PORTUGUÊS TERCEIRA LÍNGUA ESTRANGEIRA EM CONTEXTO DE PLURI-/MULTILINGUISMO

In the current context of pluri-/multilingualism, “foreign language” (FL) constitutes a very broad concept.  However, “third foreign language” (L3) and, even more so, “Portuguese as a third foreign language” (PFL3) represent notions whose unequivocal definitions involve a good understanding of tangential concepts, such as
“additional language” (AL), “host country language” (HcL) and “heritage language” (HL). Such notions generated many studies in the Portuguese-speaking academic environment. Therefore, the theoretical framework of L3 must be established. In order to consolidate a delimitation between the aforementioned concepts, it is crucial
to begin by establishing that, generally, literature defines the maternal language (ML) as the first language (L1).