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Epistemological issue: Sources of knowledge in L3 acquisition
Edited by Cristina Flores and Neal Snape
[Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 11:1] 2021
► pp. 1–29
EPISTEMOLOGICAL PAPER

The Full Transfer/Full Access model and L3 cognitive states

| University of Hawai‘i
| Indiana University

This paper offers an overview of current models of third language (L3) acquisition, classifying each as a Wholesale Transfer model or as a Piecemeal Transfer model. We discuss what we consider to be some conceptual and empirical problems for the Piecemeal Transfer approaches and then discuss some advantages we see in Wholesale Transfer. Next, we home in on Wholesale Transfer models, arguing that one of them in particular seems to us to be the most promising, viz., the Typological Primacy Model (TPM – e.g., Rothman, 2011, 2015). Finally, we take up some open questions associated with the TPM and suggest some possible directions for future L3 research.

Keywords: L3 acquisition, Full Transfer/Full Access (FT/FA), Wholesale Transfer, Piecemeal Transfer, Interlanguage development
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Overview of the current models of L acquisition
    • 2.1Wholesale Transfer
      • 2.1.1L Status Factor
      • 2.1.2L Status Factor
      • 2.1.3Typological Primacy Model (TPM)
      • 2.1.4Principal Language of Communication Model (PLCM)
    • 2.2Piecemeal Transfer
      • 2.2.1Cumulative Enhancement Model (CEM)
      • 2.2.2Scalpel Model
      • 2.2.3Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM)
  • 3.Problems with Piecemeal Transfer approaches
  • 4.Advantages of Wholesale Transfer approaches
  • 5.Problems with the L Status Factor and the L Status Factor
  • 6.Wholesale Transfer: Evidence for the Typological Primacy Model
  • 7.Embracing and extending the Typological Primacy Model
    • 7.1The basis for the Big Decision: The choice of the Transfer Grammar
    • 7.2The course of further development
    • 7.3The role of the Other Grammar
  • 8.Final remarks: The role of UG in L acquisition
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20055.sch
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