Research subject Portuguese Second Language Acquisition

Research within second language acquisition focuses on how people acquire a second language. In all the varieties of Portuguese in Africa, Asia and Brazil, Portuguese has historically been, or is still, spoken mainly as a second language. Portuguese is also spoken as a second language by large immigrant communities in Portugal. This means that second language acquisition has or has had an important role in the formation of most of the varieties of Portuguese spoken around the world. The role of second language acquisition in contact-related language change is a debated topic, and many Portuguese varieties offer interesting opportunities to study the interplay between different forms of language acquisition and use, combined with the impact of historical, demographic and social circumstances.