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COPYRIGHT 2005 Adam Mickiewicz University Press
ABSTRACT
Multilingualism is an increasingly common phenomenon in today's world as the number of people able to speak and/or understand more than one foreign language is growing. Consequently, many linguists, formerly preoccupied with bilinguals, now attempt to investigate multilingual minds. Many experiments have been carried out in order to determine patterns in which languages known to the individual are stored in the mind. In the course of psycholinguistic research linguists have observed a phenomenon known as cross-linguistic influence (or transfer), i.e. interaction of all languages known to the individual in his or her mind. Moreover, the researchers have identified a set of factors which exert influence on the process of transfer. The identified factors are psychotypological distance of the involved languages, special status of the second language (L2 status), recency of use of the languages, context of interaction and proficiency in all the languages known to a multilingual speaker. The aim of this paper is to report and discuss an experiment carried out in order to examine the importance of cross-linguistic influence and its factors in the performance of a group of Polish learners of English and German.
1. Introduction
Many prominent linguists (e.g. Dewaele 1998; Hufeisen 1993; Stedje 1976; Williams and Hammarberg 1998) have conducted studies in which they analysed language performance of multilingual speakers and found support for cross-linguistic influence (or transfer), i.e. the interaction of languages in one mind. In the course of research a set of factors affecting transfer was identified. These include psychotypological distance of the involved languages, special status of the second language (L2 status), recency of use of the languages, context of interaction and proficiency in all the languages known to a trilingual speaker.
One of the strongest factors which influences transfer in third language acquisition (henceforth TLA) is typological distance of the involved languages. As was found in empirical studies conducted, among others, by Singleton (1987, as quoted in Singleton 2001), the general tendency for the speakers is to borrow items from languages that are typologically closer. It is essential to note, as Kellerman (1983) claimed, that transfer is determined by the speaker's subjective perception of the linguistic distance (similarity) between the languages known to him/her. For this phenomenon Kellerman coined the term psychotypology. For him it is psychotypology that decides upon the source language in the process of transfer.
Another factor identified by linguists as affecting transfer is the so called foreign language effect (Meisel 1983, as quoted in Cenoz 2001) or L2 status (Hammarberg 2001). It has been observed in many studies that learners tend to transfer more from their L2 rather than from their native language (e.g. De Angelis and Selinker 2001; Williams and Hammarberg 1998).
Another two conditioning factors in transfer are the learner's proficiency in his/her languages and the recency effect. Bilinguals transfer more from their L1 in the earlier stages of second language acquisition (Poulisse 1990, as quoted in Cenoz 2001). L1 influence decreases with the increase in their target language proficiency. Similarly, trilinguals transfer more when they are less proficient in their foreign languages (Cenoz 1998, as quoted in Cenoz 2001). As far as the recency effect (a tendency to transfer more from the foreign language actively used by the speaker) is concerned, it was proven a significant factor e.g. in Hammarberg's (2001) study where his informant transferred more from the foreign language she most recently used.
Related to recency is the length of exposure to the languages, another factor that affects transfer in TLA. One of the studies in which the influence of the length of exposure was observed was reported in Stedje (1976). She noticed in her experiment that Finnish students learning German (their L3) in Sweden exhibited more semantic, grammatical and phonological influence from Swedish (their L2)...
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