Cross-linguistic influence in non-native languages: Explaining lexical transfer using language production models

Abstract

The focus of this research is on the nature of lexical cross-linguistic influence (CLI) between non-native languages. Using oral interviews with 157 L1 Italian high-school students studying English and German as non-native languages, the project investigated which kinds of lexis appear to be more susceptible to transfer from German to English and discusses this is in the light of multilingual language production models. The results suggest that CLI is more likely to occur with content words and cognates. It also offers a suggestion that such non-native lexical CLI may be due to non-native languages being tagged as 'foreign' rather than as individual languages. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.