The Use of Tense and Aspect in the Additional Language English by Monolingual Speakers and Bilingual Heritage Speakers

Abstract

This book investigates the acquisition and use of the additional language English by young secondary-school students in Germany with an immigration background. The performance in a written and spoken picture description task of these unbalanced bilingual heritage speakers is contrasted to their monolingual German peers’ production. A triangular, cross-sectional design was chosen to distinguish the source of cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition in a bilingual heritage speaker setting and to identify linguistic (dis)advantages of bilinguals when compared to monolinguals. The study demonstrates the importance of including extra-linguistic variables such as age, gender, motivation, socio-economic status, and type of school, when analyzing written text and oral speech production. Furthermore, it reveals that having access to the heritage languages Russian, Turkish, and Vietnamese, potentially additional resources for the bilingual learners, is not per se advantageous when acquiring an additional language. The importance of differentiating between different types of bilinguals, such as balanced versus unbalanced bilinguals, as well as acknowledging the influence of the task type in studies investigating cross-linguistic influence needs to receive special attention, as it significantly contributes to the role the previously acquired languages play in additional language acquisition.