This paper gives a basic overview on the subject of English learning of multilingual children. The author begins with the general development of multilingual children, especially concerning their cognitive advantages that have been gained through language acquisition. After that, the paper focuses on the comparison of third language acquisition and second language acquisition. In this chapter the author also provides a study done by various scholars that compares monolingual children to bilingual children that has to be critically reflected. The following section concentrates with the factors influencing learning English in different contexts.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Development of multilingual children
2.1 Cognitive advantages
3. TLA compared to SLA
3.1 Study concerning monolinguals compared to bilinguals
4. Cross-linguistic influence in TLA
4.1 Overview
4.2 Language Distance and Recency of Use
5. Conclusion
Objectives & Key Themes
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the acquisition of English as a third language in children. It examines the developmental stages of multilingual children, investigates the cognitive advantages of multilingualism, and explores the complex interplay between second and third language acquisition, with a specific focus on cross-linguistic influence and the factors determining its occurrence.
- Developmental milestones in multilingual child language acquisition
- Cognitive benefits and metalinguistic awareness in multilingual learners
- Comparison between second language acquisition (SLA) and third language acquisition (TLA)
- Mechanisms and determinants of cross-linguistic influence (CLI)
- The impact of language distance and recency of use on language transfer
Excerpt from the Book
4.2 Language Distance and Recency of Use
Being multilingual offers more options of close and distant languages than when being bilingual. To be exact, there are three possible combinations that can occur concerning the influence on languages: “When learners have knowledge of related and unrelated languages, when learners have knowledge of language that belongs to the same language family, but not the same subgroup within the family and when learners have knowledge of languages that belong to the same family and to the same subgroup within the family” (De Angelis 2007: 27).
Scholars, such as De Angelis and Selinker, Cenoz and Valenica, agreed that transfer rather happens between tightly related languages than between languages that are not closely related to each other (De Angelis 2007: 22). Ahukana examined this issue further by French language learners, who already have acquired the African language Igbo and English. The result verified itself: English and French are part of the same language family and that is the reason why the universal language has a greater impact on learners of French than the African language Igbo. (De Angelis 2007: 27) However, it is also asserted that not always the genetical related languages influence each other. There are also some rare exceptions when the more distant languages rely on each other. Such cases can be explained through “lexical items that are phonetically similar to the target language form.” Besides this often the item is part of the same language class and there exists a basic knowledge of the target language of the speaker. (De Angelis 2007: 133). De Angelis gives the example with Finish and Swahili speaking persons. It should be easy to learn Swahili when French is your second language, even though those languages are not genetically related to each other, Through being both agglutinative languages, they have a lot if formal similarities in common (Solis 2015: 12-13).
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Provides an overview of the increasing importance of multilingualism in Europe and outlines the paper's focus on the development and factors influencing English acquisition in children.
2. Development of multilingual children: Discusses the predictable stages of language acquisition in children and the potential cognitive advantages linked to being multilingual.
3. TLA compared to SLA: Examines the scholarly discourse on whether acquiring a third language differs from second language acquisition, including a study on bilingual children with specific language impairment.
4. Cross-linguistic influence in TLA: Analyzes how different languages interact within a learner, specifically focusing on positive and negative transfer, language distance, and the impact of recency of use.
5. Conclusion: Summarizes the key findings regarding factors that influence English acquisition and emphasizes the need for further research in the field of TLA.
Keywords
Multilingualism, Third Language Acquisition (TLA), Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Cross-linguistic influence, Cognitive flexibility, Metalinguistic awareness, Language distance, Recency of use, Additive bilingualism, Language transfer, Language proficiency, Interlanguage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this paper?
The paper focuses on the acquisition of English as a third language in children, analyzing both the developmental aspects and the various psycholinguistic factors involved.
What are the central themes of the work?
The central themes include the cognitive benefits of multilingualism, the comparison between second and third language acquisition, and the mechanisms of cross-linguistic influence.
What is the research goal of this document?
The goal is to synthesize existing theories and studies to provide a better understanding of how multilingual children learn English and what factors facilitate or hinder this process.
Which scientific methods are primarily utilized?
The work utilizes a literature-based analytical approach, reviewing existing scholarly research, frameworks, and specific studies on bilingual and multilingual language development.
What does the main body of the paper address?
It addresses the stages of child language development, cognitive advantages of bilingualism, the differences between SLA and TLA, and the role of language distance and frequency in language transfer.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
The work is best characterized by terms such as Third Language Acquisition, Cross-linguistic influence, Multilingualism, and Cognitive flexibility.
How does language distance affect the learning process?
Language distance influences how languages transfer; closely related languages often exhibit higher rates of transfer, though phonetic or structural similarities can sometimes bridge even distant languages.
Why is the "recency of use" factor significant for language learners?
It is significant because linguistic information that has been used frequently or recently is more easily accessible to the learner's mind, making it more likely to influence the target language being acquired.
- Citation du texte
- Romana Pfurtscheller (Auteur), 2018, Teaching Multilingual Children, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/938393
