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Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 3:1 (2013) ► pp.73–93

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Third language acquisition

Where are we now?

Published online: 25 February 2013
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.3.1.04jae
Up until around ten years ago, third language acquisition (L3A) research was generally subsumed under the umbrella term of second language acquisition (L2A). In this short space of time, however, L3A has established itself as an independent strand of linguistic research, providing an invaluable source of information into language and language acquisition. This paper emphasises the crucial differences between L2A and L3A. It provides a snapshot of the current state of cognitive research into L3A, discussing studies in the domains of morphology, syntax, phonology and lexicon. Recently proposed (specific L3) generative models are discussed, such as Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn, S., Foley, C., & Vinnitskaya, I. (2004). The cumulative-enhancement model for language acquisition: Comparing adults’ and children’s patterns of development in first, second and third language acquisition of relative clauses. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1(1), 1–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), L2 Status Factor (Bardel, C., & Falk, Y. (2007). The role of the second language in third language acquisition: the case of Germanic syntax. Second Language Research, 23(4), 459–484. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and Typological Primacy Model (. (2011). L3 syntactic transfer selectivity and typological determinacy: The typological primacy model. Second Language Research, 27(1), 107–127. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) together with an alternative proposal (Contextual Complexity Hypothesis, Hawkins, R., & Casillas, G. (2007). Explaining frequency of verb morphology in early L2 speech. Lingua, 118(4), 595–612. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Finally this paper highlights the gaps in our knowledge and the direction for future research in this fast-growing area of research.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.L3 Background
  • 3.Cognitive/psycholinguistic L3A research
  • 3.1Syntax/morphosyntax
  • 3.2Lexicon
  • 3.3Phonology
  • 3.4Summary
  • 4.Contextual Complexity Hypothesis
  • 5.More questions than answers?
  • 6.What else can be done?
  • Notes
  • References
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