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Linguistic Approaches to Portuguese as an Additional Language
Edited by Karina Veronica Molsing, Cristina Becker Lopes Perna and Ana Maria Tramunt Ibaños
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 24] 2020
► pp. 11–33

The roles of L1 Spanish versus L2 Spanish in L3 Portuguese morphosyntactic development

| University of Illinois at Chicago
| Indiana University
| University of Richmond
| University of Iowa

This study explores the rate of L3 development among learners that transfer their L1 versus L2, via examination of differential object marking (DOM) by English/Spanish bilingual learners of L3 Brazilian Portuguese (BP). At the L3 initial stages, L1 English/L2 Spanish and L1 Spanish/L1 English speakers transfer non-facilitative DOM from Spanish (Giancaspro et al., 2015). We compare these groups with advanced L3 BP learners to test the hypothesis that L2 transfer is overcome faster than L1 transfer. Data from advanced L3 BP groups show that the L1 Spanish group patterns with both initial stages Spanish groups. However, the L2 Spanish group patterns with BP controls, suggesting that the L2 Spanish group has overcome non-facilitative transfer, while the L1 Spanish group has not.

Keywords: third language (L3) acquisition, multilingualism, transfer, differential object marking (DOM), morphosyntax, Portuguese, Spanish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Differential object marking
    • 2.1 dom in Spanish
    • 2.2Acquisition of dom in Spanish
    • 2.3Transfer of dom at the initial stages: Giancaspro et al. (2015)
  • 3.Research question and predictions
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Participants
    • 4.2Judgment task
  • 5.Results
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.24.01cab
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