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Article published In: CLIL and Bilingual Education in the Netherlands
Edited by Tessa Mearns and Rick de Graaff
[Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics 7:2] 2018
► pp. 227–245

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The influence of L2 English on L3 French acquisition in bilingual education

 | University of Amsterdam
 | University of Amsterdam
 | University of Amsterdam
Published online: 10 January 2019
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/dujal.18006.sta
Abstract
In the present paper, we compare L2 English influence on French third language acquisition (L3A) in first-year and third-year bilingual stream secondary school students and in third-year mainstream secondary school students by means of a gap-filling task. We found that the influence of L2 English on French L3A increases from first- to third-year bilingual students, which is not the case in the mainstream group. This raises the question if L2 influence on L3A in bilingual education is the result of the increased L2 exposure or of a higher L2 proficiency, factors that both have been claimed to play a role in L3A-research (Hammarberg, B. (2001). Roles of L1 and L2 in L3 production and acquisition. In J. Cenoz, B. Hufeisen, & U. Jessner (Eds.), Cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 21–41). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Tremblay, M.-C. (2006). Cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition: The role of L2 proficiency and L2 exposure. Cahiers Linguistiques d’Ottawa/Ottawa Papers in Linguistics, 341, 109–119.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Jaensch, C. (2009). L3 acquisition of the German determiner phrase: The role of L1 Japanese and L2 English. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The results of this study show that there is no individual correlation between L2 English proficiency and influence of English in L3 French learning. Therefore, we suggest that it is L2 exposure rather than L2 proficiency that leads to more influence of the L2 in L3 French.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Bilingual education and further language learning
    • 2.2The L2 in L3 learning: L2 exposure vs L2 proficiency
  • 3.Design of this study
    • 3.1Research questions
    • 3.2Finite verb placement in Dutch, English and French
    • 3.3Context and participants
    • 3.4Experiments
      • 3.4.1The French GFT
      • 3.4.2The L2 proficiency test
    • 3.5Procedure and analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Adv-V word order in French
    • 4.2English proficiency and the use of the English word order in French
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (34)
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