Investigating L3-to-L2 Transfer in Reflexive Pronoun Interpretation: A Study of Korean-English-Chinese Unbalanced Trilinguals

This study investigates the phenomenon of reverse (backward) transfer in third language acquisition (TLA), focusing on whether knowledge of a later-acquired L3 (Chinese) can influence the interpretation of morphosyntactic features in a previously acquired L2 (English). Specifically, the interpretation of reflexive pronouns in English among Korean-English-Chinese (KEC) unbalanced trilinguals was examined using the Truth Value Judgment Task (TVJT). The KEC trilinguals with high L2 proficiency outperformed the KE control group, suggesting a facilitative effect of the L3 Chinese language on L2 English reflexive interpretation. Additionally, the KEC participants exhibited a more stable performance in the short- and long-distance binding conditions. These findings support the view that L3 can exert backward influence under certain linguistic conditions and contribute to ongoing discussions on cross-linguistic interaction in multilinguals. The results are interpreted within the framework of several L3 transfer models. This study fills a gap in TLA literature by providing behavioral evidence of the L3-to-L2 influence, challenging the traditional assumption of unidirectionality in language transfer models.