Malmö University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphology
Malmö University, Faculty of Education and Society (LS), Department of Culture, Languages and Media (KSM).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0731-362X
Stockholm University.
2021 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Cross-linguistic influence and language-learning aptitude in L3 acquisition of functional morphology

Two factors suggested to influence second-language acquisition are cross-linguistic influence (CLI) and language-learning aptitude. However, the relationship between the two has rarely been investigated, and it is unclear to what extent the relative importance of CLI and aptitude depends on the degree of similarity between source and target language (cf. Bokander 2021; Skehan 1998; Tolentino & Tokowicz 2014). The present study addresses this issue by examining the longitudinal development of definiteness marking in Russian-speaking learners of Swedish who had previously acquired English. Unlike Russian, English and Swedish obligatorily express definiteness using dedicated functional morphology. While the English indefinite article (a park) is structurally similar to its Swedish counterpart (en park ‘a park’), the English definite article (the park) is structurally dissimilar to its Swedish counterpart, a nominal suffix (park-en ‘the park’). This enables us to investigate the role of cross-linguistic influence and aptitude in third-language acquisition of functional morphology.

Definite and indefinite noun phrases were orally elicited from native speakers of Russian (n=18) during two terms of a beginner-Swedish course. At data point 1, their use of English articles and their aptitude were also tested (Meara 2005). Further, data were collected from native speakers of Swedish (n=26) and English (n=17). The participants’ use of indefinite and definite morphemes was analysed separately. Two linear mixed-effects models revealed that the learners’ developing use of the Swedish indefinite article was associated with their command of the English indefinite article, which is structurally similar. By contrast, their developing use of the Swedish definite nominal suffix, which is structurally dissimilar to its English counterpart, was moderated primarily by aptitude. This suggests that learners may capitalise on previously acquired linguistic knowledge primarily when source and target languages are similar, while language-learning aptitude appears to play a more important role in the acquisition of qualitatively new morphology.

References

Bokander, Lars (2021). Language aptitude and crosslinguistic influence in initial L2 learning. Journal of the European Second Language Association 4(1), s. 35–44. 

Meara, Paul (2005). LLAMA Language Aptitude Tests: the manual. Swansea: Lognostics. 

Tolentino, Leida C. & Natasha Tokowicz (2014). Cross-language similarity modulates effectiveness of second language grammar instruction. Language Learning 64(2), s. 279–309. 

Skehan, Peter (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford University Press.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2021.
National Category
General Language Studies and Linguistics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-56024OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-56024DiVA, id: diva2:1710835
Conference
The 12th International Conference on Third Language Acquisition and Multilingualism
Available from: 2022-11-14 Created: 2022-11-14 Last updated: 2024-06-11Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Book of abstracts

Authority records

Agebjörn, Anders

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Agebjörn, Anders
By organisation
Department of Culture, Languages and Media (KSM)
General Language Studies and Linguistics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 188 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf