Functional Differences between Persian Monolinguals and Arabic-Persian Bilinguals and its Effect of Substitution in Translation

The researcher aims at comparing functional differences between monolinguals and bilinguals through substitution to investigate the differences in the number of languages. clearly, Persian-speaking monolinguals and Arabic–Persian bilinguals is compared to investigate if linguistic background influences the use of substitution in a third language. A total of 90 male and female participants, comprising Persian monolinguals and Arabic–Persian bilinguals, participated in the research. The participants were administered a substitution-based test, which they conducted within 20 minutes and which was subsequently assessed and rated by three independent raters. The collected data were analyzed to address three research questions concerning differences between monolingual and bilingual learners, as well as potential gender-based variations within each group. The findings explored that Arabic–Persian bilinguals outperformed Persian monolinguals in their knowledge of substitution as a cohesive device in English, suggesting a positive effect of bilingualism on third language acquisition at the discourse level. However, no significant differences were investigated between male and female participants within either the monolingual or bilingual groups. These outcomes underscore the facilitating role of bilingualism in the acquisition of cohesive devices in English and contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between linguistic background and third language learning.