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Research on the effect of bilingualism on third language acquisition was initially set in the framework of the study of potential differences between monolinguals acquiring a second language and bilinguals learning a third language. However, many authors have already started to concentrate on third language acquisition itself, and have investigated if there are any differences with regard to target language competence as a function of certain characteristics of the bilingual learner. The number of specific studies on the acquisition of phonology in a third language is extremely limited, though. The article presented here reports a research study on the phonological acquisition of English as a foreign language in an institutional context and, specifically, examines the effect of different levels of bilingual proficiency on phonological competence in the third language.

The use of communication strategies (CSs) in oral and written second language (L2) production has been widely investigated (e.g. Muñoz, 2007). As for content and language integrated learning (CLIL) settings, learners seem to resort to the first language (L1) less often than in traditional foreign language instruction (e.g. Celaya & Ruiz de Zarobe, 2010). However, few studies have examined what L2 learners say about their use of CSs by means of questionnaires-e.g. Ehrman & Oxford (1990), with adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners-and little is known about the reported use of CSs by young learners (Purdie & Oliver, 1999), and much less by young CLIL learners. This study examines learners' self-reported opinions about the use of CSs (guessing, miming, morphological creativity, dictionary, predicting, paraphrasing, borrowing, calque, foreignizing, avoidance and appeal for assistance).

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This study investigated the effect of two distinct computer-based phonetic training procedures administered in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom with young learners. Students' perceptual awareness of the occurrence of an English schwa in an unstressed position in content words was tested in two experimental groups, which underwent differentiated training regimes (auditory discrimination/identification practice and listen-and-repeat practice), and a control group, which received no phonetic treatment. A training effect was shown by the significant improvement in the perception abilities of the two experimental groups only. In addition, both experimental groups exhibited comparable improvement in all the variables analyzed. Training effects were also found for the word-familiarity variable, which was mitigated after treatment. Results suggest a positive impact of both aural and imitation computer-based phonetic training on L2 sound perceptual awareness in classroom settings with young learners.