Crossed in Translation
Cross-linguistic transfer, native language interference, and interlanguage errors are some of the terms for referring to the concept that users of particular languages have characteristic production patterns when using a second language. Cross-linguistic Influence (CLI) refers to the concept that language learners will rely on experience from their L1 to compensate for weaknesses in their target language. All native language analyses rely on the theories central to CLI: That a person’s L1 is their strongest and so they will rely on that language’s structure to compensate for weaknesses in their L2. When the L1 and L2 have different language structures, the resulting language may contain cross-linguistic transfers. To use a metaphor: Those cross-linguistic transfers are as if a target language’s skin is stretched over the native language’s skeleton. The message may still be understood, but the delivery is unnaturally forced; the degree of unnatural depending on the differences of skin