Abstract
Existing research indicates a qualitative difference between Second Language Learning and Third
Language Acquisition, and certain psycholinguistic and developmental aspects to multilingual learners
merit investigation. The present paper examines stages in receptive learner acquisition of English as a Third
Language at Italian-medium primary schools in South Tyrol in Italy employing a picture selection task and
implicational scaling analysis. It highlights the role that processing approaches to acquisition proposing
constraints on developmental readiness and cross-linguistic influence may play for the emergence of
receptive competence in morpho-syntactic structures.