Abstract
According to scholars in the field (Cenoz and Jessner in The study of multilingualism in educational contexts. John Benjamins, pp. 121–138, 2009), the effects of the successive acquisition of two or more languages in early childhood are still under-researched. The case study we present here deals with the use of request modification items by a consecutive third language learner whose L1 is Catalan, L2 is Spanish and L3 is English. Previous research on interlanguage and child pragmatic development has ignored the multilingual background of language learners and users thus adopting a monolingual perspective in their analyses. In our view, studies adopting this approach present a partial account of pragmatic, and thus, linguistic development. Furthermore, as argued by Jessner (2006) multilingual speakers are best examined from a multilingual approach. On that account, the present study examines request mitigation devices in the three languages of a pre-literate boy during a one-year period. Data were collected during time play including mother–child interaction. In line with theoretical paradigms underlying third language acquisition and use (Aronin and Hufeisen in The exploration of multilingualism. John Benjamins, 2009; Jessner 2006), findings from our study point out the peculiarities of third language pragmatic development while they also lead to interesting differences between pre-literate monolingual and multilingual request mitigation. Finally, our results also call for the need for further research on multilingual pragmatic development in early language learning.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Achiba, M. 2003. Learning to request in a second language. A study of child Interlanguage Pragmatics. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Alcón, E. 2008. Investigating pragmatic language learning in foreign language classrooms. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) 46 (3): 173–195.
Alcon-Soler, E. Safont-Jordà, M. P. and Martínez-Flor, A. 2005. Towards a typology of modifiers for the speech act of requesting: a socio-pragmatic approach. RAEL: Revista Electrónica de Lingüística Aplicada 4: 1–35.
Aronin, L. and Hufeisen, B. 2009. The Exploration of Multilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Barnes, J. 2001. Politeness in English, Basque and Spanish: Evidence from a trilingual child. Jakingarriak 45: 40–45.
Barnes, J. 2006. Early trilingualism. A Focus on questions. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Barnes, J. 2008. Early trilingualism: the development of communicative competence in English alongside Basque and Spanish. In A Portrait of the Young in the New Multiligual Spain, eds. C. Pérez-Vidal, M. Juan-Garau and A. Bel, 63–85. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Becker-Bryant, J. 2009. Pragmatic development. In The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language, ed. E.L. Bavin, 339–354. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Blum-Kulka, S. House, J. & Kasper, G. 1989. Investigating Cross-cultural Pragmatics: An introductory overview. In Cross-Cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies, eds. S. Blum-Kulka, J. House and G. Kasper, 1–34. New Jersey: Ablex.
Cenoz, J. and Jessner, U. 2000. English in Europe. The Acquisition of a Third Language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Cenoz, J. and Jessner, U. 2009. The study of multilingualism in educational contexts. In The Exploration of Multilingualism, eds. L. Aronin and B. Hufeisen, 121–138. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
De Houwer, A. 2009. Bilingual First Language Acquisition. MMTextbooks. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Ellis, R. 1992. Learning to communicate in the classroom: A study of two language learners’ requests. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 14: 1–23.
Ervin-Tripp, S. 1977. Wait for me, roller skate! In Child Discourse, eds. S. Ervin-Tripp and C. Mitchell-Kernan, 165–188. New York: Academic Press.
Ervin-Tripp, S. Guo, J. and Lampert, M.1990. Politeness and persuasion in Children’s control acts. Journal of Pragmatics 14: 307–331.
Gordon, D. and Ervin-Tripp S. 1984. The structure of children’s requests. In The Acquisition of Communicative Competence, eds. R.L. Schiefelbusch and J. Pickar, 295–321. Baltimore: University Park Press.
Jessner, U. 2006. Linguistic awareness in multilinguals: English as a third language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Jessner, J. 2008. Teaching third languages: Findings, trends and challenges. Language Teaching 41: 15–56.
Keskcés, I. 2010. Dual and multilanguage systems. International Journal of Multilingualism 7: 91–109.
Kogetsidis, M. and Woodfield, H. (in press) Request Modification Devices. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Montanari, S. 2009. Pragmatic differentiation in early trilingual development. Journal of Child Language 36:597–627.
Nicholas, H. and Lightbown, P. 2008. Defining child second language acquisition, defining roles for L2 instruction. In Second Language Acquisition and the Young Learner. Child Play?, eds. J. Philp, A. Mackey and R. Oliver, 27–52. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Quay, S. 2011. Introduction: data-driven insights from trilingual children in the making. International Journal of Multilingualism 8:1, 1–4.
Rose, K. 2000. An exploratory cross-sectional study of interlanguage pragmatic development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 22: 27–59.
Safont Jordà, M.P. 2005. Third Language Learners. Pragmatic Production and Awareness. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Safont-Jordà, M.P. 2008.The speech act of requesting. In Learning how to request in an instructed language learning context, ed. E. Alcón, 41–64. Berlin: Peter Lang.
Safont-Jordà, M.P. 2011. Early requestive development in consecutive third language learning. International Journal of Multilingualism 10: 1–21.
Safont-Jordà, M.P. & Alcón, E. (in press) Teachability of request acts peripheral modification devices in third language learning contexts. In Kogetsidis M. & H. Woodfield (Eds) Request Modification Devices. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Searle, J. 1979. Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Acts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sifianou, M. 2001. Linguistic politeness across boundaries. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Solé-Planas, M. 1990. The process of children’s ability to ask questions from an interactive perspective. Pragmatics 5:33–44.
Acknowledgments
As a member of the LAELA (Lingüística Aplicada a l’Ensenyament de la Llengua Anglesa) research group at Universitat Jaume I (Castellón, Spain), I would like to acknowledge that this study is part of a research project funded by Fundació Universitat Jaume I and Caixa Castelló-Bancaixa (P1.1B2011-15).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix 1: Transcription Conventions
Appendix 1: Transcription Conventions
- .:
-
falling intonation
- ?:
-
Rising intonation
- !:
-
Exclamation talk
- ,:
-
Comma indicates a level, continuing intonation; suggesting non-finality
- [ ]:
-
brackets indicate overlapping utterances
- (.):
-
period within parentheses indicates micropause
- (2.0):
-
number within parentheses indicates pause of length in approximate seconds
- ye:s:
-
colon indicates stretching of sound it follows
- yes :
-
underlining indicates emphasis
- YES:
-
capital letters indicate increased volume
- °yes°:
-
degree marks indicate decreased volume of materials
- >yes<:
-
speeded-up talk
- <yes>:
-
slow-down talk
- ((laugh)):
-
Aspects of the utterance, such as whispers, coughing, and laughter, are indicated with double parentheses
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Safont-Jordà, MP. (2012). A Longitudinal Analysis of Catalan, Spanish and English Request Modifiers in Early Third Language Learning. In: Gabrys-Barker, D. (eds) Cross-linguistic Influences in Multilingual Language Acquisition. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29557-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29557-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29556-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29557-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)