This study problematizes the second language (L2) / third language (L3) initial state, questioning who the real initial state-learners are and whether it is the initial state that has been explored in some previous L3 studies that claim to do so. We will discuss the notion of initial stages in relation to the initial state. We argue that, depending on prior language knowledge, learners can – thanks to intercomprehension – advance rapidly from the initial state into the initial stages of interlanguage. We base these suggestions on data from a small-scale study in which 20 native speakers of Swedish assessed whether some Dutch, Finnish and Norwegian sentences were grammatical or not. The results from this study led us to a discussion of whether the leap from the initial state to the initial stages can be overcome more quickly, due to the clues from typological similarity on the lexical level that the learners are given.

This text comments on the Keynote article 'Microvariation in multilingual situations: The importance of property-by-property acquisition' by Marit Westergaard, who argues for Full Transfer Potential within the Linguistic Proximity Model in third language (L3) acquisition. The commentary points at some theoretical and methodological issues related to the Linguistic Proximity Model, e.g. the age factor in language learning, the role of metalinguistic knowledge and proficiency in L3 learning, and the lack of predictive power of the model.

This study investigates lexical transfer in four German learners? oral production of L3 Swedish. They have already learned English as an L2. The point of departure is Williams and Hammarberg?s [1998. Language switches in L3 production: implications for a polyglot speaking model. Applied Linguistics, 19, 295?333] case study in which Swedish was also the L3, but the learner had English as an L1 and German as an L2. Williams and Hammarberg convincingly showed that the background languages played different roles in L3 oral production: L1 English had an instrumental role, while L2 German was assigned a supplier role. The determining factor for the assignment of supplier role was L2 status and of instrumental role common access and established practice. In the present study the model is tested on the same involved languages; but English is the L2 and German the L1. The model would predict that English L2 will be used in both the supplier and the instrumental role. However, the results indicate that this is not the case. Possible explanations are discussed.

In this study we explore the role of explicit metalinguistic knowledge (MLK) of first language (L1) in the learning of a third language (L3). We compare the oral production of 40 participants with varying degrees of explicit MLK of the L1, who are exposed to a completely new L3. In accordance with the second language (L2) status factor, which is further motivated by the distinction between implicit competence and explicit knowledge (Bardel & Falk, 2012; Paradis, 2009), we hypothesize that the participants with low explicit MLK in their L1 will transfer from their L2, and that the participants with high explicit MLK in the L1 will transfer from their L1. The structure of interest is adjective placement, which is the same in the L1 and the L3 (but not in the participants' L2s). The results show that the degree of explicit MLK in the L1 plays a decisive role at the initial state of L3 learning.