ABSTRACT |
This study examines cross-linguistic influence in the oral production in
English (L4) of Catalan-Spanish bilingual learners who have learned
French as the first foreign language at school (L3). The research
questions consider the type of transfer material (content and function
words), as well as the effect of learners’ target language proficiency
level on cross-linguistic influence. Results show that function words
are transferred with slightly higher frequency probably because they
require less activation than content words, and that they are mostly
unintended, in contrast to content words. Results also show that
learners’ proficiency level is a clear determinant of the frequency of
transfer in these data.
|
