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

Kim, Soojin; Ahn, Heedon; Lim, Jung Hyun

doi:10.30961/lr.2025.61.2.193

Lang. Res. 61(2):193-212

pISSN: 0254-4474, eISSN: 2586-7113

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30961/lr.2025.61.2.193

Article

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

Soojin Kim¹, Heedon Ahn¹, Jung Hyun Lim¹^,^†

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹Konkuk University

^†Corresponding author: Research Professor Research Institute for Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Konkuk University 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 05029, Korea, E-mail: junghlim@konkuk.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2025 Language Education Institute, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jun 30, 2025 ; Revised: Jul 29, 2025 ; Accepted: Aug 11, 2025

Published Online: Aug 31, 2025

ABSTRACT

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.

Keywords: third language acquisition (TLA); reverse/backward transfer; reflexive pronouns; crosslinguistic influence; Korean-English-Chinese trilinguals

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