Chapter 16
A revised Natural Growth Theory of Acquisition
Evidence from L3 phonology
Different theories have been put forward to model bilingual acquisition, yet only few assume a
multilingual perspective. In this chapter, the authors aim to briefly overview relevant theoretical approaches to
L2/L3 acquisition and offer a revised version of a new framework, which can account for the complexity of the
acquisition process. In this theory, the authors want to modify and extend the explanatory potential offered by
classic natural phonology with the epistemological support from complex systems and with inductive support from the
data. The assumptions of the Natural Growth Theory of Acquisition are further developed based on principled
explanations and inductive data-driven accounts. In this contribution, selected data from studies on third language
phonology (L3 phonology) are reinterpreted for this purpose.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Overview of models of L2/L3 acquisition
- 3.Natural Growth Theory of Acquisition: A revised proposal
- 3.1Epistemological background
- 3.2NGTA: Principled explanations
- 3.3Revised NGTA
- 4.NGTA – inductive data-driven account from L3 phonology
- 4.1Study design
- 4.2Results
- 4.3Discussion
- 4.3.1Study 1
- 4.3.2Study 2
- 4.3.3Study 3
- 5.Conclusions and future research
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Notes
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References