Cross-Linguistic Influences between Czech, French, and Spanish in the Acquisition of Grammatical Gender of Nouns

This paper synthesizes findings from ongoing research on interlinguistic and intralinguistic influences in the grammatical gender assignment of nouns of different etymologies among learners of French and Spanish. The study examines the results of learners from typologically diverse L1 backgrounds: Czech (Slavic, three-gender system), French (Romance, two-gender), and Spanish (Romance, two-gender). Full results will be available at the time of presentation.

Theoretical Background

The study is grounded in the framework of language transfer or cross-linguistic influence (e.g., Odlin, 2003), addressing both interlinguistic transfer (the positive and negative effects of a learner’s L1 or other known languages on L2/LX acquisition) and intralinguistic transfer (influences within the L2/LX arising from the teaching-learning process). Typological differences between the languages highlight the acquisition challenges faced by learners.

Research Questions

The study aims to answer the following questions: What characteristic errors do L1 Czech, French, and Spanish speakers make in grammatical gender assignment when they learn a Romance L2/L3, and what are the sources of these errors (transfer-related or other)? Which linguistic phenomena are acquired more easily, and why? Does grammatical gender influence accuracy—do learners perform better with masculine or feminine nouns?

Methodology

The experimental task consists of an online multiple-choice questionnaire in French and Spanish, including:

• 4 sociolinguistic questions: L1, age, school type, and years of foreign language learning.
• 34 test sentences: 15 on grammatical gender of nouns of different etymologies (analysed here), 19 targeting prepositions POUR/PAR and PARA/POR (not discussed here).

Each item of the questionnaire offers a correct answer, an incorrect one, and an “I don’t know” option to indicate uncertainty and limit guessing. Tested forms include articles (definite, indefinite), adjectives, and article + adjective combinations.

Participants

Four main learner groups from secondary and, particularly, higher education, are analysed, based on L1 and target L2/L3:

G1) Spanish L1 learning French L2/L3

G2) French L1 learning Spanish L2/L3

G3) Czech L1 learning French L2/L3

G4) Czech L1 learning Spanish L2/L3

Each group is further divided into two subgroups by experience:

SG-A) 6 months to 5 years of learning French/Spanish (likely L3)

SG-B) 6+ years of learning French/Spanish (likely L2)

Focus of Analysis and Key Findings

Regarding interlinguistic transfers, the study focuses on positive, negative, and no transfer effects, the latter present among Czech L1 learners. The findings indicate that interlinguistic transfer is evident in all groups except for G4, where intralinguistic transfer plays a more prominent role.

The study examines how the morpho-phonological and orthographic forms of tested nouns, particularly noun endings, impact learners' gender assignment, highlighting intralinguistic effects. It addresses morphological gender assignment, based on word form, and syntactic gender assignment, tied to agreement mechanisms. 

The study explores learner performance with elements to be completed: article, adjective, and article + adjective combination (e.g., showing overall better results among SG3B, though exceptions exist, as SG3A outperformed SG3B in adjective-noun agreement). It also examines masculine vs. feminine nouns in gender assignment (e.g., noting an opposite trend depending on experience: SG3A performed better with masculine nouns, SG3B with feminine).

In the broader context, results are compared with prior studies, highlighting the complexity of linguistic influences and factors shaping language acquisition (e.g., White et al., 2004; Sabourin et al., 2006; Jamet, 2009, 2013; Ellis et al., 2012; Alarcón, 2014; Edmonds, 2019; Dedková, 2023).