Which term describes the negative influence of one language while learning another?

• A. Interference
• B. Acquisition
• C. Cotext
• D. Conversion

Answer: (A)

Interference describes the negative influence of your first language on learning a second language. When you start constructing sentences in the new language, habits from your L1—grammar, word order, or vocabulary choices—can creep in and cause mistakes. For example, saying “I have 20 years” because that structure exists in your L1, even though in English we say “I am 20 years old,” shows this transfer. This is why interference is also called negative transfer—it gets in the way of accurate production during the early stages and tends to diminish with more exposure, feedback, and practice. Acquisition refers to language learning as a whole and doesn’t specifically describe cross-language influence. Co-text and conversion aren’t terms used to describe this cross-language effect.