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Cross-LINGUISTIC INFLUENCES language difficulty ranking’, based on the time an English speaker needs to learn different languages. The ‘easiest’ languages are those that are related to English (where positive transfer can operate), and the most difficult" are those that are genetically, geographically, culturally and typologically the most distant. Ihus, the easiest languages (to be learnt in 575—600 hours) are the following: Afrikaans Norwegian Danish Portuguese Dutch Romanian French Spanish Italian Swedish German is somewhat more difficult. It is in the second category. Ihe most difficult languages are in Category 5, reguiring 2200 hours to learn: Arabic Cantonese (Chinese) Mandarin (Chinese) Japanese Korean Hungarian, along with Finnish, the Slavic languages and many others, is in Category 4, reguiring 1100 hours. 2.4.3 Transferability A key concept developed by the theory of cross-linguistic influences, particularly in the area of lexical acguisition, is the concept of transferability. Classical CA held that linguistic contrasts will inevitably lead to interference. Studies on cross-linguistic influences claim that transfer depends, to a large extent, on the transferability of the linguistic item or pattern to be acguired. What is transferability? According to Kellerman (1983), learners may be inclined to transfer structural patterns or items from L1 into L2 on the basis of markedness and perceived distance between the two languages. It is transferability that governs most cross-linguistic processes, manifesting itself in positive or negative transfer, avoidance of certain structures, inhibition of positive transfer or the use of L1-based strategies. Markedness means that a form, meaning or concept is irregular, unusual or less basic compared to a regular, usual or central form, meaning or concept. A simple example is he and she: throughout history it was the masculine form that was regarded as unmarked, and the feminine form was marked. (This has > https://effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty/. Last accessed 03.11.2020. 29 «
