English in Europe: The Acquisition of a Third Language

298 Pages·2000·1.15 MB·English

by  Jasone Cenoz & Ulrike Jessner (Editors)

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title: English in Europe : The Acquisition of a Third Language
Bilingual Education and Bilingualism ; 19
author: Cenoz, Jasone.
publisher: Multilingual Matters
isbn10 | asin: 1853594792
print isbn13: 9781853594793
ebook isbn13: 9780585295794
language: English
subject English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers,
English language--Study and teaching--Europe, Languages in
contact--Europe.
publication date: 2000
lcc: PE1128.A2E483 2000eb
ddc: 428/0071/04
subject: English language--Study and teaching--Foreign speakers,
English language--Study and teaching--Europe, Languages in
contact--Europe.
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Page i
English in Europe

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Page ii
BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND BILINGUALISM
Series Editors
Professor Nancy H. Hornberger, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
Professor Colin Baker, University of Wales, Bangor, Wales, UK.
Other Books in the Series
Becoming Bilingual: Language Acquisition in a Bilingual Community
Jean Lyon
Bilingual Education and Social Change
Rebecca Freeman
Building Bridges: Multilingual Resources for Children
Multilingual Resources for Children Project
Child-Rearing in Ethnic Minorities
J.S. Dosanjh and Paul A.S. Ghuman
Curriculum Related Assessment, Cummins and Bilingual Children
Tony Cline and Norah Frederickson (eds)
Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
Colin Baker
Japanese Children Abroad: Cultural, Educational and Language Issues
Asako Yamada-Yamamoto and Brian Richards (eds)
Language Minority Students in the Mainstream Classroom
Angela L. Carrasquillo and Vivian Rodriguez
Languages in America: A Pluralist View
Susan J. Dicker
The Languages of Israel: Policy, Ideology and Practice
Bernard Spolsky and Elana Shohamy
Multicultural Children in the Early Years
P. Woods, M. Boyle and N. Hubbard
Multicultural Child Care
P. Vedder, E. Bouwer and T. Pels
A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism
Colin Baker
Policy and Practice in Bilingual Education
O. García and C. Baker (eds)
Teaching and Learning in Multicultural Schools
Elizabeth Coelho
Teaching Science to Language Minority Students
Judith W. Rosenthal
Working with Bilingual Children
M.K. Verma, K.P. Corrigan and S. Firth (eds)
Young Bilingual Children in Nursery School
Linda Thompson
Other Books of Interest
Beyond Bilingualism: Multilingualism and Multilingual Education
Jasone Cenoz and Fred Genesee (eds)
Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
Colin Baker and Sylvia Prys Jones
Please contact us for the latest book information:
Multilingual Matters, Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall,
Victoria Road, Clevedon, BS21 7HH, England
http://www.multilingual-matters.com

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BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND BILINGUALISM 19
Series Editors: Nancy Hornberger and Colin Baker
English in Europe
The Acquisition of a Third Language
Edited by
Jasone Cenoz and Ulrike Jessner

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To Our Mothers María Victoria and Emma
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
English in Europe: The Aquisition of a Third Language
Edited by Jasone Cenoz and Ulrike Jessner
Bilingual Education and Bilingualism: 19
Includes bibliographical references and index
1. English languageStudy and teachingForeign speakers.
2. English languageStudy and teachingEurope. 3. Languages in contactEurope.
I. Cenoz, Jasone. II. Jessner, Ulrike. III. Series.
PE1128.A2 E483 2000
428'0071'04dc21 99-054935
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1-85359-480-6 (hbk)
ISBN 1-85359-479-2 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters Ltd
UK: Frankfurt Lodge, Clevedon Hall, Victoria Road, Clevedon BS21 7HH.
USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA.
Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada.
Australia: P.O. Box 586, Artarmon, NSW, Australia.
Copyright © 2000 Jasone Cenoz, Ulrike Jessner and the authors of individual articles.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from
the publisher.
Typeset by Bookcraft, Stroud.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by WBC Book Manufacturers Ltd.

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CONTENTS
Introduction
Jasone Cenoz and Ulrike Jessner vii
Part I
English in Contact with Other Languages in the European Context:
Sociolinguistic Perspectives
1
The Spread of English and the Growth of Multilingualism with
English in Europe
Charlotte Hoffmann 1
2
English as a European Lingua Franca: Current Realities and Existing
Dichotomies
Allan R. James 22
Part II
Issues in Third Language Acquisition
3
Research on Multilingual Acquisition
Jasone Cenoz 39
4
Putting Language Proficiency in Its Place: Responding to Critiques of
the Conversational/Academic Language Distinction
Jim Cummins 54
5
The Dynamics of Third Language Acquisition
Philip Herdina and Ulrike Jessner 84
Part III
Studies in the Acquisition of English as L3: Psycholinguistic
Perspectives
6
Metaphorical Competence in Trilingual Language Production
Istvan Kecskés and Tunde Papp 99
7
Word-fragment Completions in the Second (German) and Third
(English) Language: A Contribution to the Organisation of the
Trilingual Speaker's Lexicon
Ute Schönpflug 121
8
Towards the Construction of a Theory of Cross-linguistic Transfer
Christine Bouvy 143

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Part IV
Studies in the Acquisition of English as L3: Educational Perspectives
9
Bilingualism and Trilingualism in School Students in Catalonia
Carmen Muñoz 157
10
Three Languages and Three Linguistic Models in the Basque
Educational System
David Lasagabaster 179
11
The Role of English as L3 in a Swedish Immersion Programme in
Finland: Impacts on Language Teaching and Language Relations
Siv Björklund and Irmeli Suni 198
12
Trilingual Primary Education in Friesland
Jehannes Ytsma 222
13
Teaching English as a Third Language to Hungarian-Romanian
Bilinguals
Tatiana Iatcu 236
Conclusion
14
Expanding the Scope: Sociolinguistic, Psycholinguistic and
Educational Aspects of Learning English as a Third Language in
Europe
Ulrike Jessner and Jasone Cenoz 248
The Contributors 261
Index 264

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Page vii
INTRODUCTION
Jasone Cenoz and Ulrike Jessner
It is the combination of British colonial power in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and North American dominance of
the twentieth century that has made English into the most important language of wider communication in the world. English is
also the main language of global science and technology, and is expanding into many countries and regions where it has not
traditionally been spoken before.
The spread of English has been visualised in terms of three concentric circles or rings that represent its historical and
sociolinguistic profile in different parts of the world (Kachru, 1985; 1992). The innermost circle includes those countries that are
traditionally considered the bases of English, where it is the first language for the majority of the population: the UK, USA,
Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Nevertheless, English is not the only language spoken in these countries; it is also in
contact with heritage languages or those spoken as the result of immigration. The second or 'outer' ring includes those countries
where English is not the first language of the majority but is established as a second language used at an institutional level as the
result of colonisation, such as India, Nigeria and the Philippines. The expanding outermost ring includes those countries where
English has no official status and is taught as a foreign language, such as continental Europe, Japan, China and South America.
The degree of contact between English and other languages in the three circles and the spread of English in the outer and
expanding rings both carry important sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic implications. At the sociolinguistic level, the spread of
English has significant implications for the ownership of the language and also for its different varieties. Its spread as a lingua
franca threatens its traditional status as the property of native speakers. At the same time, new non-native varieties (for example
Indian English, Nigerian English) have developed as the result of contact between English and other languages in different parts
of the world. At the psycholinguistic level, both this contact and the spread of English have further implications. English is
being learnt by many individuals not only as a

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Page viii
second but as a third or even a fourth language and now forms part of many multilingual repertoires.
This book is about the acquisition of English in continental Europe, which bear similarities to the way the language has spread
in other parts of the world. Most European countries are located in the expanding ring of Kachru's diagram, where English is
identified as a foreign language that has no official status but is increasingly used as a language of wider communication.
Nevertheless, the spread of English in Europe is not uniform. It has a long tradition in most northern European countries, but is
still expanding in the south and east where the foreign languages learnt have traditionally been others. The European Union is
helping to change the status of English as a foreign language; because it is now the main channel of communication among
European citizens, English is really becoming the EU's second language. However, in the European context the combined
influence of American English and the increasing use of the language among non-native speakers is beginning to challenge the
pre-eminence of British English as the only model, and a European non-native variety called 'Euro-English' seems to be
emerging (Modiano, 1996; Crystal, 1995). This variety shares characteristics of British and American English but presents some
differences when compared to native varieties.
English is in contact with other languages in the European context because most European countries are bilingual or
multilingual. It is a second language for a large number of Europeans, but there are several situations that are common in the
European context where it is learned as a third language. These include:
· Native speakers of minority autochthonous languages who are also proficient in the majority language and study English as a
third language. This is the case with native speakers of, for example, Basque, Breton, Sardinian, Catalan, Frisian and Sàmi.
· Native speakers of a majority language who learn a minority autochthonous language at school and study English as a third
language. This applies to native speakers of Spanish who learn Catalan or Basque at school, or native speakers of Dutch who
learn Frisian at school, and who study English as a foreign language.
· Native speakers of less widespread European languages who acquire a second and a third language; for example, native
speakers of Dutch in Belgium who learn French as a second language and English as a third, or native speakers of Swedish in
Vaasa/Vasa who learn Finnish and English.

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· Native speakers of widespread European languages whose language is a minority one at the national level and who also learn
English as a third language; for example, German-speakers in France, Italy or Belgium.
· Immigrants from non-European countries who learn the official language of the new country and study English as a third
language; for example, Turkish immigrants in Germany or the Netherlands.
· Other Europeans who learn English as a third language; for example, an Italian who learns French and English or German and
English.
The acquisition of English as a third language or L3 is also common in other parts of the world. For example, English is the L3
for many schoolchildren living in Central America, South America or French-speaking Canada who are speakers of heritage
languages such as Guarani, Quechua and Mohawk. It is the L3 for many speakers of African languages living in countries where
French is widely used as a second language or L2 (Mozambique, Mauritius) and also for those children who live in African
countries where English is widely used at the institutional level (Kenya, Nigeria) but who already speak two heritage languages
before they go to school. It is the L3 for many speakers in other parts of the world such as Asia or the Pacific where many
languages are spoken but English is needed for wider communication. And it is the L3 for a large number of immigrants who
have established themselves in countries where English is learned as an L2 (French-speaking Canada, Israel, Japan) and for
those who already spoke two languages before they established themselves in English-speaking countries (the US, Australia,
New Zealand).
The acquisition of English as L3 shares many characteristics with the acquisition of English as L2 but it also presents
differences. Third language acquisition or TLA is a more complex phenomenon than second language acquisition (SLA)
because, apart from all the individual and social factors that affect the latter, the process and product of acquiring a second
language can themselves potentially influence the acquisition of a third. Third language learners have more experience at their
disposal than second language ones do, and have been found to present more strategies and a higher level of metalinguistic
awareness. The acquisition of English as a third language also raises issues such as multilingual competence and linguistic
interdependence. The educational aspects of the acquisition of English as a third language differ from those of English as a
second language, too, and have more implications regarding the optimal age for the introduction of the different languages and
the desired level of proficiency in each. Another distinction between the acquisition of an L2 and an L3 is

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