engleski

'Some of the things multilingual users do (or don't do)'

It has been widely acknowledged that multilingual users activate their previously acquired linguistic knowledge in L3 production. However, the relationship between the level of activation of previously acquired languages and linguistic awareness in multilingual users calls for further research. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between linguistic awareness in multilinguals and different patterns of recourse to previously acquired languages identified in their L3 production. The data examined here come from an oral translation task from Croatian into Italian by 10 Croatian university students majoring in English and Italian at the University of Zagreb. The level of proficiency in both non-native languages was measured through a picture description task, and the participants were homogeneous in terms of the age of onset, order of acquisition, and exposure to the two non-native languages. In the analysis of oral production, we identified several lexical items that were particularly problematic for the participants and which were at the same time identified as potential instances of cross-lexical consultations. In order to gauge the levels of linguistic (both meta-linguistic and cross-linguistic) awareness, a stimulated recall interview was performed with each participant. The participants’ oral production on the translation task was transcribed, and they were asked to comment on their production and to try to make corrections if they thought any were necessary. The results did not provide evidence of a direct relationship between the patterns of recourse to previously acquired languages and the levels of linguistic awareness, but it showed that different levels of conscious cognitive control were involved in the lexical search across native and non-native languages.

stimulated recall, linguistic awareness, L3

nije evidentirano