SE Third Language Acquisition Laura Gallotta and Iryna Karvatovska

Dr. Tanja Angelovska WS 2016/17

Prior Language Knowledge, Cognitive Development and

the Language Acquisition Process (Transfer: Part II)

Historical Overview
First half of the 20th Century
+ Bilingualism = Speech disorders; cognitive deficits; mental confusion; mental retardation
+ Edwards (2004) --> social tension in the US caused by incoming immigrants
+ Intelligence testing movement: racial discrimination; intolerance towards immigrants
In research and society --> bilingualism = negative
+ Negative consequences for educational practices --> repression of home languages
+ Lack of rigour in research practices
1950s-1960s --> Neutral period; Peal and Lambert’s (1962) “The Relation of Bilingualism to
Intelligence”--> criterion for sample selection

Modern Views
Hypotheses in favour of bilingualism:
+ 3LA may further enhance cognitive development and progressively facilitate the language
acquisition process
+ Additional linguistic knowledge does not make any difference at all
+ Additional linguistic knowledge may lead to some kind of cost for L1, L2…
+ Core elements:
o Effect of prior language knowledge and prior learning experience on the …
… development of cognitive skills
… acquisition process itself
+ Monolingualist position: one L is the norm; additional Ls generate either deficiency or
enhancement
+ Multilingualist position: more than one L is the norm; lack of additional Ls generates
deficiency
Cummins (1979):
Threshold hypothesis: there are two different threshold levels. Learners must reach the first in order
to avoid negative effects related to bilingualism, and the second to enjoy cognitive advantages.
Developmental Interdependence hypothesis: skills acquired during the acquisition of an language
can be transferred to another.

Bilingualism and TLA

+ Lasagabaster (2001): multilingual learners may transfer prior language skills to other
non-native languages, this may improve speed and rate of acquisition and possibly route
of acquisition as well
+ Swain et al. (1990): biliteracy has an impact on L3 learning

Metalinguistic awareness = heightened language awareness:

+ the experience of learning an L2
+ confidence and competence in handling communicative situations
Metalinguistic awareness  language as a medium of metalinguistic thinking & reflection
Metalinguistic awareness = thinking through a language ( ≠ thinking about a language)

1
SE Third Language Acquisition Laura Gallotta and Iryna Karvatovska
Dr. Tanja Angelovska WS 2016/17

Metalinguistic awareness – “learners’ ability to think of language and of perceiving language,

including the ability to separate meanings and forms, discriminate language components, identify
ambiguity and understand the use of grammatical forms and structures” (de Angelis, 2007: 121)
Metalinguistic awareness  “the search for similarities between the languages can be seen as
part of the activities related to metalinguistic thinking in the learner” (Jessner, 1999: 205)

Formal instruction in the L2 makes a difference:

 Study: Jacqueline Thomas (2001) examined French proficiency on 10 monolinguals (L1-
English) and 16 bilinguals (L1-English, L2-Spanish). Results: 1) bilinguals outperformed
monolinguals; 2) bilinguals who had received formal instructions in Spanish outperform
those bilinguals who received no formal training in Spanish.

No significant effects of prior language knowledge on the language acquisition process:

 Study 1: Janet F. Werker (1986) examined the ability of monolinguals, bilinguals, and
trilinguals to perceive two place-of-articulation contrasts in two new languages. Results:
“multilinguals were not found to have superior abilities in discriminating phonetic contrasts
than bilinguals” (de Angelis, 2007: 125).
 Study 2: Gibson et al. (2001) examined the effect of previous language knowledge on the
acquisition of prepositional verbs in German as an L3 or additional language on 64
multilinguals (divided into 6 groups). The results “do not support the idea that multilingualism
is positively correlated with foreign language achievement” (de Angelis, 2007: 124)

The number of languages known makes a difference:

 Study: Martha Gibson and Britta Hufeisen (2003) examined the effect of prior knowledge
of non-native languages on accuracy rates in translation on 36 multilinguals (10 learners of
EN, 26 learners of GE). Results: “a significant progressive increase in accuracy rates with
the increase in number of languages known.”
Conclusion: the number of language known can affect the ability to overcome the lexical and
syntactic traps in the translation task [and to] apply their metalinguistic strategies to figure
out the correct translation” (de Angelis, 2007: 127).

Bibliography:
Benati, Alessandro G. and Angelovska, Tanja (2016) Second language acquisition: a theoretical introduction
to real-world applications. London: Bloomsbury, 44-57.
Cohen, Andrew D. (1995) In which language do/should multilinguals think?, Language, Culture and
Curriculum 8: 2, 99–113.
De Angelis, Gessica (2007) Third or additional language acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 109-130.
Jessner, Ulrike (1999) Metalinguistic awareness in multilinguals: cognitive aspects of third language learning,
Language Awareness 8: 3-4, 201-209.
Paulsson, Margareta (2013) Välkomna! A1 – A2. Schwedisch für Anfänger. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen.
Thomas, Jacqueline (1988) The role played by metalinguistic awareness in second and third language
learning, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 9: 3, 235–246.