Moving from adult to child L3 acquisition: a look at early foreign language grammars

指导我博士研究的一个普遍问题是，习得第三语言是否涉及与习得第二语言相同的过程？这个问题的答案并不直截了当。在过去的十年里，研究人员一直在研究这两个过程之间的异同。两者之间的一个明显区别是学习者在开始学习新语言时带来的语言数量（已经知道的，即使程度不同）。在第二语言习得的情况下，学习者只掌握一种语言（即他或她的母语）的知识。因此，我们很容易声称，如果一种语言对正在学习的新语言有影响，这种影响只能来自母语。第三，或者更进一步，在语言习得方面，情况要复杂一些。学习者从掌握至少两种不同的语言开始学习这门新语言。更清楚地了解使用多种语言对我们的心智和大脑的影响方式，以及我们理解如何习得新语言的能力，可能有助于阐明在课堂上更有效地教授语言的方式，语言学习如何有益于个人和社会，以及使用多种语言如何在社区之间建立桥梁。到目前为止，正如我在博士论文中对该领域进行的系统回顾所显示的那样，大多数关于L3/Ln习得的工作都是在成人语言习得中进行的。即使多语言学习者中有很大一部分是儿童三语学习者，我们也不知道与成人三语习得相关的过程是否也适用于儿童三语习得。正如21世纪初所显示的那样，在童年时期习得第二语言与在成年期习得第二语言有一些相似之处，但也有相当多的差异。因此，如果儿童时期的三语习得与成年期的三语习得有所不同，这并不奇怪。人们思考的问题可能是，为什么这与社会相关。根据教育部的数据，去年开始关键阶段3的学生中，有20.6%的学生实际上是三级外语学习者（法语、西班牙语或德语）。了解三语习得的过程对这些学习者非常有益。如果我们知道一个人是如何习得第三语言的，那么我们就能理解这些学生将遇到的困难，我们可能能够通过与教师合作，改进一些教学技巧来提高学习过程。

A general question guiding my research in the PhD has been whether acquiring a third language involves the same processes as acquiring a second language? The answer to this question is not straightforward. Within the last decade, researchers have been studying the similarities and differences between these two processes. An obvious difference between the two is the number of the languages (already known, even if to different degrees) the learners bring to the table when they start acquiring the new language. In the case of second language acquisition, the learner only has knowledge of one language (i.e., his or her native language). Therefore, it is easy to claim that if there is influence from one language to the new one that is being acquired, this influence can only come from the native language. In third, or further, language acquisition, the story is somewhat more complex. The learner starts the acquisition of this new language with knowledge, at least two distinct languages. Gaining a clearer understanding of the manner in which multilingualism impacts our mind-brain and our ability to understand how we acquire new languages may help elucidate ways in which language can be more effectively taught in the classroom, how language learning can benefit individuals and societies, and how multilingualism can build bridges between communities. So far, as I showed in a systematic review of the field I conducted in my doctoral dissertation, most of the work on L3/Ln acquisition has been done in adult language acquisition. Even if an important portion of multilingual learners are child L3 learners, and we do not know much, if anything at all, about whether the processes that are relevant for adult L3 acquisition are also applicable in L3 acquisition during childhood. As was shown in the early 2000s, acquiring a second language in childhood has some similarities with acquiring it in adulthood, but it also has quite a bit of differences. Therefore, it should not be surprising if L3 acquisition in childhood is somewhat different to L3 acquisition in adulthood. The question that one ponders might be why this is relevant for societies. According to the Department of Education, 20.6% of the pupils starting Key Stage 3 last year were, in fact, L3 learners of a foreign language (French, Spanish or German). Understanding how the processes involved in L3 acquisition can be highly beneficial for these learners. If we know how one acquires a third language, then we can understand the difficulties that these pupils will encounter and we might be able, by collaborating with teachers, to improve some of the teaching techniques to enhance the learning process.