Cross linguistic influence in learning english as a third language: The case of L1 Arabic, L2 Turkish learners and their attitudes towards learning foreign languages

Abstract

The study aims to reveal the attitudes of the participants (from L1 dominant setting and L2 dominant setting) towards learning foreign languages. After revealing the attitudes of the L3 learners, the study also aims at investigating the source of syntactic and lexical transfer: whether L1 or L2 in their writing assignments. The study also aims at investigating the source of syntactic and lexical transfer: whether L1 or L2 in their writing assignments. A mixed research approach was used in the current study to explore attitudes and origins of the syntactic and lexical transition of L1 Arabic L2 Turkish L3 to English language learners at the Uludag University School of Foreign Languages. An attitude questionnaire was implemented to get the quantitative data concerning the behavioural, cognitive, and emotional aspects of attitude of the learners towards foreign language learning. In addition to the attitude questionnaire, Think Aloud Protocols (TAPs) was administered in order to make the cognitive process observable. The participants of the current study consist of 23 L3 learners of English. The findings of the quantitative analyses showed statistically significant differences between the two groups attitudes. The students who are living in the dormitories of the university with their friends and using L2 dominantly in their daily lives showed significantly more positive attitudes than the other group. As for the source of transfer, the results showed that the participants displayed some syntactic transfers in their writing productions, but they could not be clearly defined as resulting from Turkish or Arabic because the transferred forms (for example absence of verb to be) were similar in both L1 and L2 of the participants.