The Role of Persian L1 and English L2 on the Acquisition of French L3 Syllable Structure

The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of two consonant coda clusters of first language Persian, second language English and third language French in the acquisition of French syllable structure when learners have achieved different levels of L2 proficiency.The following hypotheses are investigated in this study: (1) the L2 Status Factor (Rothman and Amaro, 2010) proposing that L2 impedes transfer from L1 into L3 , (2) the Cumulative Enhancement Model (Flynn et al. 2004) proposing selective transfer from the previously learned languages, (3) the Full Transfer/ Full Access Hypothesis (Håkansson, Pienemann and Sayheli, 2002), suggesting that the Universal Grammar (i.e. UG) is available in acquiring the succeeding languages.(4)Typological Primacy Model (Rothman, 2010) that believe in the similarities between the L3 and the previous languages determine the transfer into L3.To carry out the study, 30 Persian L3 French candidates at Tehran University who participated at Oxford Placement Test and French Placement Test were selected. In addition, two types of tasks were prepared to measure the L3 learners. The data analysis was carried out by one-way ANOVA as well as Mixed between-within subjects ANOVA. The results of the study proved ‘Full access/ Full transfer’ and TPM hypotheses.