The Role of Task Complexity and Dominant Articulatory Routines in the Acquisition of L3 Spanish

Abstract

Many studies in L3 phonetics and phonology have found that language dominance plays an influential role in determining the source of transfer. However, any effect of language dominance is likely dependent on many factors, including task complexity. As complexity increases, learners should be increasingly likely to rely on the more automatic articulatory routines from their dominant language. We tested this hypothesis by examining the production patterns of L1 Mandarin–L2 English–L3 Spanish speakers acquiring the Spanish tap and trill, performing a less complex word-reading task and a more complex sentence reading task. The results of the former were reported in a previous study, revealing that the speakers transferred the L2 English [ɹ] and [ɾ] to some extent when acquiring the Spanish rhotics. We hypothesized that such transfer would be less prevalent in the same speakers performing the sentence reading task. The results revealed some support for the hypothesis. Transfer of L2 [ɾ] decreased in the sentence reading task, as did transfer of L2 [ɾ] (in trill productions). L2 [ɹ] substitutes did not vary with task. The results highlight that transfer from previous languages is partially dependent on task. Future work should establish when and to what extent language dominance influences the source of transfer.