32.2405, Review: Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition: Bardel, Sánchez (2020)
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Subject: 32.2405, Review: Applied Linguistics; Language Acquisition: Bardel, Sánchez (2020)
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Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2021 17:27:09
From: Maria Turrero-Garcia [maria.turrero at gmail.com]
Subject: Third language acquisition
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36695677
Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-3780.html
EDITOR: Camilla Bardel
EDITOR: Laura Sánchez
TITLE: Third language acquisition
SUBTITLE: Age, proficiency and multilingualism
SERIES TITLE: EuroSLA Studies
PUBLISHER: Language Science Press
YEAR: 2020
REVIEWER: Maria Turrero-Garcia, Drew University
SUMMARY
“Third Language Acquisition: Age, proficiency and multilingualism”, edited by
Camila Bardel and Laura Sánchez, presents work by scholars in the field of
third language acquisition, particularly with regards to the role of age and
proficiency and the interference from previously acquired languages in the
interpretation and production of an L3. This volume could be a good
introductory book for scholars who are not overly familiar with L3 studies but
are looking for an overview of some of the main issues currently being
researched in this field.
This book is a collection of eight theoretical and empirical studies. It opens
with an introduction (Chapter 1) that provides a detailed summary of the
content of each subsequent chapter, while simultaneously offering a brief
working definition of the three dominant themes discussed: age, proficiency,
and multilingualism.
Chapter 2 defines two subtypes of multilingualism (L3 acquisition for learners
who have learned a non-native language before, and subsequent language
acquisition for early/simultaneous bilinguals), and emphasizes the
similarities and differences between these groups. The author, L. Sánchez,
talks about how age can play a crucial role in the study of multilingual
acquisition, pointing to a potential advantage for older learners due to their
greater cognitive development and metalinguistic awareness. Input is also
considered as a defining factor of L3 acquisition. This chapter also
emphasizes the importance of proficiency in L3 acquisition studies. Previous
work has shown that prior language knowledge can be facilitative at specific
proficiency levels (Cenoz 2013), thus highlighting the need to understand
previous language experience and competence. Finally, this chapter describes
different types of cross-linguistic influence and the models that have
attempted to account for them.
Chapter 3 is a conceptual chapter that explores the acquisition of aspect in
the L3 based on the effect of previously acquired languages. In it, R.
Salaberry looks into distinctions of typological proximity and into the
processing mechanisms that are applied differently to implicit competence vs.
explicit knowledge. The author establishes aspect as a particularly relevant
linguistic phenomenon to study, due to its intricate semantic, syntactic, and
discourse-related nuances and to the wide array of cross-linguistic
differences that exist with regard to this category. Through a meta-analysis
of the few existing L3 studies on aspect that are available, Salaberry
proposes that the L3 acquisition of aspect relies on processing mechanisms
used in the L2 rather than on those used in the L1.
In Chapter 4, A. Gudmundson partially replicates Fitzpatrick & Izura’s 2011
study on bilingual word associations, extending it to encompass an L3 in
speakers of L1 Swedish, L2 English, and L3 Italian. She studies different
types of word associations ([non-]equivalent meaning, form-based relations,
collocational relations…) by measuring the effect of language status and
reaction times through a word association task and a lexical decision task.
Her results indicate a differential distribution of association types based on
language status (there were more equivalent meaning relations in the L1 than
in the L2 and in the L2 than in the L3, for example), as well as some
association patterns that are language-specific (such as collocational
associations being restricted mainly to the L1). Additionally, reaction times
in the tasks studied varied by association type, but this is argued to be a
by-product of proficiency. Ultimately, Gudmunson argues that “lexical
representations, access and development proceed similarly in all languages
known by a trilingual user, and […] the L1 is not qualitatively different from
non-native languages” (Gudmunson 2020: 101).
Chapter 5 investigates the role of proficiency in the target and background
languages in the acquisition of clitics in L3 Italian. Studying speakers of L1
German with either Spanish or French as their L2, S. Sciuti conducts an
elicited production task, a grammaticality judgment task, and a written
translation task. Because clitics are a complex, multi-faceted linguistic
phenomenon with many morphosyntactic properties, their acquisition often leads
to omission and avoidance in the early stages of acquisition of Italian.
However, speaking a Romance language fluently as an L2 seems to lessen the
instances of clitic omission. Sciuti’s results point to a facilitative effect
of transfer from a Romance L2 such as French or Spanish, particularly at high
levels of L2 proficiency.
Chapter 6 is a study of cognate recognition by young bilingual Spanish-Catalan
learners of English as an L3. In it, C. Muñoz looks at how age can impact
cognate recognition in the L3 in groups of 7 vs. 9 year-olds (that is, the
extent to which these speakers rely on phonological similarity when assigning
meaning to the words they hear in their L3). Through a Peabody picture
vocabulary test, the author gathered data that show a cognate advantage in
word recognition for both age groups, albeit with a significant recognition
advantage for the older group. Age, and not contact hours (that is, hours of
English instructor and content and language integrated learning), was a strong
predictor of cognate recognition. Muñoz’s conclusion offers a pedagogical
proposal to use this cognate advantage in early language instruction.
Chapter 7, written by S. Pfenninger, investigates the potential advantages in
acquiring a new language (English) for early bilinguals vs. late bilinguals
and monolinguals, as well as the role that literacy in the L1 plays in the
development of literacy in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Through an
extensive battery of linguistic tasks, the author tests listening
comprehension, receptive and productive vocabulary, and oral and written
syntactic complexity, fluency, and accuracy. The results from this study point
to an initial advantage for early bilinguals that are lost at the end of
mandatory school time. Additionally, this initial advantage seems to be
closely tied to parental support in the language learning process rather than
being the direct result of bilingualism and biliteracy per se.
In Chapter 8, L. Sánchez examines the effect of L2 syntactic proficiency on
the interlanguage transfer of syntactic structures from the L2 to the L3. The
originality of this chapter comes from the distinction made by the author
between measures of overall proficiency vs. measures of proficiency of
specific linguistic constructions (L2SP, as per the author’s abbreviation).
The author focuses on the latter type of proficiency to analyze the production
of word order in L2 speakers of German acquiring L3 English (Catalan and/or
Spanish are the L1s in this speaker group). Through a story-telling task, the
author finds an influence from the L2 in the L3, particularly in instances of
low L2SP. This is claimed to support the notion that the weakest language is
processed via another non-native language (Abunuwara 1992). Sánchez ultimately
places an important weight on the higher occurrence of interlanguage transfer
in the L3 in cases where the equivalent construction “was still under
development in their L2” (p. 231).
Chapter 9 studies the differential role of the L1 (Dutch) and the L2 (English)
as sources of transfer in the L3 (French). Through a Grammaticality Judgment
Task (GJT) and a guided production Gap-Filling Task (GFT), Stadt, Hulk &
Sleeman explore the extent to which each previously acquired language impacts
the early stages of acquisition of the L3 in 118 first-year secondary school
students. Their results show a clear prevalence of transfer from the L1 word
order into the L3, with drastically fewer instances of L2 interference. The
authors interpret these results as supportive of the Hierarchical Inference
Frame (Pajak et al. 2016), which posits restructuring of the interlanguage
based on an adjustment of linguistic hypotheses that occurs as learners
receive more input from the L3. This can explain why initial transfer from the
L1 appears to be prevalent at the earliest stages of L3 acquisition.
EVALUATION
Overall, this volume provides a good perspective on the roles of age and
proficiency in the acquisition of a third language in a variety of
acquisitional contexts. It is a good introduction to the field of L3
acquisition for non-experts, and also a good source of empirical studies for
experts. Therefore, one of the highlights of this volume is the wide range of
potential audiences that it could attract.
The experimental studies presented in this volume cover a wide range of
topics, ranging from syntax and morphology to the lexicon. These studies
advance our knowledge of how age and proficiency interact with L3 acquisition,
and they contribute to discussions on the potential source of cross-linguistic
transfer in multilingual acquisition.
There are some chapters that may raise some reasonable doubts, such as whether
German and Swiss German can be considered different languages or are rather an
example of bi-dialectal acquisition (Ch. 7), and the implications that this
may have for the study of L3 acquisition, or a potential confusion between
influence of previously acquired languages vs. a regular acquisition path in
the analysis provided in Ch.5.
However, these issues do not detract from the broad scope and reach of this
book which is, generally speaking, a work that may interest many experts and
non-experts who wish to learn more about the field of L3 acquisition and its
intersection with age and proficiency.
REFERENCES
Abunuwara, E. (1992). The structure of the trilingual lexicon. “European
Journal of Cognitive Psychology”, 4(4), 311-322.
Cenoz, J. (2013). Defining multilingualism. “Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics”, 33(3).
Fitzpatrick, T., & Izura, C. (2011). Word association in L1 and L2: An
exploratory study of response types, response times, and interlingual
mediation. “Studies in Second Language Acquisition”, 373-398.
Gudmundson, A. (2020). The mental lexicon of multilingual adult learners of
Italian L3: A study of word association behavior and cross-lingual semantic
priming. “Third language acquisition”, 67-109.
Pajak, B., Fine, A. B., Kleinschmidt, D. F., & Jaeger, T. F. (2016). Learning
additional languages as hierarchical probabilistic inference: Insights from
first language processing. “Language Learning”, 66(4), 900-944.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
María Turrero-García holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University
of Massachusetts Amherst. She is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor at
Drew University, where she teaches Spanish and Linguistics and serves as
Director of the Minor in Linguistic Studies. Her main research interests are
Bilingualism and Multilingualism, Second and Third Language Acquisition, and
Applied Linguistics.
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