Microvariation in multilingual situations The importance of property-by-property acquisition

• Published in: Second language research Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 379 - 408
• Main Author: Westergaard, Marit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England Sage Publications, Inc 01.07.2021; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Adult Basic Education; Adult Learning; Adult Students; Children; Comparative Analysis; Cues; Grammar; Information structure; Keynote Article; Language Acquisition; Language grammars; Language Processing; Language Research; Language Universals; Language variation; Learning Processes; Learning Theories; Learning transfer; Linguistic Input; Linguistics; Multilingualism; Native Language; Native language acquisition; Parsing; Psycholinguistics; Second Language Learning; Second language learning theories; Syntactic structures; Syntax; Third language learning; Transfer of Training; linguistic proximity; typological proximity; incremental learning; LPM; structural similarity; Full Transfer Potential; L2A; economy; L3A; L1A; Micro-cue

In this article, I argue that first language (L1), second language (L2) and third language (L3) acquisition are fundamentally the same process, based on learning by parsing. Both child and adult learners are sensitive to fine linguistic distinctions, and language development takes place in small ste...