Journal Article

The role of the second language in third language acquisition: the case of Germanic syntax

Falk, Ylva, Bardel, Camilla

2007

Overview

In this study of the placement of sentence negation in third language acquisition (L3), we argue that there is a qualitative difference between the acquisition of a true second language (L2) and the subsequent acquisition of an L3. Although there is considerable evidence for L2 influence on vocabulary acquisition in L3, not all researchers believe that such influence generalizes to morphosyntactic aspects of the grammar. For example, Håkansson et al. (2002) introduce the Developmentally Moderated Transfer Hypothesis (DMTH), which incorporates transfer in Processability Theory (PT). They argue against syntactic transfer from L2 to L3. The present study presents counterevidence to this hypothesis from two groups of learners with different L1s and L2s acquiring Swedish or Dutch as L3. The evidence clearly indicates that syntactic structures are more easily transferred from L2 than from L1 in the initial state of L3 acquisition. The two groups behave significantly differently as to the placement of negation, a difference that can be attributed to the L2 knowledge of the learners in interaction with the typological relationship between the L2 and the L3.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications,Sage Publications Ltd
• Subject: Acquisition / Bilingualism / Bilingualism Research / Data collection / Dutch / Dutch language / English language learners / Evidence / German as a second language learning / Germanic Languages / Grammar / Grammatical clauses / HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP / HUMANITIES and RELIGION / Hypotheses / Indo European Languages / Language / Language acquisition / Language Classification / Language Research / Language Role / Language Typology / Languages and linguistics / Learning Theories / Learning transfer / Linguistic subjects / Linguistic Theory / Lingvistikämnen / Morphemes / Morphology (Languages) / Morphosyntax / Multilingualism / Negation / Nonnative languages / Second language acquisition / Second Language Learning / Second language vocabulary learning / Second Languages / Språkvetenskap / Swedish / Swedish language / Syntactic Structures / Syntax / Third language learning / Transfer / Transfer of Training / Tvåspråkighet / tvåspråkighetsforskning / Verbs / Vocabulary / Vocabulary Development / Word order