The effects of L1 Russian on L2 English on receptive and expressive word order, article judgment and use and copula 'be' judgment and use

There is conflicting evidence regarding age of onset of acquisition of a second language (L2) and the ability to attain a native-like grammar. There is also limited research on achieving a native like grammar in an L2 and its relation to exposure to an L2 beyond just a few years. Therefore, the current study tested Russian-English bilinguals: early bilinguals who learned L2 (English) before the age of 6, and late bilinguals who learned L2 (English) after the age of 17. The goal of this study was to examine whether there is a difference between groups, and how they compared to monolinguals in terms of expressive and receptive articles, word order, and the copula 'be'. A total of 20 participants completed two tasks: a grammaticality judgment task and an expressive fill in the blank/complete sentence task. Findings indicate significant differences in both receptive and expressive tasks between early bilinguals and monolinguals, late bilinguals and monolinguals, as well as between early and late bilinguals.