This talk by Prof. Magdalena Wrembel and Prof. Anna Balas focused on the acquisition of speech from a multilingual perspective and offered an overview of findings as well as some theoretical and methodological considerations in research on L3 phonological acquisition. As the discipline grows dynamically, the methodologies develop, yet certain aspects continue to pose a challenge, including varied designs; different types of L3 learners; comprehensive measures of production and perception; task complexity or language modes in testing (see Cabrelli & Wrembel 2018). From a theoretical perspective, the applicability of the established L3 morphosyntactic models to phonetic/phonological data is being challenged, while alternative explanatory approaches are put forward.
This talk focused on new insights into the field by overviewing selected findings from recent longitudinal “Multi-Phon” and CLIMAD projects on cross-linguistic influence (CLI) in phonological acquisition. Selected results results were discussed in the areas of: developmental trajectories of foreign language phonologies from initial stages of the L3 over the first year of classroom instruction; complex cross-linguistic interactions over time; the production and perception interface in L2 and L3; phonological awareness explored through accent mimicry as well as the effects of L1 background and language proficiency. Finally, some ideas for further research in the area will be discussed.