The Role of the Background Languages in Third Language Acquisition . Romance Languages as L 1 , L 2 or L 3

Research on individual multilingualism and third language acquisition has expanded greatly in recent years. A theoretical correlate of this is the recognition of the fact that humans are potentially multilingual by nature, that multilingualism is the normal state of language competence, and that this in turns has implications for an adequate theory of language competence, use and acquisition. The distinction between L2 and L3 acquisition means that language learners are being differentiated according to the complexity of their language background. Among other things, this gives raise to reflection about some of the currently used basic terminology in the field.