Same Source, Different Outcomes: A Study of Swedish Influence on the Acquisition of English in Finland Terence OdIin Department of Englist), Ohio State University, Coiumbus, USA Scott Jarvis Department of Linguistics, Ohio University. Athens, USA With a Finnish-speaking majority and a Swedish-speaking minority, Finland offers a striking contrast in the kinds of cross-linguistic influence that can occur in the acqui- sition of English in a multilingual setting. While much previous research has looked at the differences between Finnish and Swedish influences, our study compares Swedish influence on the use of English by native speakers of Swedish and by native speakers of Finnish, both positive and negative transfer being evident in the performances. The findings indicate that although both groups show influence from Swedish, the patterns of transfer are by no means identical. Keywords: language transfer, cross-linguistic influence, acquisition of English, Swedish influence Introduction Most people who have paid attention to research on cross-linguistic influence are no doubt aware of problems in equating language transfer (a synonym for such influence) with the influence of one's native language on the acquisition of a second language. For one thing, the designation of second language applies only in some settings: there are many learners in the world who are acquiring a third or even a fourth language. Moreover, in cases where a third language is the target, the influence on the acquisition of a new lan- guage may originate from either the first or the second language. Needless to say, the possible influences of a third or fourth language complicate the study of transfer even more. Yet whatever the complications inherent in the acquisition of languages beyond the second, research on such cases offers promising opportunities for a better understanding of the many dimensions of the phenomenon of cross-linguistic influence. This paper focuses on one such dimension: namely, the influence of one particular source language (in this case, Swedish) on the acquisition of another language (here, English), but where the type of influence varies according to whether the source language is the native language of the learners studied. Cross-linguistic Infiuence in Studies of i\/lultiiingualism Before we discuss the details of our study, it will help to review various factors that previous research has identified as relevant to the study of cross-linguistic influence in multilingual contexts (contexts which we define 1479-0718/04/02 124-18 $20.00/0 © 2004 T, Odlin & S. Jarvis THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OE MULTILINGUALISM VoL 1, No, 2, 2004 123