In this talk on regressive effects of L3 phonology, I lay out the specific research questions and hypotheses that drive this line of inquiry, review what we (don’t) currently know about L3 regressive effects, and present some critical methodological considerations to keep in mind as we move forward.
Although the field of L3 phonology to date has focused primarily on the mechanisms that drive crosslinguistic effects (CLE) from an L1 and/or L2 in the L3 acquisition process, interest in the bidirectionality of CLE has begun to increase. Understanding the nature of regressive L3 effects, and particularly any differential effects on an L1 versus L2, has the potential to novelly inform ongoing debates related to L1 and L2 differences and ultimately will broaden our understanding of the cognitive organization of the multilingual mind. In this talk, I will lay out the specific research questions and hypotheses that drive this line of inquiry, review what we (don't) know thus far about regressive CLE in L3 phonology, and present some critical methodological considerations to keep in mind as we move forward. As a partial illustration of how to (and how not to!) implement these considerations, I will then present initial results from a one-semester longitudinal study of the roles of age of acquisition and dominance in L3 Portuguese effects on Spanish global accent. Specifically, I examine changes in Spanish accent over one semester among L1 heritage Spanish (English dominant), L1 non-heritage Spanish (Spanish dominant), and L2 Spanish (English dominant) learners.
