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This chapter explores cross-linguistic influences in the lexical and grammatical acquisition of L3 English among child L2 learners of German with a variety of L1 backgrounds. For lexical development, we find interrelations in vocabulary size between L1, L2 and English lexicons. For grammar, a sentence repetition task does not show any differences between learner groups. Instead, all learners transfer German word order to English, irrespective of the properties of the L1 grammar. We discuss these findings in the context of current formal approaches to transfer in L3 acquisition and sketch some implications for foreign language teaching in a multilingual classroom.

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This paper reports findings of a project on pedagogical translanguaging (PTL) among 128 fourth-grade students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in German primary schools. Over a period of six months, 20% of lesson time in EFL classes was devoted to multilingualism involving students’ minority languages. In a control group pre-post-test design, we evaluated the effects of PTL on English vocabulary, grammar, and metalinguistic awareness. The longitudinal results show significant gains for both majority-language and minority-language students across all competences. Yet, the PTL group did not outperform a comparison group that received regular, i.e. target-language-only EFL teaching. We critically discuss the scope and potentials of PTL in early FL teaching.

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