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Low proficiency does not mean ab initio: A methodological footnote for linguistic transfer studies

Low proficiency does not mean ab initio: A methodological footnote for linguistic transfer studies
Low proficiency does not mean ab initio: A methodological footnote for linguistic transfer studies
The goal of this brief article is to highlight a specific methodological consideration pertaining to the examination of linguistic transfer in sequential language acquisition: When and how can transfer be meaningfully disentangled from issues pertaining to developmental trajectories of the target language? While this methodological issue is relevant for all transfer studies irrespective of learner type or linguistic domain of inquiry, herein we focus on a set of third language acquisition data. We examine the domain of negative quantifiers nobody/nothing and negative polarity items anybody/anything by Catalan-Spanish early bilinguals learning English as the L3 in adulthood. We offer two group analyses. The first is the superset of low beginner proficiency speakers (all participants taking part in a specially designed English course) and then a subset group (only those who were true ab initio L3 learners—that is, with no previous study of English). The analyses combine to show that exposure matters beyond proficiency—even when proficiency is held constant at very low levels, low proficiency L3 learners who have had some instruction/exposure to an L3 pattern differently from truly ab initio L3 learners. We discuss how this reality complicates isolating L3 transfer proper from effects of L3 development/acquisition and thus, by extension, to all cases of transfer such as adult and child L2.
1048-9223
1-10
Puig-Mayenco, Eloi
db808aca-7d03-4584-bfff-c908b86e8bfe
Rothman, Jason
f111b6cb-c90b-479d-a82a-57ad06f4dcfa
Puig-Mayenco, Eloi
db808aca-7d03-4584-bfff-c908b86e8bfe
Rothman, Jason
f111b6cb-c90b-479d-a82a-57ad06f4dcfa

Puig-Mayenco, Eloi and Rothman, Jason (2019) Low proficiency does not mean ab initio: A methodological footnote for linguistic transfer studies. Language Acquisition, 1-10. (doi:10.1080/10489223.2019.1677668).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The goal of this brief article is to highlight a specific methodological consideration pertaining to the examination of linguistic transfer in sequential language acquisition: When and how can transfer be meaningfully disentangled from issues pertaining to developmental trajectories of the target language? While this methodological issue is relevant for all transfer studies irrespective of learner type or linguistic domain of inquiry, herein we focus on a set of third language acquisition data. We examine the domain of negative quantifiers nobody/nothing and negative polarity items anybody/anything by Catalan-Spanish early bilinguals learning English as the L3 in adulthood. We offer two group analyses. The first is the superset of low beginner proficiency speakers (all participants taking part in a specially designed English course) and then a subset group (only those who were true ab initio L3 learners—that is, with no previous study of English). The analyses combine to show that exposure matters beyond proficiency—even when proficiency is held constant at very low levels, low proficiency L3 learners who have had some instruction/exposure to an L3 pattern differently from truly ab initio L3 learners. We discuss how this reality complicates isolating L3 transfer proper from effects of L3 development/acquisition and thus, by extension, to all cases of transfer such as adult and child L2.

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Accepted/In Press date: 21 June 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 17 October 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 435663
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/435663
ISSN: 1048-9223
PURE UUID: 84b1b678-be07-4551-aeea-825873872ea6

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Date deposited: 18 Nov 2019 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 05:02

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Author: Eloi Puig-Mayenco
Author: Jason Rothman

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