Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.22210/strjez/50-1/1
THE ROLE OF TYPOLOGY AND FORMAL SIMILARITY IN THIRD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (GERMAN AND SPANISH)
Nikolina Božinović
orcid.org/0000-0003-1413-2832
; Rochester Institute of Technology Croatia
Barbara Perić
orcid.org/0000-0003-2188-6851
; Rochester Institute of Technology Croatia
Abstract
The focus of this study is the role of previously acquired languages in the acquisition of a third language (L3). It is focused on cross-linguistic influences (CLI) in German/Spanish third language acquisition (TLA) by learners with Croatian first language (L1) and English second language (L2). Participants in this study were third-year undergraduate students at Rochester Institute of Technology’s subsidiary in Croatia (RIT Croatia). All the participants had exclusively Croatian as L1, English as L2, and were learning German and Spanish as L3 at the time of the study. The present study investigates the relationship between language typology and formal similarity and transfer/error production, since many studies have demonstrated that typology plays a determining role in cross-linguistic transfer (Cenoz, Hufeisen & Jessner 2001; Hammarberg 2001; Rothman 2010). There are various areas of similarity and dissimilarity between Croatian, English, German, and Spanish. A significant portion of English vocabulary comes from Romance and Latinate sources. Due to these facts, we argue that the strongest L2 (English) influence will be found in the area of lexicon. On the other hand, Croatian, German, and Spanish are more similar in the area of morphology, due to the fact that these languages have a higher degree of inflection than English. Accordingly, we argue that the strongest L1 (Croatian) influence will be found in the area of morphology. The results of this research confirmed our initial hypothesis that the type of transfer episodes observed may be related to language typology and formal similarity between specific features of languages. Similarities at the level of lexis and grammar between L2 English and L3 German and Spanish can influence the acquisition process of German and Spanish.
Keywords
third language acquisition; cross-linguistic influences; language typology; formal similarity
Hrčak ID:
260917
URI
Publication date:
20.7.2021.
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