Icebreaker

Which state has the most bilingual and multilingual residents?

A. New Mexico

B. New York

C. Texas

D. California

Icebreaker

Which presidents can speak three or more languages?

A. Franklin Roosevelt

B. Thomas Jefferson

C. Bill Clinton

D. Barack Obama

Third Language Acquisition

of English, Spanish, and Vietnamese Bilinguals

PHUONG NGUYEN

CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, FULLERTON

Guideline

1. Literature Review

2. Method

3. Results

4. Question

Terminology

First language acquisition (L1): native language.

Second language acquisition (L2): additional language.

Third language acquisition (L3): additional language.

Favor language: language used the most during the day.

Literature Review

Bialystok (2002)

Effect of bilingualism on linguistic and cognitive performance.

Life span.

The results:

Smaller vocabulary

Poor performance on verbal task.

Better performance executive control.

Literature Review

Westby (2012)

Predictors of L2.

Preschool children.

Results:

Instructed language not related to L2 development.

Higher exposure improvement.

Motivation and practice.

Literature Review

Carrió-Pastor and Mestre (2014)

Motivation at higher education level

Effect of specific courses on motivation.

Results:

Higher exposure improvement.

Interesting materials motivation.

Literature Review

Sanz's (2000)

Monolingual L2 English.

Bilingual: L1 Spanish, L2 Catalonia, L3 English.

Results:

Bilingual learned faster than monolingual.

Literature Review

Moghtadi, Koosha1, and Lotfi's (2012)

advantage of L2 in studying L3.

Results:

Strong correlation of grammatical proficiency level.

L2 proficiency is a good predictor.

Research questions

1. Which language plays the main role in acquiring L3?

2. Does the amount of using a specific language (L1 or L2) affect L3?

3. What is a good way to teach bilinguals L3?

Hypothesis

A. Null Hypothesis:

• μ fv= μL3

B. Alternative Hypothesis:

• μ fv ≠ μL3

Method Participants:

CSU Fullerton, CSU Dominguez Hill, and CSU Los Angeles.

Bilingual: English - Vietnamese, English - Spanish.

Gender:

100 Females

100 Males

Age: 20 – 25 years old.

GPA: 3.0 and above.

No previous knowledge of Chinese.

Choose between 3 course credits or $50 compensation.

Method

Design:

Four group – Posttest only.

• Group 1: English – Spanish. Favor English.

• Group 2: English – Spanish. Favor Spanish.

• Group 3: English - Vietnamese. Favor English.

• Group 4: English – Vietnamese. Favor Vietnamese.

Each group: 25 males and 25 females.

Method

Language proficiency tests:

English: TOEFL

Vietnamese: VINATEST

Spanish: CELA

Method Apparatus:

Keyboard and screen.

Software:

20 Mandarin Chinese words.

5 words: English meanings and pronunciations.

5 words: Spanish or Vietnamese language meanings and pronunciations.

5 words: pronunciations, English meanings, suggested visual learning.

5 words: pronunciations, Spanish or Vietnamese language meaning, suggested visual learning.

Method Procedure:

Separate rooms: the software, a keyboard, and a mouse.

No clock or timing device in the room.

Each word randomly appears.

Study words.

After session, ten minute fun activity.

Recognition test with multiple choice options.

Choose correct meaning for each word.

Method Analysis:

Best perform under which condition?

Analyze separately each group.

One-way ANOVA: word condition (IV) and proportion (DV)

The effect of the language usage amount?

Group 1 and Group 2: pair t-test.

Group 3 and Group 4: pair t-test.

Results Higher proportion of getting correct answers

Visual image

Favor language

Group 1 and 3 favor in English – worse in Spanish/Vietnamese

Group 2 and 4 favor in Spanish/Vietnamese – worse in English

Reject Null Hypothesis

Favor language influence L3 learning Core language is Favor language.

QUESTION TIME

References

Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: the good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism: Language

and Cognition, 12(1), 3-11.

Carrió-Pastor, M., & Mestre, E. (2014). Motivation in Second Language Acquisition. Procedia -

Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 240 – 244-240 – 244.

Moghtadi, L., Koosha, M., & Lotfi, A. (2014). Second language grammatical proficiency and third

language acquisition. International Education Studies, 7(11), 19-27.

Sanz, C. (2000). Bilingual education enhances third language acquisition: Evidence from

Catalonia. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21, 23–44-23–44.

Westby, C. (2012). Predictors of Second Language Acquisition. Word of Mouth, 24(2), 1-4.