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L3 Development After the Initial State
Edited by Megan M. Brown-Bousfield, Suzanne Flynn and Éva Fernández-Berkes
[Studies in Bilingualism 65] 2023
► pp. 76–95

Comparing two notions of transfer in third language phonological acquisition

A reanalysis of three studies

| University of Victoria
In third language acquisition (L3A) research on cross-linguistic influence, much of the emphasis of the existing acquisition models has been on the transfer of morphosyntactic features, leaving phonology understudied. This chapter seeks to assess the empirical adequacy of two competing hypotheses of transfer and establish their potential value for future L3 phonology research: Full Transfer (FT) and Full Transfer Potential (FTP). I review previous L3 phonological studies and examine how FT and FTP could explain the data patterns. My analyses suggest that FTP provides greater empirical coverage and more explanatory potential than FT. Though better in accounting for sources of L3 phonological transfer post facto and beyond the initial stage, FTP may be limited concerning its core idea that “anything may transfer” (Westergaard, 2019).
Keywords: cross-linguistic influence, full transfer/full access, full transfer potential, L3 phonology, third language acquisition, transfer, transfer models
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical overview
    • 2.1Defining ‘transfer’
    • 2.2Transfer in L3A research
    • 2.3The FT model
    • 2.4Defining FT in L3A
    • 2.5An alternative hypothesis to FT: FTP
  • 3.L3 phonology production and perception studies
    • 3.1Chen and Han (2019): L1 and L2 influence on L3 Mandarin pronunciation
    • 3.2Llama et al. (2010), Llama and Cardoso (2018): L3 Spanish VOT
    • 3.3Chan and Chang (2019): Perception of L3 Yoruba/Thai tonal contrasts
  • 4.FT or FTP: Which provides a better account?
    • 4.1Chen and Han (2019)
    • 4.2Llama et al. (2010) and Llama and Cardoso (2018)
    • 4.3Chan and Chang (2019)
    • 4.4Wholesale (FT) or Property-by-property transfer (FTP)?
    • 4.5Scope: Initial state or beyond?
    • 4.6FTP: Potential limitations
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 9 October 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.65.04des
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