Cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition: implications for the organization of the multilingual mental lexicon

This paper aims examines the influence of two previously known languages on third language oral production. Specifically, it focuses on cross-linguistic influence by comparing the same group of learners at two different times in their acquisition process, in their fourth and sixth year of primary school. Subjects were 20 learners of English as a third language who had received instruction in English from the age of four and were bilingual in Basque and Spanish. All the subjects were asked to tell the frog story in English and all cases of interactional strategies, code-switching and transfer were analysed so as to examine the development of cross-linguistic influence in third language acquisition. This influence is discussed as related to the organization of the multilingual mental lexicon.