The Acquisition of French (L3) Orthography by Persian (L1) Speakers Learning English (L2)

Learning the third language is one of the issues that has attracted much attention in recent years. In this research the influence of Persian language as a mother tongue and English as a second language on the correct orthography of French as a third language is studied. This study investigates three hypotheses of transfer, L1 Transfer Hypothesis, L2 Status Factor, and Cumulative Enhancement Model. We examined the role of voice and text in correct orthography of the third language. This study accounts for the acquisition of coda consonant clusters of French by Persian EFL learners. Twenty-two participants of two levels of pre and upper-intermediate of English proficiency and beginner level French proficiency were selected. In this study, first we measured the level of learners English knowledge by the Oxford Quick Placement Test and then we studied the effectiveness of the first and second languages on the third language learning by the Production test, and the Grammatically Judgment Test. Results of the transfer effect provided a major role for the ‘CEM’. The overall results of the two groups’ performance were not significant which in turn reflected the fact that L2 proficiency had no effect on the acquisition of French orthography.

Keywords:

L3 Orthography , Cumulative Enhancement Model , L2 Status Factor Hypothesis , L1 Status Factor Hypothesis , syllable structure