The present study explores the acquisition of French as a third language by Hong Kong bilingual university students. It represents an attempt to contribute to the young field of third language acquisition (TLA) research: its objective is to address certain basic issues of second language acquisition (SLA) and to apply these to a third language. The focus of the study is therefore placed on the theoretical concepts of interlanguage and language transfer as well as Chinese-English-French contrastive analysis from a (psycho-)typological perspective.

One important finding of the study is a new type of transfer -- transfer between interlanguages. As non-native/imperfect speakers of Engilsh, Hong Kong bilingual university students have their own unique L2 interlangage, a number of properties of which are found to be transferred to their L3 interlanguage. Such cases, referred to in the present work as instances of EIL (English interlanguage) transfer, include existential constructions and tough movement structures (indirect L1-based structures) which are attested in both production and judgement data. Other features of the L3 interlanguage, such as the use of resumptive pronouns in relative clauses, seem to be attributable more to universal and developmental sources.

Some cases of direct L1 and L2 transfer are also discussed, together with certain universal error types which are found across learners of Frecnh with different language backgrounds. The most significant features of Hong Kong bilinguals' L3 French interlanguage are the predominance of universal/developmental errors and L2-based strcutures, as well as the surprisingly minor role played by the subjects' mother tongue directly.

The SLA concepts of "interlanguage" and "psychotypology" are re-considered in this TLA work. The existence of the (theoretical and methodological) entity of learners' language, as well as the influence of learners' perception of linguistic affinity on language acquisition, are re-analyzed in a L3 context and the applicability of these L2 notions to our L3 case validated.

The final part of the thesis is devoted to pedagogical reflections, bringing theory into practice: on a micro level, it is hoped that the study can be conducive to the effective teaching of French in Hong Kong and serve as a basis for future research addressing such "applied" questions as teaching methods, textbooks and curricula. On the macro level, the thesis looks forward in subsequent acquisition studies to true theorist-pedagogue cooperation in the field. Certain issues of learnability with respect to our case are also outlined for further studies in the area.