Abstract
This study attempts to tease apart the effect of first (L1) and second (L2) language knowledge on the acquisition of syntactic properties of L3 English in order to test current generative theories in the field of third language acquisition (L3A). The property under investigation is adjective placement. Participants are L1 Azeri / L2 Persian, and L1 Persian learners of English as a third and second language respectively. To fulfill so, 180 bilingual and monolingual university students from Arak and Miyandoab took a general English proficiency test, a background questionnaire, and a syntactic structure test. The L3 proficiency was also considered. The data, then, were analyzed through utilization of descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVA. In relation to the hypotheses, results indicated L2 status as the determining factor in the acquisition of English adjective properties by Azeri-Persian bilinguals. Proficiency level in the L3 also proved to have a significant role. The implications of the study can be utilized in developing an educational and linguistic methodology for bilingual learners of English as an L3 in Iran.
Highlights
The last two decades have witnessed a flourishing interest in the acquisition of a third language (L3A)
The first null-hypothesis as the knowledge of Adjective order and placement in Azeri L1 did not affect the performance on Farsi-to-English translation by bilingual Azeri-Persian learners significantly more than monolingual EFL learners was supported
As the findings of the present study show for the non-facilitative effect of the Persian L2, bilinguality does not show any advantage in the acquisition of English adjective placement despite the structural similarity between Azeri L1 and English L3
Summary
The last two decades have witnessed a flourishing interest in the acquisition of a third language (L3A). Cenoz (2003) and Cenoz and Jessner (2000), for instance, claim that the L3 learner, in addition to the first language (L1), has obtained an L2 which could undoubtedly play a role in the acquisition of the target language (L3, L4, or Ln) while L2 acquirer can only resort to his L1 in the acquisition of an L2. CLI, on the other hand, is of the many-to-one type of association which entails the simultaneous influence of more than one language (L1 or L2) upon the target language. In this regard, while some studies found supporting evidence in the privileged role of L2 in the acquisition of a third language,
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