ABSTRACT The study examines learners’ perceptions of similarities and differences in morphological and syntactic features between Acehnese, Indonesian, and English. It explores the interplay between typology and psychotypology as determinative factors of cross‐linguistic influence in L3 acquisition, leading to the activation of background languages in L3 English writing. A descriptive qualitative method was employed to address the research questions. Participants were students in the English department of a public university in Indonesia. Data was collected using open‐ended questionnaires, students’ essays, and semi‐structured interviews. Findings suggest that most students perceived Acehnese and Indonesian as distant from English; their perceptions are relevant to the actual language typology. However, analysis of the essays indicated some interference errors. Learners relied on Indonesian to fill the linguistic gaps in their English production despite their awareness of the language distance.
Fadhilah Fadhilah (Thu,) studied this question.