Testing the Validity of Crosslinguistic Influence in EFL Learning

This study questions the validity of Crosslinguistic Influence (CLI) in EFL Learning. A ten-minute grammaticality judgement test involving resumptive pronouns in English relative clauses was given to 15 female subjects. The research results, which were analysed in terns of language transfer and universalist arguments, support the existence of a universal process that guides L2 learning, and some common developmental patterns between the two processes of L1 and L2 learning. Hence, the universalist view should be given at least equal Weight as the CLI approach.