Multilingualism and third language acquisition: Learning and teaching trends
About this ebook
A collection of theoretical and empirical articles from scholars of multilingualism and language acquisition makes the book a significant resource as the papers present a wide perspective from main theories to current issues, reflecting new trends in the field.
The authors focus on the heterogeneity and complexity that characterize third language acquisition, multilingual learning and teaching. As the issues addressed in this book intersect, it represents an asset and therefore the texts will be of great relevance for the scientific community.
Part I presents different topics of L3 acquisition, such as syntax, phonology, working memory and selective attention, and lexicon. Part II comprises texts that show how the research on language acquisition informs pedagogical issues. For instance, the role of the knowledge of previous languages in the teaching of L3, the attitudes of multilingual teachers to plurilingual approaches, and the benefits of crosslinguistic pedagogy versus classroom monolingual bias. In sequence, Part III consists of texts on individual learning strategies, such as motivation and attitudes, crosslinguistic awareness, and students’ perceptions about teachers’ “plurilingual nonnativism”.
All these chapters include several different languages in contact in an acquisition/learning context: Basque, English, French, German, Italian, Ladin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
About the author
Jorge Pinto is an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, where he teaches, develop his research in the area of foreign language teaching and acquisition of Portuguese as an L2 or L3/Ln, and coordinates courses of Portuguese as foreign language, at the Institute of Culture and Portuguese Language. He is a member of the Center of Linguistics of the University of Lisbon, where he collaborates in different projects related to Portuguese foreign language teaching and learning, and to language testing. He has participated in several conferences presenting papers on didactics of Portuguese foreign language, and acquisition of L2 and L3/Ln. He is also a member at large (co-opted member) of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Multilingualism.
Nélia Alexandre is an Assistant Professor at the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon, where she teaches and develops her research in the area of multilingualism and geopolitics of Portuguese; Portuguese in contact in Africa and L2 acquisition. She obtained her PhD in Cape Verdean Creole Syntax, in 2009, and is a member of the Center of Linguistics of the University of Lisbon, where she collaborates in several national and international research projects related to Portuguese in Africa and L2 learning and acquisition of Portuguese as a foreign language (PFL). She is the head of the Center of Assessment and Certification of Portuguese as a Foreign (CAPLE) and is pedagogically responsible for the contents of the online PFL course O meu Português, a partnership of the School of Arts and Humanities with the private company Distance Learning Consulting. Currently, she is the president of the Association of Portuguese and Spanish-based Creoles.
