If L1 and L2 are related, the student will learn L2 faster, for example with cognates.

• A. First-language Background
• B. Motivation
• C. Language Transfer
• D. Overgeneralization

Answer: (C)

When L1 and L2 are related, learners can reuse knowledge from their native language to learn the new language more quickly. This positive language transfer is especially evident with cognates—words that look and mean the same in both languages—so a student can recognize a new L2 word and recall its meaning faster. The brain maps these familiar forms onto existing representations, reducing effort and speeding up vocabulary and even some structure learning. Motivation and other factors influence overall effort and persistence, but the mechanism described here—the cross-language influence that speeds learning when languages are related—is language transfer. Overgeneralization describes applying a rule too broadly, and first-language background is a broader factor, not the specific process being described.