ES lengua adicional / CAT llengua addicional / FR langue additionnelle / DE Zusatzsprache

An additional language (also, foreign language) is a language learned after having completed language acquisition through one’s first language. Once learned, the additional language becomes part of a person’s linguistic repertoire, configuring their plurilingual competence. Additional languages may be learned either autonomously or in the context of formal education. In the former case, the learning may take place either through self-learning processes or through spontaneous use in informal learning.

The term was coined by Judd et al. (2001) as an alternative to the traditional foreign language or second language.

Students may actually be learning not a second but a third or fourth language. ‘Additional’ applies to all, except, of course, the first language learned. An additional language, moreover, may not be foreign since many people in their country may ordinarily speak it. The term ‘foreign’ can, moreover, suggest strange, exotic or, perhaps, alien—all undesirable connotations. Our choice of the term ‘additional’ underscores our belief that additional languages are not necessarily inferior nor superior nor a replacement for a student’s first language. (Judd et al., 2001, p. 6) 

The adjective additional appears in the term English as an Additional Language, used in the British education system to refer to English classes where the first language of the students is not English.

References

• De Angelis, Gessica (2007). Third or additional language acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters
• Judd, Elliot; Tan, Lihua & Walberg, Herbert (2001). Teaching Additional Languages. Bruselas: International Academy of Education.