Lexical crosslinguistic influence in Basque-Spanish bilinguals’ English (L3) writing
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 25(2) : 491-501 (2019)
Abstract
The present research examines the effects of a number of factors on
crosslinguistic influence (CLI) in Basque-Spanish bilinguals’ third language
(L3) writing. The main focus is on the levels of adapted and non-adapted
loan words as illustrative of CLI. A quantitative analysis explores the
impact of typology and proficiency in the target and the sourcelanguages.
Language proficiency was evaluated in 399 compositions, 133
written in each language (Basque, Spanish and English). The adapted and
non-adapted loan words found in English compositions were classified
according to their source-language, word category, word class and type/
token categories. The results pointed at language typology as the main
predictor of the source-language of CLI. Additionally, a linear association
was detected between the learners’ degree of proficiency in the target
language and the frequency of the CLI instances or adapted and nonadapted
loan words. The overall results show that bilingual students use
their entire linguistic repertoire to write in their third language (English).