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Language of instruction affects language interference in the third language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2021

Brendan Tomoschuk ,
Wouter Duyck ,
Robert J. Hartsuiker Open the ORCID record for Robert J. Hartsuiker [Opens in a new window] ,
Victor S. Ferreira  and
Tamar H. Gollan
Brendan Tomoschuk*
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
Wouter Duyck
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Robert J. Hartsuiker
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Victor S. Ferreira
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
Tamar H. Gollan
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, United States
*
Address for correspondence: Brendan Tomoschuk, E-mail: btomoschuk@ucsd.edu
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Abstract

Applied linguistic work claims that multilinguals’ non-native languages interfere with one another based on similarities in cognitive factors like proficiency or age of acquisition. Two experiments explored how trilinguals regulate control of native- and non-native-language words. Experiment 1 tested 46 Dutch–English–French trilinguals in a monitoring task. Participants decided if phonemes were present in the target language name of a picture, phonemes of non-target language translations resulted in longer response times and more false alarms compared to phonemes not present in any translation (Colomé, 2001). The second language (English) interfered more than the first (Dutch) when trilinguals monitored in their third language (French). In Experiment 2, 95 bilinguals learned an artificial language to explore the possibility that the language from which a bilingual learns a third language provides practice managing known-language interference. Language of instruction modulated results, suggesting that learning conditions may reduce interference effects previously attributed to cognitive factors.

Keywords

bilingualismforeign language effectL2 Status Factorphoneme monitoringlanguage learning
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , August 2021 , pp. 707 - 718
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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