The L3 Polish Lateral in Unbalanced Bilinguals: The Roles of L3 Proficiency and Background Languages

Previous research points to a major role of L3 proficiency in L3 acquisition whereas language dominance and cognate status in bilinguals remain under-researched. The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of L3 proficiency, language dominance and cognate status on the production of the L3 Polish lateral. The dominance of Ukrainian over Russian was assessed with the use of an adapted version of the Bilingual Language Profile. Proficiency in Polish was gauged by means of a standardized placement test. The stimuli included tokens requiring a clear realization with the Polish lateral divided into four conditions depending on its production in cognates from Ukrainian/Russian. The results revealed that higher L3 proficiency was associated with an increase in target-like lateral productions in L3 Polish. Language dominance accounted for the less typical lateral pronunciations with a tendency to produce more labiovelar approximants by more Ukrainian-dominant speakers and fewer palatalized laterals by more balanced Ukrainian-Russian speakers. A similar lateral pronunciation in the cognates of both background languages influenced lateral production in the L3. Different lateral pronunciations in the cognates of the background languages had an effect on the more Ukrainian-dominant speakers who had a greater tendency to rely on the L1 Ukrainian pronunciation while producing L3 Polish.