Interlanguage- the learner’s language
The term:
- Was first coined and developer by Larry Selinger. It is used to refer to both the internal system that a learner has constructed at a single point in time and the series of interconnected systems that characterize the learners’ progress over time.
- Brown: second language learners tend to go through a systematic or quasi-systematic developmental process as they progress to full competence in the target language. Successful interlanguage development is partially a result of utilizing feedback from others.
3 major characteristics of IL:
- permeable: is open to corrections, it’s not a fixed system, it develops
- dynamic: constantly changes
- systematic: each IL is rule-based and predictable
5 cognitive processes involved in IL:
- language transfer: some items, rules can be transferred to production of L2
- transfer of training: language teaching creates IL rules that are not of the L2 and which result in the way the learners were taught
- strategies of 2nd language learning
- communicative strategies
- Overgeneralization of L2 material
Stages in IL development:
- Random errors stage: not systematic, ss make errors, guess
- emergent stage: systematic structures begin to emerge, ss are aware of language
- systematic stage: ss are fully aware, they profit from feedback
-stabilization stage: mastery of language, no feedback needed, self-correction
Fossilization:
A step in development. A rule becomes fixed too early, ss don’t develop it. Backsliding (a type of fossilization)- return to the previous stage, form. Use when ss under pressure or anxiety appears.
Interligual and intralingual transfer
- interlingual: L1 and L2 (source of erroers)
- intralingual: within a language (is reffered to as overgeneralization)
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