According to new research, people who speak more than two languages are more prone to utilize terms incorrectly from the language in which they are least fluent.
The study, directed by Dr. Angela de Bruin of the Psychology Department, examined how trilinguals’ other languages “interfered” with their use of their second language.
Dr. de Bruin said, “Intuitively, you would expect these intrusions to mostly come from your most proficient language, for example the first language you grew up speaking from birth. However, our recent research shows that when having to use a less proficient second language, multilinguals actually experience more interference from another less proficient third language than from their native tongue.”
Interference
The study, conducted at the University of York and the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, looked at two groups of trilinguals: Spanish-Basque-English trilinguals in the Basque Country and English-French-Spanish trilinguals in the U.K.
Participants were asked to name pictures in their three languages in response to a cue. For instance, they would have to pronounce “manzana” if they saw a picture of a “apple” with the Spanish flag.
This study shows that just knowing words in a language might not be enough to ensure fluent communication. It is also crucial to retrieve the words in the intended language at the appropriate moment and to avoid interference from the other language(s). Trilinguals might have less experience with, or might be worse at, suppressing a less proficient language and might therefore experience more interference from that language.
Dr. Angela de Bruin
To make the task challenging, these images were shown to the participants for a brief period of time. When trilinguals had to use their second language, the team then evaluated which language interfered more.
Participants more frequently mistakenly employed their third language than their first language in both groups of trilinguals, demonstrating that this interference between non-native languages can be seen in diverse trilingual groups.
Suppressed words
The research team also studied why this might be the case. They examined individuals’ ability to use their second language while suppressing words from the other languages in two additional tests. They found that the trilinguals suppressed words in their first language more than in their third.
Dr. de Bruin says, “This could explain why these trilinguals experienced more interference from their less proficient third language: they might have suppressed that language less, leading to them accidentally using that language instead.”
A large percentage of people can communicate in more than one language, and about a quarter of Europeans may even speak three or more.
Role and influence
The research conducted by Dr. de Bruin is based on personal experience. She says, “When I tried to speak German in Germany after moving to Spain I was trying to buy a bus ticket and I noticed I almost uncontrollably switched between German and Spanish and inserted Spanish words like ‘por favor’ without wanting to. Although my native language Dutch is very similar to German, this interference was not coming from Dutch but rather from Spanish, a language I was far less fluent in.”
She concludes, “This study shows that just knowing words in a language might not be enough to ensure fluent communication. It is also crucial to retrieve the words in the intended language at the appropriate moment and to avoid interference from the other language(s). Trilinguals might have less experience with, or might be worse at, suppressing a less proficient language and might therefore experience more interference from that language.”
“Interestingly, whilst we often focus on the role and influence of a first language, our study highlights the importance of understanding how languages that are acquired later in childhood or adolescence can influence each other. Fluent communication in those languages might not just require a certain level of knowledge in that language but also efficient control over the other languages.”
The study is published in the Journal of Memory and Language.
