This study aims to extend statistical learning (SL) research to multilinguals and provide an insight into what could facilitate word segmentation. We studied how the number of cues available in the input as well as the number of languages spoken influence SL and word segmentation. We used two SL tasks: one involving the tracking of transitional…

Research on linguistic variation suggests that usage patterns are deeply embedded in native and non-native speakers' knowledge of grammar. This study explores the transfer of these variable sociolinguistic patterns at the initial stages of third language acquisition. We elicited narratives in Portuguese from two mirror-image groups of sequential…

This paper proposes the existence of a cognitive process by which multilinguals who incorporate nontarget lexical items from one non-native language into another may (1) come to identify the lexical item transferred from a source to a guest system as belonging to the guest system and (2) fail to recognise the source of their knowledge in the…

The present study examines the possible effects of bilinguality on third language learning among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners with a focus on reading comprehension proficiency achievement. This study is a longitudinal survey of EFL learners in Urmia University in Azerbaijan, Iran, during 2002-2004. It compared 56 Turkish-Persian…