Evidence from neurolinguistic methodologies: can it actually inform linguistic/ language acquisition theories and translate to evidence-based applications?

This special issue is a testament to the recent burgeoning interest by theoretical linguists, language acquisitionists and teaching practitioners in the neuroscience of language. It offers a highly valuable, state-of-the-art overview of the neurophysiological methods that are currently being applied to questions in the field of second language (L2) acquisition, teaching and processing. Research in the area of neurolinguistics has developed dramatically in the past twenty years, providing a wealth of exciting findings, many of which are discussed in the papers in this volume. The goal of this commentary is twofold. The first is to critically assess the current state of neurolinguistic data from the point of view of language acquisition and processing—informed by the papers that comprise this special issue and the literature as a whole—pondering how the neuroscience of language/processing might inform us with respect to linguistic and language acquisition theories. The second goal is to offer some links from implications of exploring the first goal towards informing language teachers and the creation of linguistically and neurolinguistically-informed evidence-based pedagogies for non-native language teaching

English as a third language in Norwegian schools. A study on English teachers' multilingual competence and knowledge of third language acquisition

This study investigates whether or not English teachers have the ability to teach English as an L3. The basis of this is the increase in multilingual pupils in Norwegian schools that are acquiring/will be acquiring English as their third language. The research question is as follows: ”Do English teachers have sufficient knowledge and competence in multilingualism to teach English as a third language to multilingual pupils?” As well as answering the research question, the study seeks to answer a hypothesis that involves the teacher training programs in Norway, as it is during these programs that English teachers prepare and develop the necessary knowledge to teach the English subject. The hypothesis reads: ”Teacher training programs in Norway do not provide English teachers with the necessary multilingual competence to teach English as an L3”. On the basis of the research question, a quantitative approach in form of a questionnaire is used to gain the necessary information about the respondents’ awareness and knowledge about the phenomenon that is multilingualism. The questionnaire was conducted in the Tromsø area, and there were a total of 8 English teachers that participated in the study. Some of them have prior experience with working with multilingual pupils and some that don’t. The results of the questionnaire indicate that English teachers lack sufficient multilingual competence to teach English as a third language, as they are not fully aware of the complexity that comes with third language acquisition. The results also indicate that teacher training programs don’t have the necessary focus on multilingualism and third language acquisition that they should have

Lateral (morpho)syntactic transfer: An empirical investigation into the positive and negative influences of French on L1 English learners of Spanish within an instructed language-learning environment

This thesis explores lateral (morpho)syntactic transfer – non-native transfer at the level of morphology and syntax – from French among L1 English learners of Spanish in an instructed language-learning environment. A quantitative and qualitative study was conducted to investigate the positive and negative influences of L2 French and to identify learners’ foreign language experiences and strategies in making interlingual connections. The quantitative study focused on providing statistical evidence of morphological and syntactic transfer and comprised three groups: The EN/FR/SP Group consisted of 28 L1 English learners with five years’ instruction in French and two in Spanish; the EN/SP Group consisted of 22 L1 English learners with two years’ instruction in Spanish and no prior knowledge of French; the SP Group consisted of 36 monolingual Spanish speakers. The qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews to gain a greater understanding of learners’ ability to apply interlingual connections and draw on prior language-learning experiences and strategies. Participants consisted of 10 L1 English learners with six years’ instruction in French and three in Spanish. It is argued that knowledge of a non-native language plays a pivotal role in the learning of a further typologically similar one at the level of morphology and syntax. The overall results suggest that positive transfer may be facilitated and negative transfer may be highlighted and understood through cross-linguistic comparisons, with important pedagogical implications for future research

Third language acquisition: Age, proficiency and multilingualism

This book deals with the phenomenon of third language (L3) acquisition. As a research field, L3 acquisition is established as a branch of multilingualism that is concerned with how multilinguals learn additional languages and the role that their multilingual background plays in the process of language learning. The volume points out some current directions in this particular research area with a number of studies that reveal the complexity of multilingual language learning and its typical variation and dynamics

Third language acquisition

This book deals with the phenomenon of third language (L3) acquisition. As a research field, L3 acquisition is established as a branch of multilingualism that is concerned with how multilinguals learn additional languages and the role that their multilingual background plays in the process of language learning. The volume points out some current directions in this particular research area with a number of studies that reveal the complexity of multilingual language learning and its typical variation and dynamics. The eight studies gathered in the book represent a wide range of theoretical positions and offer empirical evidence from learners belonging to different age groups, and with varying levels of proficiency in the target language, as well as in other non-native languages belonging to the learner’s repertoire. Diverse linguistic phenomena and language combinations are viewed from a perspective where all previously acquired languages have a potential role to play in the process of learning a new language. In the six empirical studies, contexts of language learning in school or at university level constitute the main outlet for data collection. These studies involve several language backgrounds and language combinations and focus on various linguistic features. The specific target languages in the empirical studies are English, French and Italian. The volume also includes two theoretical chapters. The first one conceptualizes and describes the different types of multilingual language learning investigated in the volume: i) third or additional language learning by learners who are bilinguals from an early age, and ii) third or additional language learning by people who have previous experience of one or more non-native languages learned after the critical period. In particular, issues related to the roles played by age and proficiency in multilingual acquisition are discussed. The other theoretical chapter conceptualizes the grammatical category of aspect, reviewing previous studies on second and third language acquisition of aspect. Different models for L3 learning and their relevance and implications for representations of aspect and for potential differences in the processing of second and third language acquisition are also examined in this chapter. As a whole, the book presents current research into third or additional language learning by young learners or adults, considering some of the most important factors for the complex process of multilingual language learning: the age of onset of the additional language and that of previously acquired languages, social and affective factors, instruction, language proficiency and literacy, the typology of the background languages and the role they play in shaping syntax, lexicon, and other components of a L3. The idea for this book emanates from the symposium Multilingualism, language proficiency and age, organized by Camilla Bardel and Laura Sánchez at Stockholm University, Department of Language Education, in December 2016

Rapid neural processing of grammatical tone in second language learners

The present dissertation investigates how beginner learners process grammatical tone in a second language and whether their processing is influenced by phonological transfer. Paper I focuses on the acquisition of Swedish grammatical tone by beginner learners from a non-tonal language, German. Results show that non-tonal beginner learners do not process the grammatical regularities of the tones but rather treat them akin to piano tones. A rightwards-going spread of activity in response to pitch difference in Swedish tones possibly indicates a process of tone sensitisation. Papers II to IV investigate how artificial grammatical tone, taught in a word-picture association paradigm, is acquired by German and Swedish learners. The results of paper II show that interspersed mismatches between grammatical tone and picture referents evoke an N400 only for the Swedish learners. Both learner groups produce N400 responses to picture mismatches related to grammatically meaningful vowel changes. While mismatch detection quickly reaches high accuracy rates, tone mismatches are least accurately and most slowly detected in both learner groups. For processing of the grammatical L2 words outside of mismatch contexts, the results of paper III reveal early, preconscious and late, conscious processing in the Swedish learner group within 20 minutes of acquisition (word recognition component, ELAN, LAN, P600). German learners only produce late responses: a P600 within 20 minutes and a LAN after sleep consolidation. The surprisingly rapid emergence of early grammatical ERP components (ELAN, LAN) is attributed to less resource-heavy processing outside of violation contexts. Results of paper IV, finally, indicate that memory trace formation, as visible in the word recognition component at ~50 ms, is only possible at the highest level of formal and functional similarity, that is, for words with falling tone in Swedish participants. Together, the findings emphasise the importance of phonological transfer in the initial stages of second language acquisition and suggest that the earlier the processing, the more important the impact of phonological transfer

In search of a new perspective: Cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of third language phonology

The books explores the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in phonological acquisition from a multilingual perspective. A distinction is made between second vs. third language acquisition and the complexity of the latter process as well as its conditioning factors are elaborated on. The contribution aims to test the tenets of the current theoretical models of multilingual acquisition including the L2 Status Model, the Cumulative Enhancement Model and the Typological Primacy Model. To this end, three studies were conducted in parallel on four groups of participants with varying language combinations (i.e. mirrored L2 and L3 sets). The studies involved (1) accentedness, comprehensibility and accuracy ratings assessing the perceived phonetic performance in the L3, (2) acoustic measurements of voice onset time (VOT) in the L1, L2 and L3 as a correlate of foreign accentedness, and (3) the degree of metaphonological awareness generated from oral protocols. The results were analysed separately for each study as well as globally by means of across groups and across studies comparisons. The findings indicate that CLI in the L3 phonological acquisition may have multiple sources including both the native and non-native languages, that it's gradual and structure dependent and that the proposed models can account only partially for its specificity

Lateral (morpho)syntactic transfer: An empirical investigation into the positive and negative influences of French on L1 English learners of Spanish within an instructed language-learning environment

This thesis explores lateral (morpho)syntactic transfer – non-native transfer at the level of morphology and syntax – from French among L1 English learners of Spanish in an instructed language-learning environment. A quantitative and qualitative study was conducted to investigate the positive and negative influences of L2 French and to identify learners’ foreign language experiences and strategies in making interlingual connections. The quantitative study focused on providing statistical evidence of morphological and syntactic transfer and comprised three groups: The EN/FR/SP Group consisted of 28 L1 English learners with five years’ instruction in French and two in Spanish; the EN/SP Group consisted of 22 L1 English learners with two years’ instruction in Spanish and no prior knowledge of French; the SP Group consisted of 36 monolingual Spanish speakers. The qualitative study was conducted through semi-structured interviews to gain a greater understanding of learners’ ability to apply interlingual connections and draw on prior language-learning experiences and strategies. Participants consisted of 10 L1 English learners with six years’ instruction in French and three in Spanish. It is argued that knowledge of a non-native language plays a pivotal role in the learning of a further typologically similar one at the level of morphology and syntax. The overall results suggest that positive transfer may be facilitated and negative transfer may be highlighted and understood through cross-linguistic comparisons, with important pedagogical implications for future research

Early multilingualism: an analysis of pragmatic awareness and language attitudes in consecutive multilingual children

La presente tesis doctoral se enmarca dentro de la investigación sobre el multilingüismo, más concretamente analiza la adquisición y el desarrollo multilingüe en edades tempranas. Nuestros participantes son aprendices de inglés como tercera lengua (L3) en un sistema de educación bilingüe donde se estudia catalán y castellano como primera y segunda lengua (L1/L2). Tradicionalmente, la investigación en el campo del multilingüismo se ha estudiado desde una perspectiva monolingüe, es decir, examinando la adquisición del lenguaje sin tener en cuenta el bagaje lingüístico de los estudiantes y la posible interacción entre lenguas (Cenoz y Gorter, 2011; Jessner, 2013; Safont, 2013). Este estudio pretende contribuir a la investigación sobre el multilingüismo precoz desde una perspectiva totalmente multilingüe y dinámica con el fin de cubrir los vacíos existentes en los fundamentos teóricos de investigación. Por lo tanto, en nuestros análisis tendremos en consideración las lenguas previas de los participantes, las relaciones entre ellas y el contexto sociolingüístico. La teoría subyacente adoptada en la presente disertación es el DMM (Dynamic Model of Multilingualism, Modelo Dinámico del Multilingüismo) propuesto por Herdina y Jessner (2002). Esta teoría muy bien fundada, pero poco investigada, nos ha permitido examinar la interacción de varios factores en el desarrollo multilingüe en edades tempranas. Particularmente, nos hemos centrado en dos aspectos fundamentales a tener en cuenta en la adquisición del lenguaje: la conciencia pragmática y las actitudes lingüísticas. La estructura de la tesis se divide en dos bloques principales: la primera parte recoge el marco teórico donde nuestra investigación está basada, y engloba el capítulo 1, 2 y 3. La segunda parte presenta el estudio empírico que se llevó a cabo y está organizada en tres capítulos diferentes. Los participantes del estudio son 402 aprendices de inglés como L3 pertenecientes a 10 escuelas diferentes de la provincia de Castelló de la Plana. El método consiste en la combinación de varios instrumentos para medir el grado de conciencia pragmática y las actitudes lingüísticas en las tres lenguas (catalán, castellano e inglés). El grado de conciencia pragmática se analizó mediante un test de comprensión pragmática en formato audio-visual. Las actitudes lingüísticas se examinaron mediante la matched-guise technique y una entrevista oral. Teniendo en cuenta el contexto donde se realizó el estudio y literatura previa, se formularon cinco preguntas de investigación y cinco hipótesis. Los resultados obtenidos de los análisis nos permitieron confirmar las facilidades pragmáticas de los aprendices de L3, el rol de las actitudes lingüísticas y la importancia de analizar factores, tanto externos como internos, en procesos de adquisición multilingüe. También enfatizamos la complejidad y dinamismo del multilingüismo aportando nuevos resultados al DMM de Herdina y Jessner (2002)