Crosslinguistic Influence as an Outcome of Arabic-French Bilingualism among Algerian Learners of English at the Intensive Language Teaching Centre, Tlemcen University

Abstract

This research aimed to scrutinise, in the light of models in the field of third language acquisition, the impact of Arabic-French bilingualism and crosslinguistic influence on learning English as a third language among Algerian learners. It also sought to determine the factors that may motivate the occurrence of crosslinguistic influence from one of the background languages. To achieve such objectives, data were collected from Arabic-French bilingual learners of English at the intensive language teaching centre at the University of Tlemcen, using a triangulation of research tools; namely questionnaires, test, and semi-structured interviews. Results indicated that bilingualism affects learning English both positively and negatively as participants reported their recourse to the shared similarities between French and English to understand English, but were at the same time faced with the issue of negative crosslinguistic influence from both Arabic and French. In addition, both proficiency level in English and the typological similarities between French and English proved to be the main factors leading to the occurrence of crosslinguistic influence.