Christina Lindqvist

The use of the L1 and the L2 in French L3 : examining cross-linguistic lexemes in multilingual learners’ oral production

Abstract This study investigates to what degree, and in what manner, the L1 and L2(s) influence spoken French L3. The analysis is divided in two parts. The first examines the cross-linguistic lexemes of 30 Swedish learners, divided into three groups according to previous exposure to French. The results show that proficiency in the L3 is crucial: the least advanced learners produce the highest number of cross-linguistic lexemes, whereas the most advanced learners produce the lowest number. Moreover, the lower the proficiency in the L3, the more background languages are used, and vice versa. Overall, there is a clear dominance of L1 influences. The second part contains six case studies of learners with partly different L1s and L2s. It examines the roles of the L1 and L2(s) in L3 oral production and the decisive factors for these roles. The main result is the use of Swedish L1/L2 and English L1 as instrumental languages, i.e. with clearly communicative purposes, in eliciting and metalinguistic functions. This is due to the interlocutors’ common access to these languages. It does not seem to matter if the instrumental language represents a learners L1 or L2. The fact that there is mutual comprehension seems to outweigh other factors.

Inter- and intralingual lexical influences in advanced learners' French L3 oral production

Abstract The present study investigates lexical inter- and intralingual influences in the oral production of 14 very advanced learners of French L3. Lexical deviances are divided into two main categories: formal influence and meaning-based influence. The results show that, as predicted with respect to advanced learners, meaning-based influence is the most important category, especially semantic extensions. Furthermore, only the languages in which the learners are highly proficient (Swedish L1, English L2 and French L3) are used in cases of meaning-based influence. By contrast, no use is made of closely related languages (Spanish and Italian). These results indicate that the proficiency factor is decisive for lexical inter- and intralingual influences to occur in advanced learners.

Aspects of Lexical Sophistication in Advanced Learners' Oral Production: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use in L2 French and Italian.

This article reports on the design and use of a profiler for lexical sophistication (i.e., use of advanced vocabulary), which was created to assess the lexical richness of intermediate and advanced ...

Beyond advanced stages in high-level spoken L2 French

The aim of this study is twofold: first, to find evidence for additional advanced stages in L2 French. The continuum of Bartning and Schlyter (2004) is taken as a point of departure. It is hypothesized that a number of linguistic criteria will account for high-level proficiency. It was earlier found that besides morpho-syntax, formulaic sequences and information structure are interesting phenomena for highly proficient learners (Bartning, Forsberg and Hancock, 2009). Three more measures are now added, i.e. perceived nativelikeness, lexical richness and fluency. The second aim of this study is to contribute to the debate on the possibility of nativelike attainment. The study shows that several measures are prone to characterise nativelike performance in highly proficient users among whom some attain nativelikeness.

Exploring the Impact of the Proficiency and Typology Factors : Two Cases of Multilingual Learners' L3 Learning

The present study examines lexical crosslinguistic influence (CLI) from L1 and L2 in two cases of L3 learning. It focuses on the role of the proficiency level of the background languages and of typological proximity in the activation of the background languages in L3 oral production. Earlier research has shown that both these factors play a role for CLI. Here we aim at further understanding the role of these factors, and how they are related to the proficiency level of the L3. The first case, which will be summarized briefly and used as a point of comparison in this chapter, concerns a Swedish learner of Italian L3, with English, French and Spanish as L2s (Bardel and Lindqvist 2007). The results showed that low-proficiency Spanish L2 was the background language that was most used in the beginning of the acquisition process of Italian, especially in code-switches of function words. High-proficiency French L2 was also used but in a different way, mostly in word construction attempts. Both the proficiency and the typology factor played a role, but their impact varied at different stages of development in the L3. The second case concerns a bilingual Swedish/Italian L1 speaker learning Spanish L3, with English and French as L2s. The data was gathered following the same procedure as in the first study, and consist of three recordings of interviews and retellings. The results indicate that the proficiency and typology factors are decisive for CLI here too, but in slightly different ways as compared to the first case. Italian L1 is used for both code-switches and word construction attempts, suggesting that a high-proficiency language may well be activated for both purposes, if it is similar enough to the target language. These results show that further investigation of both factors is necessary for our understanding of their interplay.

Approaches to third language acquisition : Introduction

Information about several papers discussed at a conference titled The Role of the Background Languages in Third Language Acquisition. Romance Languages as L1, L2 or L3 which was held in Stockholm, ...

L1 and L2 role assignment in L3 learning. Is there a pattern

ABSTRACT This study investigates lexical transfer in four German learners’ oral production of L3 Swedish. They have already learned English as an L2. The point of departure is Williams and Hammarberg’s [1998. Language switches in L3 production: implications for a polyglot speaking model. Applied Linguistics, 19, 295–333] case study in which Swedish was also the L3, but the learner had English as an L1 and German as an L2. Williams and Hammarberg convincingly showed that the background languages played different roles in L3 oral production: L1 English had an instrumental role, while L2 German was assigned a supplier role. The determining factor for the assignment of supplier role was L2 status and of instrumental role common access and established practice. In the present study the model is tested on the same involved languages; but English is the L2 and German the L1. The model would predict that English L2 will be used in both the supplier and the instrumental role. However, the results indicate that this is not the case. Possible explanations are discussed.

Introduction: Contemporary issues in research on multilingualism

This special issue aims at giving the reader an insight into various current research topics within third language (L3) acquisition and multilingualism. The topics were all addressed at the 9 International Conference on Third Language Acquisition and Multilingualism, which was hosted by the Department of modern languages at Uppsala University in June 2014. The papers’ different perspectives are a proof of how the field of third language acquisition and multilingualism has developed since the first collection of papers from this conference series, which was published by Cenoz, Hufeisen and Jessner in 2001. At that time, a vast majority of the research focused on cross-linguistic influence, a research area which is certainly still central to the field. However, many other new areas within the L3 field have since then attracted the scholars’ attention. Furthermore, the target languages involved in the early studies in the field were mainly English and German. The present issue represents the development that has taken place within the field, covering different phenomena and theories related to L3 acquisition and multilingualism, concerning both reception and production: transfer, attitudes to foreign languages, cross-linguistic similarity and questions of identity related to multilingualism. In addition, several target languages and language constellations are discussed, involving English, German, Swedish, Portuguese, Basque, Spanish and French. Moreover, the papers also concern various settings for acquisition/learning and use of three or more languages: Germany, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Finally, the participants in the empirical studies are both children and adult learners/users of multiple languages. All these aspects contribute to the theoretical, methodological and empirical richness that has developed within the field in recent years. In the first paper, Becoming multilingual: The macro and the micro time perspective, Hammarberg discusses the characteristics of multilingualism from two points of view: the macro time perspective and the micro time perspective.