This book explores crosslinguistic influence in third language acquisition, drawing insights from a study of young bilingual secondary school students in Germany to unpack the importance of different variables in the acquisition and use of English as an additional language.

ContentsAcknowledgementAbbreviationsList of figuresList of tablesChapter 1: Introduction1.1 Background and motivation1.2 Setting the scene: second and third language acquisition1.2.1 Language acquisition1.2.2 Second versus third language acquisition1.2.3 Third language learners1.2.4 Transfer versus crosslinguistic influence1.2.5 Advantages1.3 Research questions1.4 Structure of the bookChapter 2: Acquisition of English in Germany2.1 The role of English in Germany2.2 Heterogeneous and diverse foreign language classrooms2.3 Monolingual versus multilingual teaching reality in Germany and beyond2.4 SummaryChapter 3: Previous and current research on language acquisition3.1 Terminology3.2 Third versus second language acquisition3.2.1 Emergence of the field3.2.2 Crosslinguistic influence in third language acquisition3.2.3 Evaluation3.3 Bilingualism and heritage speakers3.4 Third language acquisition of heritage bilinguals3.5 Metalinguistic awareness3.6 Bilingual advantages or effects3.7 SummaryChapter 4: Tense and aspect4.1 General properties of tense, aspect, aktionsart4.1.1 Tense4.1.2 Aspect4.1.3 Aktionsart4.2 Tense and aspect marking in English4.3 Tense and aspect marking in German4.4 Tense and aspect marking in Russian4.5 Tense and aspect marking in Turkish4.6 Tense and aspect marking in Vietnamese4.7 Similarities and differences in tense and aspect markingChapter 5: Acquisition of tense and aspect5.1 Acquisition of tense and aspect by native speakers of English5.2 Acquisition of tense and aspect by non-native speakers of English5.2.1 General comments5.2.2 The English progressive aspect5.3 Specific foreign language learners of English5.3.1 German learners of English5.3.2 Russian learners of English5.3.3 Turkish learners of English5.3.4 Vietnamese learners of English5.4 SummaryChapter 6: English learner corpus based on written and spoken stories6.1 Research design and data collection6.1.1 Written task6.1.2 Oral task6.1.3 Questionnaire6.2 Corpus data coding scheme6.3 Profile of participants6.3.1 General6.3.2 Background variables6.4 Research objectives and predictionsChapter 7: Use of tense and aspect of monolinguals versus bilinguals7.1 Frequency overview (written component of the learner corpus)7.1.1 Text composition (sentences, words, verb)7.1.2 Subject-verb-agreement7.1.3 Copula verb be7.1.4 Formal correctness and target-like meaning of verbs7.2 Progressive aspect (written component of the learner corpus)7.3 Present versus past time reference (written component of the learner corpus)7.4 Written versus spoken production7.4.1 Frequency overview: written texts versus oral recordings7.4.2 Subject-verb-agreement7.4.3 Copula verb be7.4.4 Formal correctness and target-like meaning of verbs7.4.5 Use of tenses and the progressive aspect7.5 SummaryChapter 8: Use of tense and aspect versus social variables8.1 Formal correctness and target-like meaning of verbs8.1.1 Formal correctness8.1.2 Target-like meaning8.1.3 Subject-verb-agreement8.2 Progressive aspect8.2.1 Formal correctness8.2.2 Target-like meaning8.3 Present versus past time reference8.4 Written versus spoken production8.4.1 Formal correctness8.4.2 Target-like meaning8.4.3 Subject-verb-agreement8.5 Limitations8.6 SummaryChapter 9: Crosslinguistic influence in heritage speakers’ L3 production9.1 Crosslinguistic influence in third language acquisition9.2 Language dominance9.3 Influence of (social) background variables9.3.1 Type of school9.3.2 Socio-economic status9.3.3 Number of books per household9.3.4 Age9.3.5 Language task assessment: written versus spoken9.3.6 Age of onset of acquiring German9.3.7 Attitudes towards learning English9.4 Shortcomings and limitationsChapter 10: Bi-/Multilingual advantages of heritage speakers10.1 Advantages in foreign language acquisition?10.2 Metalinguistic awareness10.3 Learning environment in the English classroom in Germany10.4 Implications for foreign language educationChapter 11: Conclusion and outlook11.1 Summary of findings11.2 Future directions of further researchReferences

"This volume is an outstanding contribution to the study of cross-linguistic influence in L3 acquisition. The in-depth analysis of tense is a very significant addition to the study of the differences between second and third language learners. The volume will be of enormous interest to anyone interested in the study of second/third language acquisition and multilingualism." Jasone Cenoz, University of the Basque Country"This book offers an impressively comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of theoretical and empirical issues in L3 acquisition research. It is an excellent contribution to the field." Marit Westergaard, UiT The Arctic University of Norway / NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology"An excellent volume on crosslinguistic influence in the L2 and L3 acquisition of English by several groups of monolingual learners (some from under-researched L1s) and a unique group of unbalanced bilingual heritage speakers. It draws the reader’s attention to both linguistic and extra-linguistic variables to explain the findings. A must-read." María del Pilar García Mayo, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)"This book offers a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the dynamically developing field of L3 acquisition. With a focus on bilingual heritage speakers, the original empirical investigation presented therein contributes to the ongoing debate on bilingual advantage and provides relevant implications for foreign language classrooms.” Magdalena Wrembel, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań