Is the acquisition of multiple languages a challenge?

Main Article Content

Mireia Ortega Duran

Abstract

The interest in multilingualism and multilingual acquisition has rapidly increased in the
last decades, which mirrors the reality worldwide. The present article provides an
overview of research on multilingual acquisition, with a focus on psycholinguistic factors,
and highlights the unique features of multilingual learners as compared to monolingual
ones acquiring their first foreign language. The complex processes involved in multilingual
acquisition, as well as different models that account for such complexity, are also
described. The increasing contact between different languages in a globalized world
motivates a shift of paradigms. Thus, it has become evident that language acquisition
models need to explain the processes that inevitably take place due to the interactions
among the languages that are part of the learners’ linguistic repertoire. Such new
paradigms that have emerged in SLA research could also be incorporated in the teaching
of foreign languages, which could help learners in their learning process.

Article Details

Section

Lingüística

How to Cite

Is the acquisition of multiple languages a challenge?. (2017). VERBEIA. Revista De Estudios Filológicos. Journal of English and Spanish Studies, 1, 143-159. https://doi.org/10.57087/Verbeia.2017.4039