TY - JOUR ID - 622 TI - Cross-Linguistic Transfer or Target Language Proficiency: Writing Performance of Trilinguals vs. Bilinguals in Relation to the Interdependence Hypothesis JO - Journal of English Language Teaching and Learning JA - ELT LA - en SN - 2251-7995 AU - Modir Khamene, Sima AD - Assistant professor of university of Urmia Y1 - 2012 PY - 2012 VL - 3 IS - 7 SP - 115 EP - 143 KW - : bilingual KW - interdependence hypothesis KW - transfer KW - trilingual DO - N2 - This study explored the nature of transfer among bilingual vs. trilinguals with varying levels of competence in English and their previous languages. The hypotheses were tested in writing tasks designed for 75 high (N= 35) vs. intermediate (N=40) proficient EFL learners with Turkish, Persian, English and Persian, English linguistic backgrounds. Qualitative data were also collected through some think aloud procedures. The findings revealed: 1) a significantly positive relationship between writing skills of the languages known by participants; 2) trilinguals performed significantly better than bilinguals in English writing tasks, although, qualitative data revealed that both groups used the same language, i.e. Persian, as the most frequently referred language and; 3) the higher-level writers tended to present less cross-linguistic influence than the lower level writers. The results are discussed in relation to different patterns of linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis and implications for language teaching in multilingual contexts. UR - https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_622.html L1 - https://elt.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_622_c219238aa9e64c6983f6e01699f55329.pdf ER -