Abstract
Research on L3 acquisition has highlighted the importance of cross-linguistic influence in adult language acquisition. Specifically, the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) for L3 acquisition predicts full transfer from the most structurally similar background language at the initial stages of acquisition. However, it is unclear how language background might affect transfer. Furthermore, it is not known how applicable the TPM is to instructed L3 language acquisition. Consequently, this study examines Spanish/English bilinguals, their knowledge of mood distinctions in subjunctive-dominant contexts in Spanish and their transfer of that knowledge at the beginning stages of instructed L3 Portuguese acquisition. Data from eight L1 Spanish, 22 L2 Spanish, and 38 Spanish heritage bilinguals were analyzed to determine if the groups differed in their knowledge of mood distinctions, first in Spanish and subsequently in Portuguese. Results indicate a significant role of language background on all tasks.
Supplementary Material
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2017-0113).
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Speech-accompanying gestures in L1 and L2 conversational interaction by speakers of different proficiency levels
- Transfer in L3 cognate language acquisition: The role of language background on instructed L3 Portuguese acquisition
- Task complexity, language proficiency and working memory: Interaction effects on second language speech performance
- Typology and contexts of article errors: Investigation into the use of English articles by Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners
- Gender assignment strategies used by L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish
- The refusal of request speech act in Persian, English, and Balouchi languages: A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study
- Non-nativelike outcome of naturalistic child L2 acquisition of Japanese: The case of noun–verb collocations
- Effects of mixed instruction on Chinese EFL learners’ perception of phonemic contrasts
- Dynamism of collocation in L2 English writing: A bigram-based study
- Nominal agreement in the interlanguage of Dutch L2 learners of Spanish
- Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production
- Grammatical aspect and world knowledge in second language reading
- An exploratory study on pro-drop in a written description task in L2 Spanish
- Negotiation of meaning in child-child vs. adult-adult interactions: Evidence from low proficiency EFL learners
- Aspect semantics and ESL article use
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Speech-accompanying gestures in L1 and L2 conversational interaction by speakers of different proficiency levels
- Transfer in L3 cognate language acquisition: The role of language background on instructed L3 Portuguese acquisition
- Task complexity, language proficiency and working memory: Interaction effects on second language speech performance
- Typology and contexts of article errors: Investigation into the use of English articles by Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners
- Gender assignment strategies used by L1 and L2 speakers of Spanish
- The refusal of request speech act in Persian, English, and Balouchi languages: A cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study
- Non-nativelike outcome of naturalistic child L2 acquisition of Japanese: The case of noun–verb collocations
- Effects of mixed instruction on Chinese EFL learners’ perception of phonemic contrasts
- Dynamism of collocation in L2 English writing: A bigram-based study
- Nominal agreement in the interlanguage of Dutch L2 learners of Spanish
- Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production
- Grammatical aspect and world knowledge in second language reading
- An exploratory study on pro-drop in a written description task in L2 Spanish
- Negotiation of meaning in child-child vs. adult-adult interactions: Evidence from low proficiency EFL learners
- Aspect semantics and ESL article use