Abstract :
L1 interference plays a major role in second language acquisition, as evidenced by empirical studies (Kellerman
& Sharwood Smith, 1986). The interference could result from a learnerʹs conscious or unconscious judgment that
some linguistic features in L1 and L2 are similar (Odlin, 1989), particularly in phonology (MacKain, Best, &
Strange, 1981). This paper reports on two experiments using Elicited Imitation and Reading Tasks to investigate
whether L1, Cairene Arabic prosodic strategy of epenthesis to break up consonant clusters is transferred to the
participantsʹ English output. Results of Experiment A showed that epenthesis took place more in reading than in
repetition, as tested by the Elicited Imitation and Reading Tasks. Mimicking was suspected to be behind the
results. To control for mimicking, a second experiment (Experiment B) was conducted following the same
design, but with the addition of a familiarity task to ensure that the participants knew and understood the words
of an utterance and did not just mimic them. Results of Experiment B showed that epenthesis instances were the
same in repetition as in reading. Epenthesis of a vowel to break consonant clusters suggests that participants of
the study reconstructed the utterances based not only on how English words are stored in their mental
representation, but also on Cairene Arabic syllable structure rules. This study, through the usage of Elicited
Imitation Task, is able to tap into L2 Arabic speaking learners’ auditory mental representation of L2 input and
demonstrate the influence of L1 transfer.
