English L3 learning in a multilingual context: the role of parental education and L2 exposure within the living community

Abstract

The present study examines two factors in relation to English L3 proficiency development and school performance in a third language: (a) parental education and (b) second language exposure within the living community. Participants (n = 50) are Italian L1 students with German L2 and English L3. All students (eighth grade, 14 years of age) were attending school in the multilingual region of South Tyrol, Italy, in 2005Italy, in /2006. Final year written exams were examined in relation to parental education and the language most frequently spoken in the community (Italian L1 or German L2) with the aim to identify which of the two factors (parental education or L2 exposure) best predicts school performance and English L3 proficiency development. Overall results show parental education to be a stronger predictor of English L3 development.

Starting Age Overshadowed: The Primacy of Differential Environmental and Family Support Effects on Second Language Attainment in an Instructional Context

“…Bilingualism has also been hypothesized to result in more efficient language learning, in terms of the attainment of both general language proficiency (Cenoz & Valencia, ; Swain, Lapkin, Rowen, & Hart, ) and of literacy skills (e.g., Kovelman, Baker, & Petitto, ). However, a whole body of evidence questioning the notion of a general bilingual advantage has emerged recently, relating to: the hybridity of experiences of bilinguals in these studies, which may be associated with a subject selection bias (De Angelis, ); the social dimensions of bilingualism, that is, the influence of and changes in lifestyle, L2 learning motivation, overall well‐being, general communicative skills, the status/prestige of the languages in question, teachers’ cultural responsiveness, and so forth (e.g., Agirdag, ; Goriot et al., ); a priori cognitive ability (Keijzer & Schmid, ); methodological inconsistencies, for example, the differential effects of bilingualism on verbal and nonverbal task performance (Duñabeitia & Carreiras, ; Paap, Johnson, & Sawi, ; Vaughn, Greene, Ramos Nuñez, & Hernandez, ); and an alleged publication bias favoring positive outcomes over null effects and possibly leading to a false representation of the true situation (see Bialystok, Kroll, Green, MacWhinney, & Craik, ; de Bot, ; de Bruin, Treccani, & Della Sala, ). …”

English as a Foreign Language in Bilingual Language‐minority Children, Children with Dyslexia and Monolingual Typical Readers

“…In fact, bilingual children might somehow be at an advantage when learning an additional language in comparison with monolingual learners. The efficiency of L3 acquisition has been found to be strongly related to parental education (De Angelis, ), and the advantage in L3 acquisition seems to be stronger if bilinguals' home languages are officially supported by the education system and developed through formal instruction in school (Cenoz, ), as was the case of bilingual immigrants acquiring French (Brohy, ) or English (Sanz, ) as a third language.…”

The Relationship Between Ethnicity, Cli And Acquisition Of English As L3

“…Previous studies conducted both in Israel (Abu Rabia, 1996;Ellinger, 2000;Haim, 2014) and elsewhere (Cenoz, 2001(Cenoz, , 2003a(Cenoz, , 2004De Angelis, 2015;Dörnyei, 2003;Hammarberg, 2010;Lightbown & Spada, 1999, among others) identified various factors that promote acquisition of L2 and L3. However, no absolute convention regarding factors that play the most decisive role in acquisition of languages learnt subsequently to L1, has been reached yet.…”