Title: Language Awareness in Third or Additional Language Attrition
Abstract: The purpose of this study has been an investigation of language awareness in two groups of third or additional language (term introduced by de Angelis, Third or Additional Language Acquisition, 2007) learners undergoing language attrition. The research questions concerned the students’ evaluation of their language attrition in terms of structures, lexical items and language skills, their awareness of cross-linguistic interaction, as well as elements that caused them particular difficulty during the language tasks and the extent to which the problems were caused by language attrition (as evaluated by the students themselves). This chapter is based on two studies, one carried out with nine students of Swedish as L4 at the German Philology department, about 1 year after the end of the 3-year Swedish course, and one carried out with 42 students of Portuguese Philology, investigating their attrition of Portuguese over the summer holidays. In general, the Portuguese philology students performed much better than the Swedish language learners, not only because the period of attrition was shorter, but also because they were highly motivated to learn Portuguese and used more conscious reflection in learning the language. Both groups observed interference into the target language, as well as a decrease in their language proficiency. It can be concluded that, despite considerable language learning experience, third or additional language learners’ language awareness cannot be taken for granted, as it is combined with other factors, such as motivation, proficiency in the target language and the learners’ language needs.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-09-08
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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