Pedagogical Implications of Research on the Acquisition of Portuguese as a Third Language

Response 1 to "The Impact of Portuguese on the Study of Third Language Acquisition"

Without question, the presence in Portuguese classes of a large number of Spanish speakers offers a fruitful field for research on L3 acquisition. From an applied linguistics perspective, this research suggests important implications for the teaching of Portuguese to Spanish speakers, as briefly discussed by Jennifer Cabrelli Amaro in the last paragraph of her essay. I would like to expand on that discussion by focusing on several specific research findings mentioned by Cabrelli Amaro and their implications for the teaching of Portuguese to speakers of Spanish.

Offer Separate Portuguese Courses for Spanish Speakers

The most obvious pedagogical implication of research on L3 acquisition of Portuguese is that Spanish speakers benefit from Portuguese classes that are tailored to their needs. Cabrelli Amaro cites research suggesting that bilinguals are better equipped than monolinguals for subsequent language acquisition, and that L3 learners of Portuguese are able to transfer morphosyntactic properties of Spanish. These findings lend empirical support to the popular knowledge that Spanish speakers learn Portuguese more quickly and efficiently than do monolingual English speakers. In light of this evidence, it stands to reason that Spanish speakers merit separate Portuguese classes and curriculum.

Unfortunately, the majority of institutions that offer Portuguese programs do not yet offer separate courses for Spanish speakers, despite the fact that these students comprise 45% or more of enrollments in Portuguese courses. In a survey of Portuguese programs in the United States, of 107 institutions that completed the survey, only 50 offered separate beginning-level Portuguese courses for Spanish speakers, and only 24 offered intermediate-level courses for these students (see Bateman 2014).

Adopt a Contrastive Approach

Bateman's (2014) study also found that most textbooks used for teaching Portuguese to Spanish speakers in the United States are designed for monolingual speakers of English. Spanish speakers using these materials are left on their own to develop mental representations of the similarities and differences between Portuguese and Spanish, which the three groups of Spanish speakers—L1 speakers, L2 speakers, and heritage speakers—may not be equally equipped to do.

Cabrelli Amaro cites multiple studies suggesting that L1 and heritage speakers of Spanish take longer to overcome non-facilitative transfer when learning Portuguese than do learn-ers who acquired Spanish as adults. Conversely, L2 learners of Spanish seem to suffer more from regressive transfer from Portuguese, making it more difficult for them to maintain their late-acquired Spanish system. I would suggest that all three groups of learners could benefit from an approach that explicitly compares and contrasts the morphosyntactic, lexical, and phonological elements of the two languages.

Although the value of contrastive analysis has been debated by linguists, such an approach appears to benefit Spanish speakers learning Portuguese. For example, in a survey of 72 students enrolled in a Spanish for Portuguese speakers course, Child (2013) found that all three groups of students wanted more time devoted to grammar and pronunciation, with explicit attention to both similarities and differences between the two languages. Child suggests that this type of contrastive approach can build metalinguistic awareness that helps learners overcome non-facilitative transfer.

Teach Language Learning Strategies

A related issue is students' use of language learning strategies. According to studies summarized by Cabrelli Amaro, L2 Spanish speakers appear to possess a greater degree of metalinguistic awareness than do L1 and heritage speakers of Spanish, allowing them to make greater explicit use of strategies for learning Portuguese. Native Spanish speakers, and especially heritage speakers who may have never formally studied either Spanish or English, may benefit from instruction on language learning strategies. Such instruction may help these learners to capitalize on facilitative transfer from Spanish and to overcome non-facilitative transfer.

Teach Sociocultural Aspects of Language

As Cabrelli Amaro points out, research demonstrating that heritage Spanish speakers implement Brazilian-like speech acts more than L1 English speakers do suggests that transfer of linguistic patterns that...