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This study tests the hypothesis that late first-language English / second-language Spanish learners (L1 English / L2 Spanish learners) acquire spirantization in stages according to the prosodic hierarchy (Zampini, 1997, 1998). In Spanish, voiced stops [b d g] surface after a pause or nasal stop, and continuants [ß? ð? ??] surface postvocalically, among other contexts. We adopt an Optimality Theoretic analysis of the phenomenon that assumes that postvocalic continuants surface due to the ranking of prosodic positional faithfulness constraints below a markedness constraint that prohibits stops in postvocalic position. L1 English speakers are presumed to start with a ranking in which prosodic positional faithfulness outranks the markedness constraint. In line with the Gradual Learning Algorithm (Boersma and Hayes, 2001), gradual demotion of the relevant faithfulness constraints is predicted in L2 Spanish, extending the prosodic domain until continuants surface postvocalically across domains. A cross-section of 44 L1 English/L2 Spanish learners and a control group (n = 5) completed a recitation task, and data were analysed acoustically for manner of articulation and degree of constriction. Results partially align with Zampini's impressionistic data: Learners first produce underlying stops as postvocalic approximants at the onset of the syllable (word-medial position), followed by the onset of the prosodic word (word-initial position). Unlike Zampini's findings, there is no evidence for an intermediate stage of acquisition across the boundary of a word and its clitic. Advanced L2 learners produce continuants in postvocalic position at all applicable prosodic levels, which we take to indicate acquisition of the target ranking. We also examined whether learners' postvocalic continuants are lenited to the same degree as the control group, and whether degree of lenition changes across development. The difference in degree of lenition between controls and learners lessens at higher levels of the prosodic hierarchy as acquisition progresses, and several advanced learners produce target-like segments across prosodic levels.

Over the last several years, we have been witness to a growing body of work that examines the acquisition of Portuguese as a third language (L3). Here in the United States, Spanish speakers account for 45% of students enrolled in Portuguese classes (Milleret 2012), divided among first language (L1) Spanish speakers, second language (L2) Spanish speakers, and heritage speakers. While these three groups are all speakers of English and Spanish, they differ with respect to the order and context of acquisition of the two languages. In this essay, I propose that access to these three linguistic profiles in Portuguese classes offers a unique opportunity for us to study third language acquisition here in the United States that arguably has not been afforded elsewhere. In L3 acquisition research, a primary interest is in the differences in acquisition processes when comparing learners with a mirror image language pairing (in this case, L1 English/L2 Spanish compared with L1 Spanish/L2 English). More recently, we have also begun to examine how mirror-image groups of sequential bilinguals compare with early bilinguals (in this case, heritage speakers of Spanish). Herein, I review research questions that drive the field and illustrate how we have addressed these questions via examination of L3 Portuguese acquisition.

This article presents results of two off-line comprehension tasks investigating the acceptability of unconventional and conventional metonymy by native speakers of Korean and Spanish who speak English as a second language. We are interested in discovering whether learners differentiate between conventional and unconventional metonymy, and whether the acceptability of metonymic expressions in the native language has an effect on learners' judgments in the second language. The findings of this study constitute further experimental support for the psychological reality of the distinction between conventional and unconventional metonymy, but only in English. Learners of English at intermediate levels of proficiency exhibit transfer from the native language in comprehending metonymic shifts of meanings. Restructuring of the grammar is evident in later stages of development. Finally, complete success in acquiring L2 metonymic patterns is attested in our experimental study. Implications for L2A theories and teaching practices are discussed.

There is growing recognition that multilingualism is a norm rather than an exception and that it constitutes a default state of human linguistic competence. This phenomenon has become particularly relevant due to widespread, yet variously motivated, population movements as well as job-related mobility and the introduction of multiple foreign languages into school curricula. It has resulted in the emergence of a complex linguistic landscape and raised many questions concerning language development, multilingual use, and cross-linguistic interactions. Consequently, there has been a growing need for investigations into the process of multiple language acquisition since, as some scholars argue, the study of third language acquisition (TLA) can offer new insights into the process of language learning that research on the first or the second language alone cannot provide (e.g. Flynn, Foley, & Vinnitskaya, 2004). TLA research findings generated so far generally demonstrate complex patterns of transfer between native and nonnative languages; yet, they are insufficient to provide a full account of third language (L3) phonological modelling and the factors conditioning cross-linguistic influence in L3 speech. Therefore, the main objective of this special issue is to shed additional light on the advancements in research on third language phonological acquisition. Further, it aims to contribute to the development of this field as well as to language acquisition research in a broad sense. This article serves as a state of the science. The authors begin with a brief overview of studies in the field to establish major findings and limitations, and segue into different methodological issues that this work has yielded. They then outline the major research questions that drive the field of study, and discuss the advances that each of the contributions makes towards answering these questions. Finally, they complement the theoretical discussion with the methodological advances made by these studies and consider some future directions for the area.

This study investigates transfer at the third-language (L3) initial state, testing between the following possibilities: (1) the first language (L1) transfer hypothesis (an L1 effect for all adult acquisition), (2) the second language (L2) transfer hypothesis, where the L2 blocks L1 transfer (often referred to in the recent literature as the "L2 status factor"; Williams and Hammarberg, 1998), and (3) the Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn "et al.", 2004), which proposes selective transfer from all previous linguistic knowledge. We provide data from successful English-speaking learners of L2 Spanish at the initial state of acquiring L3 French and L3 Italian relating to properties of the Null-Subject Parameter (e.g. Chomsky, 1981; Rizzi, 1982). We compare these groups to each other, as well as to groups of English learners of L2 French and L2 Italian at the initial state, and conclude that the data are consistent with the predictions of the "L2 status factor". However, we discuss an alternative possible interpretation based on (psycho)typologically-motivated transfer (borrowing from Kellerman, 1983), providing a methodology for future research in this domain to meaningfully tease apart the "L2 status factor" from this alternative account. (Contains 2 figures, 6 tables and 10 footnotes.)

This study considers the role of L1 phonological influence in L2 English past tense morphology production by native speakers of Spanish, Mandarin, and Japanese. While these L1s share similar phonological restrictions on consonant cluster formation needed for English past tense morphology, differences arise in L1 syntax (only Mandarin lacks syntactic past) and L1 prosodic structure (only Japanese has English-equivalent structure). Aggregate analyses indicate that an L1 English control group outperforms all L2 groups in oral suppliance of past tense morphology. Results therefore reveal that having the syntactic feature for past in the L1 does not translate into targetlike performance and that L1 phonological restrictions alone cannot fully explain nontargetlike performance. Considering previous and the current data sets, we argue that evidence from production of L2 English past tense cannot be used to adjudicate between representational deficit approaches and full access approaches, contrary to what has been argued previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]