This provocative article raises many important issues that need to be addressed and in so doing will advance the fields of second language (L2) and third language (L3) acquisition in several important ways. Fundamental questions concerning multilingual development persist especially with respect to the role of Universal Grammar in this language learning process. This response article has a dual role: It first outlines those areas of agreement with the proposals made in this article and, second, it discusses those areas of the proposed model that need to be confronted in order to have the model evaluated as a fully viable one.
BerkésEFlynnS (2015) Multilingual acquisition of English: Development of grammar through study of null anaphora. In: JordáMPSFalomirLP (eds) Learning and using multiple languages: Current finding from research on multilingualism. Newcastle on Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, pp. 112–33.
2.
BerkésEFlynnS (2016) Multicompetence and syntax. In: CookVWeiL (eds) The Cambridge handbook of linguistic multi-competence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 206–26.
3.
BrownMM (2020a) Grammatical gender acquisition in sequential trilinguals: Influence of a gendered L1 vs. L2. In: FarrellP (ed) Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America5: 331–344. DOI: 10.3765/plsa.v5i1.4712.
4.
BrownMM (2020b) Third Language grammatical gender and number acquisition in a German-like artificial language. Unpublished doctoral qualifying paper, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
5.
Cabrelli AmaroJFlynnSRothmanJ (2012) Third language acquisition in adulthood. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
6.
ChomskyN (1975) Reflections on language. New York: Pantheon Books.
7.
ChomskyN (1993) A minimalist program for linguistic theory. In: HaleKKeyserJ (eds) The view from building 20. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
8.
ChomskyN (1995) The minimalist program. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
9.
ChomskyN (1996) Powers and prospects. Boston, MA: South End Press.
10.
EpsteinSDFlynnSMartohardjonoG (1996) Second language acquisition: Theoretical and experimental issues in contemporary research. Brain and Behavior Sciences19: 677–758.
11.
EpsteinSDFlynnSMartohardjonoG (1998) The strong continuity hypothesis: Some evidence concerning functional categories in adult L2 acquisition. In: FlynnSMartohardjonoGO’NeilW (eds) The generative study of second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 61–78.
12.
FlynnS (1983) A study of the effects of principal branching direction in second language acquisition: The generalization of a parameter of universal grammar from first to second language acquisition. Unpublished PhD thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
13.
FlynnS (1987) A parameter setting model of L2 acquisition. Dordrecht: Reidel.
14.
FlynnS (2009) UG and L3 acquisition: New insights and more questions. In: LeungYI (ed) Third language acquisition and universal grammar. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, pp. 71–88.
15.
FlynnS (2019) Foreword. In: Gutierrez-MangadoMJMartínez-AdriánMGallardo Del PuertoF (eds) Cross-linguistic influence: from empirical evidence to classroom practice. Switzerland: Springer Nature, pp. vii–xiv.
16.
FlynnSBerkésE (2017) Toward a new understanding of syntactic CLI: Evidence from L2 and L3 acquisition. In: AngelovskaTHahnA (eds) L3 syntactic transfer models new developments and implications. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 35–63.
17.
FlynnSLustB (2002) A minimalist approach to L2 solves a dilemma of UG. In: CookV (Ed) Portraits of the L2 user. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 95–120.
18.
FlynnSFoleyCVinnitskayaI (2004) The cumulative enhancement model for language acquisition: Comparing adults’ and children’s patterns of development in first, second and third language acquisition of relative clauses. The International Journal of Multilingualism1: 3–16.
19.
FlynnSVinnitskayaIFoleyC (2008) Complementizer phrase features in child L1 and adult L3 acquisition. In: LiceraJZoblHGoodluckH (eds) The role of formal features in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 514–33.
20.
FriesC (1945). Teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
21.
Gutierrez-MangadoMJMartínez-AdriánMGallardo Del PuertoF (2019) (eds) Cross-linguistic influence: From empirical evidence to classroom practice. Switzerland: Springer Nature.
LadoR (1957) Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
24.
LustB (2006) Child language acquisition and growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
25.
WestergaardM (2021) Microvariation in multilingual situations: The importance of property-by-property acquisition. Second Language Research37(3): 379–407.
