To date, the field of L3 acquisition research has had a heavy focus on the initial state of the L3 grammar. While this initial state research is critical to understanding L3 acquisition as a whole, in order for an explanatory understanding of language acquisition in the multilingual mind, the field needs to expand its scope beyond this area of focus. This volume brings together L3 acquisition and multilingualism researchers in order to discuss the state of the field and introduce new ideas related to the development of post-initial L3 knowledge, and the relationship among languages in the multilingual mind. It includes contributions related to syntactic, phonological, and lexical development beyond the L3 initial state. The purpose of this volume is to expand the current academic discussions within this field, by emphasizing the role of the developmental process in an L3 context, with the hope of inspiring further research in this domain.

Under the Universal Grammar (UG) framework, this book discusses the latest research on the role of L1 bidialectism in L2 acquisition, with a particular focus on early Chinese(L1)-English(L2) learners. Responding to the long-standing concern of whether L2 learners have access to UG in the target language, it provides evidence of the positive role of L1 multidialectism in L2 learning and confirms the role of UG in L2 acquisition. This book is essential reading for postgraduates and researchers in language education, linguistics, applied linguistics, speech-language pathology and psychology. The clarification of Chinese as L1 is also of interest to language educators in multilingual contexts.

This volume is dedicated to the concept and several applications of Dominant Language Constellations (DLC), by which it advances understanding of current multilingualism through addition of a novel perspective from which to view contemporary language use and acquisition. The term Dominant Language Constellation denotes the set of a person’s or group's most expedient languages, functioning as an entire unit and enabling an individual or group to meet their needs in a multilingual environment. The volume presents pioneering contributions that employ DLC as the lens for analysing a wide array of issues. These include multilingual syntactic development, cross-linguistic interaction and multilingual production in formal and informal educational contexts, as well as linguistic profiles of multilingual groups used in elementary school and higher education. Other DLC issues include discussions of how identity, emotions and attitudes operate in various minority and majority contexts. Because the DLC concept does not assume any inherent hierarchy of languages it can serve as a framework public policy in multilingual countries/communities faced with challenging policy determinations regarding choice of languages for use in education settings and more widely in social institutions and the economy. Some chapters develop and extend the DLC concept, others adapt and apply it to a variety of contexts, both global and local. Many chapters feature educational and social settings across large parts of the world– Africa, Australia, Europe, North America (Canada and the USA) and Southeast Asia. The volume can serve as supplementary reading for courses on multilingualism, sociolinguistics, language policy and planning, educational linguistics, Second and Third Language Acquisition.

Third or Additional Language Acquisition examines research on the acquisition of languages beyond the L2 within four main areas of inquiry: crosslinguistic influence, multilingual speech production models, the multilingual lexicon and the impact of bi/mul

In recent years, researchers have acknowledged that the study of third language acquisition cannot simply be viewed as an extension of the study of bilingualism, and the present volume’s authors agree that a point of departure that embraces the unique properties that differentiate L2 acquisition from L3/Ln acquisition is essential. From linguistic, sociological, psychological, educational and cognitive viewpoints, it has become increasingly apparent that the study of L3/Ln acquisition can provide new evidence to help resolve ongoing debates in these areas of study. This volume uniquely provides a wide-ranging overview of current trends in the study of adult additive multilingualism from formal, psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic perspectives, adding new insights into adult multilingual epistemology. This collection includes critical reviews of L3/Ln morphosyntax, phonology, and the lexicon, as well as individual studies with unique language pairings including Romance, Germanic, Slavic, and Asian languages.

The Routledge Handbook of Portuguese Phonology provides an up-to-date description of the Portuguese phonological system, including a thorough account of the fundamental concepts, data, and previous explanations, as well as the status quaestionis, directions for future research, and further reading. Divided into five parts with contributions from leading international scholars and rising stars, the book’s 23 chapters provide a thorough account of the Portuguese sound system and a range of perspectives on Portuguese phonology. This is the most comprehensive volume on Portuguese phonology written in English, and it delves into the most pressing issues and challenges regarding a wide variety of topics, such as segmental and suprasegmental phenomena; aspects concerning the interfaces between phonology and other linguistic domains; and issues on synchronic variation, diachronic change, acquisition, and the teaching of Portuguese speech prosody to non-native learners. This in-depth resource will be invaluable for researchers and advanced students of Portuguese language and linguistics, as well as those interested in phonology and linguistics more broadly.

Which strategies do multilingual learners use when confronted with languages they don't yet know? Which factors are involved in activating prior linguistic knowledge in multilingual learning? This volume offers valuable insights into recent research in multilingualism, crosslinguistic influence and crosslinguistic interaction. Experts in the field examine the role of background languages in multilingual learning. All the chapters point to the heart of the question of what the «multilingual mind» is. Does learning one language actually help you learn another, and if so, why? This volume looks at languages and scenarios beyond English as a second language – Italian, Gaelic, Dutch and German, amongst others, are covered, as well as instances of third and additional language learning. Research into crosslinguistic influence and crosslinguistic interaction essentially contributes to our understanding of how language learning works when there are three or more languages in contact.

This book presents the latest research in various areas of cross-linguistic influence (CLI), providing educators with insights into how previously learned languages influence the learning of an additional language at different levels, such as phonetics/phonology, morphosyntax, vocabulary, pragmatics, writing style and learning context. While the majority of the chapters have English as the target language, one investigates the acquisition of French. The L1s of the learners include Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Galician, Georgian, German, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish. Each chapter ends with a reflection on possible pedagogical implications of the findings and offers recommendations on how to make the most of cross-linguistic influence in the classroom.

In 2011, the annual conference series Going Romance celebrated its 25th edition in Utrecht, the founder city of the enterprise. Since its inception in the eighties of the last century, the local initiative has developed into the major European discussion forum for research focussing on the contribution of (one of the) Romance languages to general linguistic theorizing as well as on the working out of in-depth analyses of Romance data within linguistic frameworks. The annual meeting took place on December, 8-10.The present volume is the 5th of the series Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory published by John Benjamins. We publish here a selected set of peer-reviewed articles bearing on topics in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, that represent both issues of theoretical nature as well as developments in the field of acquisition. The articles are of great interest for specialists of Romance and for general linguists appreciating parameters and/or language acquisition. Among the contributions are three papers presented by invited speakers (Andrea Calabrese, Ricardo Etxepare and Jason Rothman), while two other very prominent Romance linguists figure as co-authors (Aafke Hulk, Luigi Rizzi).

This book includes a selection of theoretical and practical accounts of the acquisition of Portuguese from a broad range of linguistic perspectives. This collection is particularly appealing in the broad academic sphere of language acquisition due to the fact that there has yet to be one entirely dedicated to Portuguese as an Additional Language (PAL). This volume showcases the breadth of research being carried out on topics ranging from the acquisition of aspects from the main language modules (syntax, morphology, semantics, phonology, and pragmatics) to applied perspectives involving corpus-based approaches and experimental methodologies. Moreover, we present studies addressing a variety of learning contexts and learner types. The target audience includes researching scholars with a background in second language acquisition studies interested in learning more about the acquisition of Portuguese as an Additional Language from linguistic perspectives.