The Relationship Between Ethnicity, Cli And Acquisition Of English As L3

Abstract

Due to the great importance of the English language nowadays, Israeli educational authorities have established a goal of reaching the highest achievable standards of excellence for teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language in Israeli schools. In order to achieve this aim, various factors have to be taken into consideration. The current paper is a fragment of the study which aimed to identify diverse factors, linguistic as well as non-linguistic, that predict acquisition of English as L3 by bilingual children of the immigrants from the FSU in Israel. This paper seeks to present and discuss the relationship between CLI, learners’ ethnicity and L3 acquisition. Both bilingual learners of English as L3 (n=32), between ages 11-12, born to the immigrants from the FSU in Israel and their parents (n=32), took part in this investigation. The L3 acquisition was measured by the means of grades achieved in the English proficiency test (mean = 90, Sd = 7.7). The relationship between CLI, ethnicity and L3 acquisition was analysed by multiple linear regression model (r2 = 0.433 F = 11.08 df = 2 Sig.< 0.001). Both factors, CLI and ethnicity, were found as significant predictors of L3 acquisition. The higher score in English test was found in L3 Jewish learners as opposed to their Non-Jewish peers, with a low percent of Total Transfer Errors.