2 Persian, and L1 Persian learners of English as a third and second language respectively. To fulfill so, 180 bilingual and monolingual university students from Arak and Miyandoab took a general English proficiency test, a background questionnaire, and a syntactic structure test. The L3 proficiency was also considered. The data, then, were analyzed through utilization of descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVA. In relation to the hypotheses, results indicated L2 status as the determining factor in the acquisition of English adjective properties by Azeri-Persian bilinguals. Proficiency level in the L3 also proved to have a significant role. The implications of the study can be utilized in developing an educational and linguistic methodology for bilingual learners of English as an L3 in Iran.

L3 acquisition of German adjectival inflection: A generative account

2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Jaensch
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
Adjectival Inflection ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
Syntactic Properties

Studies testing the knowledge of syntactic properties have resulted in two potentially contrasting proposals in relation to third language acquisition (TLA); the Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn et al., 2004), which proposes that previously learned languages will positively affect the acquisition of a third language (L3); and the ‘second language (L2) status factor’ hypothesis (Bardel and Falk, 2007), which proposes that the primacy of the L2 can block the potential positive effects that may be transferable from the first language (L1). This article attempts to extend these hypotheses to the domain of morphosyntax, in relation to the TLA of the properties of grammatical number and gender concord marking on German attributive adjectives; these properties not present in the L1 of Japanese, or the L2 of English. Two further factors are of interest in the current study; first, the performance of the learners according to their L3 and their L2 proficiency levels, a variable not discussed in the above-mentioned studies; and, second, the role that the type of task has on the performance of these learners. Three groups of Japanese native speakers (matched for proficiency within each German group), but with differing English proficiencies, completed a carefully balanced gap-filling task, together with two oral elicitation tasks in the form of games; both of these elicited tokens of adjectival inflection. Initial results offer partial support for weaker versions of the two hypotheses mentioned above. However, neither of the L3 models tested can fully account for the results obtained, which are more consistent with a feature-based account of the organization of grammar in the domain of morphosyntax, such as that of Distributed Morphology (DM) (Halle and Marantz, 1993). DM is a model for language acquisition which — coupled with a view that the Subset Principle proposed by this account is not observed by non-primary language learners — has recently been proposed to explain the optionality observed in L2 learners’ production (Hawkins et al., 2006). The data presented here suggest that it could be extended to L3 learners’ production.

scholarly journals Factors influencing lexical transfer in third language acquisition

2020 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-283
Author(s):  
Nicolas Najjar
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Relative Weight ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Naturalistic Setting ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Lexical Transfer

The present paper examines the factors influencing lexical transfer in third language acquisition (TLA) by examining studies devoted to lexical transfer from L1 and L2 into L3 that were mainly conducted in Europe. There are several factors that have influence on lexical transfer: linguistic (such as typology), contextual (such as naturalistic setting vs. formal setting), psycho-linguistic (such as psychotypology and the learners’ aware­ness of cognates), individual (such as learners’ age) and other factors (such as L2/L3 proficiency level). The results of the survey indicate that negative lexical transfer from both L1 and L2 to L3 occurs (a) in naturalistic contexts, (b) when languages are typo­logically similar, (c) when students perceive these languages as similar, and (d) when L2 proficiency level is high and L3 proficiency level low. In contrast, positive lexical transfer from L2 to L3 occurs (a) in formal settings, (b) when students perceive these languages as similar, (c) when learners’ awareness of true cognates is high, and (d) when both L2 and L3 proficiency level are high. Additionally, the learners’ age was found to potentially predict the relative weight of lexical transfer in TLA in the following manner: negative lexical transfer from L1 and L2 to L3 may increase with age. Finally, it was found that when L1, L2, and L3 are equally proximate, it is the L1 that has the primary influence on lexical transfer in TLA.

scholarly journals On the status of transfer in adult third language acquisition of early bilinguals

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0247976
Author(s):  
Jorge González Alonso ◽  
Eloi Puig-Mayenco ◽  
Antonio Fábregas ◽  
Adel Chaouch-Orozco ◽  
Jason Rothman
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
The Status ◽  
Linguistic Transfer ◽  
Natural Laboratory

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.

Syntax-Pragmatik-Schnittstelle am Beispiel der Fokussierung im Spanisch-Erwerb deutschsprachiger Lerner

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 315-350
Author(s):  
Julia Schirnhofer
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Test Results ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Syntactic Properties ◽  
Information Focus ◽  
Focus Marking

Abstract As a phenomenon at the syntax-pragmatics interface, focus marking can cause particular difficulties in adult L2 acquisition and may never be fully acquired, whereas native-like competence can be achieved with formal syntactic properties. The present study examines this so-called Interface Hypothesis by analysing the strategies that monolingual German-speaking learners use to mark information focus in Spanish. Analyses of the test results show that around 97 % of the test subjects prefer to maintain the unmarked constituent order and mark focus in situ, irrespective of their proficiency level. In comparison with Spanish natives (Gabriel 2010, Heidinger 2014), the results show a divergence from the behaviour of native speakers, as the latter use various strategies. This indicates that the German-speaking learners do not make use of the variation of focus marking strategies the Spanish language provides, but rather adhere to in situ focalization, which is also the dominant focus-marking strategy in German. Furthermore, the results of the present study highlight that strategies for marking focus are scarcely taken into account in language teaching classes.

scholarly journals PERAN BAHASA INGGRIS SEBAGAI BAHASA KEDUA DALAM PEMEROLEHAN BAHASA INDONESIA SEBAGAI BAHASA KETIGA

Paramasastra ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Kholiq
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Language Influence

Cross language influence in third language (L3) acquisition is related to the first (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition. Cross-language influence in third language acquisition studies can be analyzed from the first and second language role in the third language acquisition. Each acquisition Indonesian language as L3 is always English as L2 so that the role of English in acquiring Indonesian as B3 be worth studying. It is a qualitative approach based research. This study focuses on (1) the role of English of articulation and (2) the role of English as the provider acquiring vocabulary in Indonesian as L3. Data used in this research is the conversation conducted by the researcher and research subject; and sentence production based on picture by the research subject. Data analysis result finds 1) the role of English as an addition to the mastery of the sound that is not owned B1 of pemeroleh Indonesian as L3 and English influence language sounds in pronunciation Indonesian, and 2) The role of English as a provider of vocabulary in language acquisition Indonesia as B3 is as a language bridge in language acquisition Indonesia if the Indonesian pemeroleh not master words in Indonesian. 

scholarly journals Third Language Acquisition

2018 ◽  
pp. 737-757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Cabrelli Amaro ◽  
Michael Iverson
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition

The acquisition of relative clauses by Spanish-Basque learners of L3 English: does dominance play a role?

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Ramos Feijoo ◽  
María del Pilar García Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Several studies in the area of third language acquisition (L3A) have considered various factors influencing this process, but the effect of language dominance has not been thoroughly examined. The main goal of this study is to investigate whether the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in L3 English is influenced by language internal factors, such as the syntactic features of the target language, or by external factors in the form of cross-linguistic influence (CLI). A total of 90 participants (40 Spanish-dominant, 40 Basque-dominant, 10 L1 Spanish-L2 English) and 10 native speakers of English completed a production and a comprehension task. Findings show that the L3 learners’ production of RCs seems to be driven by language internal factors, whereas their comprehension appears to be influenced by their previously acquired languages, mainly by Spanish. It is concluded that neither language dominance nor other traditionally considered factors play a determinant role in the acquisition of RCs in L3 English by these participants.

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