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Abstract

This research project delves into the fascinating domains of trilingualism, language acquisition and language attrition, focusing on the divergent experiences of early and late bilingual learners of a third language. The study aims to determine whether bilinguals find it easier to learn a third language through either their first or their second language, analysing if the key factor of being late or early bilingual has an impact on the language preference. Consecutively, the goal of this research is to investigate if any of the two groups is more prone to suffer language attrition and in which language(s).
Through a carefully designed questionnaire mixing both quantitative and qualitative data questions, the investigation seeks to elucidate the differences that both types of bilingualism can represent in terms of language acquisition and attrition.
The results showed how even if their differences are not immense, early bilinguals’ linguistic base is more versatile than late bilinguals’. And the later ones tend to prefer their first language when learning a new one. Data also revealed that being late or early bilingual has no impact on the possibility of being affected by language attrition.

Course: Applied Languages - BA (Hons) - C0392

Date Deposited: 2024-10-23

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14471.html