The impact of concurrent multilingual acquisition on the mastery of L2 English and L3 French articles among native Swahili speakers in Tanzania

The study investigated the impact of simultaneous acquisition of multiple languages on using L2 English and L3 French articles. With the premise that multilingual acquisition presents increased complexity, the research compared 30 learners solely focused on L2 English with 30 learners simultaneously learning L2 English and L3 French. The participants, Tanzanian L1 Swahili speakers, were Form Two secondary school students learning English as a subject and using it as a medium of instruction. The L3 French group was concurrently learning L2 English and L3 French. Participants were selected using a biographical data questionnaire and grammar placement test. Data collection involved elicitation tests in both English and French, with the L3 French group undertaking both versions. Quantitative analysis was conducted using SPSS. Results demonstrated that individuals learning English alone exhibited higher accuracy in using L2 English articles than those concurrently learning English and French. However, those concurrently learning L2 English and L3 French displayed similar performance in employing L2 English and L3 French articles. Evidence suggested a negative transfer from the participants’ native language (L1 Swahili) to their second language (L2 English). These findings provide empirical support for the complexity of multilingual acquisition. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.