Problem Statement Chart

Item Description

Theory This monographic project dives into the

topic of third language acquisition, a subject
that is gaining attraction in recent years,
since having domain of the English
language is seen as a prime necessity in
matters of the job market competitiveness;
however, the arise of a globalizing culture
has caused proficiency in just English (or
any other second language) plus the mother
language proof to be insufficient; this is
driving more and more people to the
decision of acquiring a third language to
increase their professional possibilities.

Taking this into consideration, it is

necessary to be aware of the process of
acquiring a third language, and the
influence that the second language has
over it.

Current studies on this matter lean towards

the topic of interference of previously
learned languages in the process of
acquisition of a third language. Focused
more on the influence of linguistic factors
taken from such previous languages.

A present issue regarding the study of third

language acquisition is that opinions are
quite torn within the academic community
when it comes to the process of acquiring a
third language. On one hand, there is the
population that sees and approaches the
process of third language acquisition as
being the same as learning a second
language with the only variation of the
target language being different.

On the other hand, another significant

portion of scholars and researchers that
take third language acquisition as an
independent process from previously learnt
languages, stating that the former have an
effect on the learning of a new language.
Problematic situation Despite the existence of some research
projects, there is still a gap in the impact
that 2nd language learning / acquisition has
on learning a 3rd language.

Following this trend, this monograph seeks

to understand the problem of scarcity of
theoretical and implementation information
regarding L3 learning in one single paper.

This scarcity causes teachers and in case

students to ignore the processes under
learning a L3, besides the implicatures this
process have in terms of inter, intra and
cross linguistic interferences and how to
tackle them.

Purpose of the implementation The proposal regarding this issue is to

develop a monograph in which different
theories and perspectives are exposed by
means of an organized paper that exposes
trends, cases of study and research that
works in the future, as a way of setting the
starting point for further studies in the
region.

This proposal is innovative and important in

this field as the information that exists
regarding third language acquisition is
minimum in the country. Besides that, it has
relevance as more and more people want to
study a third language or additional
languages, making it so, a pioneer work to
establish a point to start analyzing this issue
based on other cases around the world.

This proposal involves different elements:

professional growth, students' responses
and linguistic outcomes for it considers real
cases regarding linguistic performances
around the world that benefit teachers when
teaching students who already speak a
second language. This understanding
provides insight of the inner process of the
students and how teachers should teach
more efficiently.

The results should shed light on how to

proceed when addressing these type of
cases based on the compilation of
theoretical, methodological and cases of
study of teaching and learning a third or
additional language.