Abstract
This study attempts to examine and identify instances of negative “interlanguage transfer” (Sharwood Smith & Kellerman, 1986), which is a phenomenon belonging to the broader field of crosslinguistic influence, in written L3 English production in a bilingual Italian/German population. Transfer from learners’ L2 has attracted increasing attention over recent years (De Angelis & Selinker, 2001; Jessner, 2006) and research has suggested various potential triggers for facilitative and negative L2 transfer, as well as producing mixed results regarding the individual aspects of language that may be susceptible to transfer from a learner’s L2. Quantitative data were collected from 46 subjects in the form of questionnaires enquiring about language backgrounds and attitudes, and written summaries. The Statistical Package for Social Science was used to analyse specific instances of written syntactic errors resulting from both L1 and L2 transfer and these were then examined in the light of the questionnaire responses in order to identify possible determining factors behind any L2 transfer for both linguistic groups. Results provided evidence of negative syntactic L2 transfer from German and Italian in English L3, yet the possible determining factors were sometimes unexpected and not necessarily identical for both groups. This study suggests that L2 transfer in multilingual settings is a very real possibility which may be of future interest in terms of multilingual language processing and have consequences for the L3 classroom.
Highlights
Bilingualism is at least as frequent in the world as pure monolingualism (Hammarberg, 2001; Jessner, 2006), yet the predominant approaches to English language teaching have been influenced to a disproportionate degree by cultures which fail to represent or understand the bi- or monolingual global norm
This demonstrates increased perceived or actual competence in L2 Italian by L1 German speakers compared to L2 German by L1 Italian speakers, which could play an important role in conditioning L2 interlanguage transfer
L2 Italian: out of 23 samples, the ratio of correct use of pro-drop form: pro-drop form errors per T-unit was 41:4 These initial ratios suggest that, more transfer errors are made due to L1 interference for each parameter investigated, there is evidence of the same errors being made due to L2 transfer
Summary
Bilingualism is at least as frequent in the world as pure monolingualism (Hammarberg, 2001; Jessner, 2006), yet the predominant approaches to English language teaching have been influenced to a disproportionate degree by cultures which fail to represent or understand the bi- or monolingual global norm. The study seeks to provide significant evidence as to whether bilingualism has the potential to interfere with productive and receptive skills by influencing errors occurring as a result of negative transfer from the L2 in addition to L1 The value of these data would be to substantiate the argument that “acquired language systems do not exist side by side in ‘mutual harmony’ but start to interfere with each other” (Herdina & Jessner, 2000: 90), paving the way for English language teachers and researchers to develop case-specific local language-learning programmes which more intelligently consider learners’ linguistic resources
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
