Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of tables
- Introduction
- 1 A study of third language acquisition
- 2 Language switches in L3 production: Implications for a polyglot speaking model
- 3 Re-setting the basis of articulation in the acquisition of new languages: A third language case study
- 4 The learner's word acquisition attempts in conversation
- 5 Activation of L1 and L2 during production in L3: A comparison of two case studies
- 6 The factor ‘perceived crosslinguistic similarity’ in third language production: How does it work?
- Appendix 1: Key to transcription
- Appendix 2: SW's narration of the picture story Hunden ‘The dog’
- References
- Index
5 - Activation of L1 and L2 during production in L3: A comparison of two case studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of tables
- Introduction
- 1 A study of third language acquisition
- 2 Language switches in L3 production: Implications for a polyglot speaking model
- 3 Re-setting the basis of articulation in the acquisition of new languages: A third language case study
- 4 The learner's word acquisition attempts in conversation
- 5 Activation of L1 and L2 during production in L3: A comparison of two case studies
- 6 The factor ‘perceived crosslinguistic similarity’ in third language production: How does it work?
- Appendix 1: Key to transcription
- Appendix 2: SW's narration of the picture story Hunden ‘The dog’
- References
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The research in recent years on language acquisition by multilinguals has clearly shown that not only the first language, but also languages acquired after the first tend to become activated when the learner attempts to learn an additional language. Studies reported so far with different combinations of languages and different types of learners display a variation as to the extent and ways in which learners draw on previously acquired languages – L1 and L2 – when performing in a new language. These prior languages will here be subsumed under the term background languages. A great deal of the discussion has come to concern the various factors which condition the activation of different background languages, and the question which languages are apt to get involved in the use of the current target language. (For an overview of these issues, see for example the contributions in Cenoz, Hufeisen and Jessner 2001.)
In the earlier study reported in Chapter 2 above, the roles which the respective background languages play in the acquisition and use of a third language were investigated. That case study was carried out by Sarah Williams (SW) and the present writer (BH) and was based on longitudinal data from SW's spoken performance as an adult L3 learner. Among other things, it showed a clear division between the roles of the first and the second language, which could be related to SW's linguistic background and the acquisitional setting.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Processes in Third Language Acquisition , pp. 101 - 126Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2009