We present the first application of Native Language Identification (NLI) to nonEnglish data. Motivated by theories of language transfer, NLI is the task of identifying a writer’s native language (L1) based on their writings in a second language (the L2). An NLI system was applied to Chinese learner texts using topicindependent syntactic models to assess their accuracy. We find that models using...

Phonological transfer from the native language is a common problem for non-native speakers that has repeatedly been shown to result in perceptual deficits vis-à-vis native speakers. It was hypothesized, however, that transfer could help, rather than hurt, if it resulted in a beneficial bias. Due to differences in pronunciation norms between Korean and English, Koreans in the U.S. were predicted...

This study examines the role of previously known language in L3 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) object expression acquisition. It investigates the claims of the main models of L3 transfer, the cumulative enhancement model (CEM) (Flynn et al. 2004), the L2 status factor (Bardel and Falk 2007) and the typological proximity model (TPM) (Rothman 2011) in both comprehension and production tasks. It also a...