Who Transfers More... and What? Cross-linguistic Influence in Relation to School Grade and Language Dominance in EFL

Cross-linguistic influence (CLI) is receiving increasing attention in multilingual learners (Cenoz et al., 2001). Research with bilingual learners has analysed CLI in relation to language dominance (see, for instance, Hulk & Muller, 2000; Yip & Stephen, 2000) and to language dominance and grade in school settings (Cenoz, 2003; Lasagabaster, 2003a; Sanz, 2000). The aim of this study is threefold: (a) to analyse the relationship between CLI and grade; (b) to investigate whether learners transfer more content words than function words; and (c) to analyse whether language dominance (in Catalan, Spanish or balanced bilingualism) moderates the relationship between CLI and grade. We examine CLI as measured through the use of borrowings and lexical inventions of EFL bilingual Catalan-Spanish learners (n = 474) ranging from grades 5 to 12 in a writing task. The analyses of variance lead us to conclude that (a) learners at higher grades use fewer borrowings and lexical inventions; the differences are statistically significant for borrowings; (b) learners transfer similar proportions of content words and function words; (c) Spanish-dominant learners behave differently from balanced bilinguals and Catalan-dominant learners both in the use of borrowings and lexical inventions. For borrowings, the differences between the groups are significant for grade.