Research group Multilingualism and Third language acquisition

Third language acquisition and individual multilingualism have emerged as rapidly growing research fields in recent years, with new findings and innovative methodologies continuously shaping the discipline. In our research group, we explore the human potential for multilingualism and how multilingualism influences the learning of additional languages beyond the first and second language.

Our work focuses on cognitive, sociolinguistic, and linguistic factors that impact third language development in both adult and younger learners across various learning contexts. Additionally, we examine teachers' perspectives on third language acquisition.

Our research group is at the forefront of the field, developing both theoretical models and methodological approaches with a focus on multiple target languages. Our studies make significant contributions to language acquisition research and are widely cited in the international research community. Furthermore, our findings have important pedagogical implications.

Our main research areas: 

• Metalinguistic knowledge and transfer – examining how explicit metalinguistic knowledge influences linguistic transfer from previously learned languages. 
• Sociolinguistic variation – research on how third language learners acquire sociolinguistic variation in the target language.
• Tense and aspect – studies of grammatical categories in Romance languages. 

Seminar series for interested participants

As part of our research group, we organize various seminars.

Read more and register interest