SYNTACTIC COHESION IN THIRD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: THE CASE OF ITALIAN L3

The present work investigated the possible influences that previously acquired languages (Background Languages) could exert on the acquisition of an L3 (c.f. De Angelis, 2007; Håkansson et al., 2002; Bardel and Falk, 2007; Flynn et al., 2004; Rothman, 2011). For this purpose, the narratives of 20 informants were analysed: 10 of them were German-speaking students learning Italian as L3, while the other 10 were bilingual speakers with German and Italian . Furthermore, the language experiment was based on the lack of shared knowledge: the students were asked to narrate a short film from the Polish series Reksio in both languages (the order of which was reversed for each interview) to a listener who was not present during the screening of the film. The research was conducted in the city of Heidelberg, Germany, and the group of bilingual students shares the characteristic of being second- and third-generation Italians, children or grandchildren of Italians who moved to Germany as Gastarbeit. There is little preservation of the Italian language in German-speaking territory. At the time of the interviews these students were all part of a program initiated by the Stuttgart district in order to cultivate their hereditary language (Italian) with native speakers. The narratives, subsequently transcribed and analysed through the Quaestio Theory (Klein & von Stutterheim, 1989; 1991), showed interesting results on the morpho-syntactic and lexical levels. In light of the analysis of the morphosyntactic structures used in informants' productions (main or subordinate clauses; finite or non-finite clauses), the logical-semantic structures used to convey a message (the various types of subordinates), as well as the use of temporal connectors, an attempt was made to broaden our understanding and knowledge of the mechanisms underlying language acquisition and the various influences that background languages can exert on L3 acquisition.