The role of linguistic distance in C-Test performance: do lexical and morphosyntactic distance measures explain L2/L3 English proficiency?
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: This study has two main aims: (i) it introduces a new numeric measure to operationalise linguistic distance (LD) based on morphosyntactic differences across languages, and (ii) it tests the applicability of the newly developed measure by investigating the association of lexical and morphosyntactic LD with English proficiency in a linguistically heterogeneous sample of secondary school students (n > 7,900). The students were attending grade nine in Germany and were either native speakers of German, studying English as their second language in school, or were bilingual heritage speakers of one of 22 different languages studying English as their third language. English proficiency was assessed with a C-Test. Based on multilevel linear mixed-effects models, this study shows that both LD measures had a significant negative effect on English C-Test scores while additionally controlling for gender, age, socioeconomic status, and cognitive abilities. We therefore argue that morphosyntactic LD adds, in addition to the rather well-established lexical LD, to explaining L2/L3 language acquisition and has the potential to further our understanding of foreign language acquisition in multilingual contexts. These findings can have important pedagogical implications.
Authors: Eliane Lorenz, Nils Jaekel, Julia Jaekel
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7172283538