The effect of L4 on translation students’ L1/L2 writing scripts

The aim of this study was to determine whether learning how to use certain microparametric aspects – adverbial pronouns – in L4 (French) had an effect on students’ L1/L2 (Catalan) writing scripts. The study was conducted on 427 learners who had Catalan as their L1 or L2, English as an L3, and were studying a translation degree at University. The students were divided into two groups according to whether they were studying French or German as their L4. Altogether 1620 texts produced over four academic years were reviewed. Although both French and Catalan, unlike German, have similar adverbial pronouns, the results of the analysis show that there is no statistically significant difference in the use of adverbial pronouns between the German group and the French group. However, there is some evidence of a more intense use of these pronouns among the Catalan learners in the French group.