Guest lecture by Marit Westergaard, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. All interested are welcome to this seminar arranged by the research area Language learning and language teaching.
Abstract
In this talk I will give an outline of some of the central concepts within the field of third language acquisition (L3A), focusing on wholesale vs. property-by-property transfer as well as full transfer vs. full transfer potential. Within the Linguistic Proximity Model (e.g., Westergaard 2021a, b), I will develop the idea that crosslinguistic influence (CLI) is the result of co-activation of the previously acquired languages in processing. I will then turn to the issue of research methodology in L3, focusing on a mirror-image vs. a subtractive language group design. Finally, I will provide some results from recent studies which support the idea that both previously acquired languages are active in L3A and thus, that CLI may come from either or both previously acquired languages.
Westergaard, Marit. 2021a. Microvariation in multilingual situations: The importance of property-by-property acquisition. Second Language Research, 37(3): 379-407. OPEN ACCESS here.
Westergaard, Marit. 2021b. L3 acquisition and crosslinguistic influence as co-activation. Response to commentaries. Second Language Research. OPEN ACCESS here.