A 12-year-old native Spanish speaker who has studied English as a second language for three years is most likely to do which in casual school conversations?

• A. Use the auxiliary 'have' in place of 'be' in progressive tenses
• B. Use incorrect word order within prepositional phrases
• C. Use conjunctions in place of prepositions
• D. Use multiple negation improperly

Answer: (D)

The main concept being tested is transfer from the first language into English in informal speech, specifically negation patterns. Spanish allows or even expects multiple negatives to reinforce a negative meaning, and this pattern often carries over when Spanish-speaking learners speak English casually. So a 12-year-old native Spanish speaker with a few years of English study is likely to apply that habit in everyday conversation, producing phrases with more than one negative, such as “I don’t have no time.” In standard English, though, a single negation per clause is the norm, especially in formal contexts, so this double-negation tendency stands out as a common early L2 error. The other options describe less typical transfer patterns for a Spanish-speaking learner: misusing have instead of be in progressive forms, misplacing elements within prepositional phrases, or swapping conjunctions for prepositions. While those mistakes can occur, they don’t align as closely with the well-documented influence of Spanish on English negation in casual talk.