The influence of orthography on a lexical access task involving L2 (French) and L3 (English) of a multilingual individual: A dynamic systems approach

Abstract

This article presents a case study investigating, bymeans of a DST (Dynamic Systems Theory) perspective, the effects of orthography on L2 (French) – L3 (English) processing during atask of lexical access measuring reaction time. Apart from suggesting the prevalence of grapho-phonic-phonological transfer from L2 intoL3, the results also provide evidence of grapho-phonic-phonological transfer from L3 into L2. Such results are in consonance with the dynamic approach to cognition, enabling the interaction between previous knowledge from L1 and L2 and the knowledge of a new L3.Key words: multilingualism, L2-L3 phonetic-phonological transfer, orthography effects.