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L3 Syntactic Transfer: Models, new developments and implications
Edited by Tanja Angelovska and Angela Hahn
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 5] 2017
► pp. 13–34

Chapter 1
Language control in the context of L3 acquisition

The centrality of individual differences

Current models of L3 syntactic transfer concern what is transferred during the initial stages. Each delineates a different, and singular, trajectory. From the outset though processes involved in co-opting available syntactic forms and pairing these with novel lexical items admit individual variability. Individual variability challenges the presumption of a single trajectory and so this chapter argues that understanding such variability is core to developing necessary and sufficient models of L3 acquisition. The chapter focuses on language control during L3 speech production as an important source of individual variability. Variability in language control affects speech production in L3 throughout the cycle from communicative intention to overt speech. What changes are needed to the processes of language control, and to the representations subject to their control, so that bilingual speakers may converse in an L3? Speakers must adapt their habits of language control so that they can construct and execute sentence plans in L3. Variability in the nature of such control will affect speech output. Current contexts of L3 use will also affect production in the two prior languages. Adaptive changes in language control induced via the acquisition and use of an L3 also impact on the production processes of the two prior languages. Models of L3 acquisition are ultimately models of multilingual processing.
Keywords: individual variability, language control, L3 speech production, adaptive change, multilingual processing
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Transfer as a probabilistic process
  • Mechanisms of transfer: Representational change and use
  • Sentence planning and execution in L3
  • Review and discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 15 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.5.02gre
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Angelovska, Tanja
2017. Chapter 9. (When) do L3 English learners transfer from L2 German?. In L3 Syntactic Transfer [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 5], ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Angelovska, Tanja & Angela Hahn
2017. L3 syntactic transfer – an integrative approach. In L3 Syntactic Transfer [Bilingual Processing and Acquisition, 5], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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