Phonological cross-linguistic influence at the initial stages of L3 acquisition

language research Phonological cross-linguistic influence at the initial stages of L3 acquisition

Abstract

This study investigates sources of phonological cross-linguistic influence at the initial stages of third language acquisition in light of the predictions of the second language Status Factor Model, the Typological Primacy Model, the Cumulative Enhancement Model, the Linguistic Proximity Model and the Scalpel Model. The productions of L3 rhotic sounds, /w/ and final obstruent devoicing, elicited in a delayed repetition task, were analysed auditorily in two groups of adolescent instructed learners with L1-German-L2-English-L3-Polish and L1-Polish-L2-English-L3-German language backgrounds. The results showed that dominant articulatory routines from the L1 play an important role in determining the source(s) of phonological cross-linguistic influence in the initial stages of L3 acquisition, at least in a learning constellation when L2 articulations have not been mastered yet in a consistently target-like manner. Based on loglinear and multiple correspondence analyses, the sources of phonological cross-linguistic influence were found in this study to vary feature-by-feature, thus giving some support to the Linguistic Proximity Model and the Scalpel Model. However, the high inter- and intra-individual variation that was found is so far not accounted for by any of the existing models.

I Introduction

The discipline of third language acquisition investigates multilingual language learning and use with a particular focus on the interaction of the different languages in the multilingual mind. While typical second language learners can rely on only one language (their first language, L1) in the acquisition of an L2, L3 learners have two previously learnt languages that potentially compete (or combine) as a source of cross-linguistic influence during the acquisition of their L3. It is the goal of this article to examine how this complex interaction between a multilingual's languages works in the domain of phonology. Focussing on adolescent learners who are just beginning to acquire an L3 in a formal learning setting and using a delayed repetition task, a range of phonetic and phonological features were elicited in all three of their languages. The main questions investigated are the source(s) of phonological cross-linguistic influence at this initial stage and the conditioning factors thereof, thus contributing to the larger question of linguistic representation in the multilingual mind.