Third language vocabulary acquisition: The influence of Serbian and Hungarian as native languages on the English language

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of bilingualism on the use of vocabulary learning strategies during the acquisition of a third language. More precisely, it debates whether having a knowledge of two languages is beneficial for the awareness and frequency of strategy use. In this analysis, the use of learning strategies of pupils bilingual in Hungarian and Serbian language is compared to their monolingual peers of Serbian language while acquiring English as a third language. Since third language acquisition (TLA) is a relatively new and unexplored area, little research has been done on this specific topic.This particular study is situated in Serbia and used a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire as a way of collecting data consisting of two parts. The first part was based on three questionnaires on vocabulary strategies proposed by Gu and Johnson (1996), and Schmitt

Lexical Availability Output in L2 and L3 EFL Learners: Is There a Difference?

“…In addition, the results by Lipińska (2017) provide counter-evidence, as she found "negative language transfer in learning German as an L3, but L2-Russian did not affect the process of TLA in this way". A lack of differences between the L3 and L2 groups were also reported by Cvekić (2016) regarding the perception of the use of vocabulary learning strategies with the bilingual and the monolingual groups showing similar preferences. In summary, comparative studies between L3 and L2 regarding vocabulary show the advantage of bilingual groups over monolinguals, as well as the facilitating effect of the L2 on the L3.…”