Interlanguage

Question 1

What is Interlanguage?

Answer 1

Second Language Learner Language or learner’s developing second language knowledge

Question 2

As a system, how does interlanguage function?

Answer 2

A developing system with interim structure, rather than imperfect imitation of the TL

Question 3

What is Fossilisation?

Answer 3

Final stage of Interlanguage Development - Process of freezing of the transition between the L1 and L2

Question 4

What are the reasons for Fossilisation?

Answer 4

Complacency or inability to overcome obstacles to acquire native proficiency in second language

Question 5

What are the characteristics of Interlanguage?

Answer 5

1) Some characteristics influenced by learner’s previous learned language(s)
2) Some characteristics of L2
3) Some characteristics which are general and occur in ALL interlanguage systems

Question 6

What does the study of L2 Learner Language include?

Answer 6

1) Types of Errors made
2) How errors show their TL knowledge & ability to use TL
3) How L2 learners develop Interlanguage
4) Factors influencing Interlanguage

Question 7

What are some purposes of studying Learner Language?

Answer 7

1) Provide deeper understanding of errors that L2 learners make
2) Distinguishing difference from disorder in patients who speak a nonstandard dialect

Question 8

What is Contrastive Analysis (1960s)?

Answer 8

Basis for identifying diff between L1 and L2 and for predicting areas of potential errors

Question 9

Why is CAH problematic?

Answer 9

1) Many errors may just be learners’ attempts to discover structure of the language rather than attempt to transfer patterns of L1
2) Some errors are similar to errors by young L1 learners
3) Errors not always bi-directional
4) Learners have intuitions that certain features are less likely to be transferable

Question 10

When is CAH useful?

Answer 10

Where there is a mismatch between the linguistic communities of the clinician & client

Question 11

What is Error Analysis (1970s)?

Answer 11

Replacement of CA - aims to discover & describe different kind of errors to understand how learners process L2

Question 12

What assumption is EA based on?

Answer 12

L2 learner language is a system in its own right that is rule-governed & predictable

Question 13

What are the Types of Interlanguage Errors?

Answer 13

1) Developmental - similar to errors by children learning L1
2) Overgeneralisation - trying to use a rule in a context where it doesn’t belong
3) Simplification - simplifying or leaving out some elements
4) Misuse of formulaic expns - pragmatically inappropriate
5) Interference - transfer from L1

Question 14

What are the Advantages of EA?

Answer 14

Permits a description of some systematic aspect of learner language

Question 15

What are the constraints of EA?

Answer 15

1) Doesnt give clear insight to what cause learner to do what they do bcos hard to determine source of errors
2) Learners avoid certain features of language which they perceive difficult making the avoidance difficult to observe

Question 16

What are the developmental sequences for L2 learners?

Answer 16

1) Grammatical Morphemes
2) Negation
3) Questions
4) Relative Clauses
5) Reference to Past

Question 17

What are some trends in L2 learner for Grammatical Morphemes?

Answer 17

1) More accurative in using Plural -s than Possesive -s’

2) “ “ “ “ -ing than in using -ed past

Question 18

What is the effect of L1 on Grammatical Morphemes?

Answer 18

There is some effect but not entirely determined by L1

Question 19

What was the findings of Dulay & Burt (1974)?

Answer 19

Speakers of numerous native languages at various ages acquire English morphemes in remarkably similar orders

Question 20

What did Dulay & Burt’s study prove?

Answer 20

There are universal cognitive mechanisms that provide the basis for the child’s organisation of a TL and that it is the L2 system that guides the acquisition process

Question 21

What are the stages for Negation?

Answer 21

1) Using ‘no’ before verb/noun
2) Using ‘don’t’
3) Using ‘are’, ‘is’, and ‘can’ with ‘not’
4) Using auxiliary verbs with ‘not’ that agree with tense, person & number

Question 22

What are the effects of L1 on Negation?

Answer 22

L2 learners from diff language BG behave differently within the stages BUT language acquisition of negative sentences in L2 is nearly identical to L1

Question 23

What are the stages of Forming Questions?

Answer 23

1) Single words/ sentence fragments
2) Declarative word order (x fronting / inversion)
3) Fronting (wh- fronting but x inversion; do-fronting)
4) Inversion in wh- + copula and ‘yes/no’ qns
5) Inversion in wh- qns
6) Complex qns (tag qns, negative qns, embedded qns)

Question 24

What are the effects of L1 on Questions?

Answer 24

Affected by some degree by L1 influence BUt developmental sequence by L2 learners is similar to L1 language acquisition

Question 25

What is the Pattern of Acquisition for Relative Clauses?

Answer 25

Accessibility Hierarchy

1) Subject
2) Direct Object
3) Indirect Object
4) Object of Preposition
5) Possessive
6) Object of Comparison

Question 26

What is the Sequence of Acquisition for Reference to Past?

Answer 26

L2 learners with limited language first refer to events in order they occurred or mention time/place
Later, they start to attach a grammatical morpheme that show that verb is marked for the past (Overgeneralisation of -ed)

Question 27

What are some trends for L2 learners for Reference to Past?

Answer 27

1) Likely to mark past tense on action verbs than state verbs
2) Easier to mark past tense when referring to completed events than states/activities that may last extended periods without clear end point

Question 28

What are the conclusions for the Developmental Sequences?

Answer 28

1) Systematic & predictable developmental stages of second language acquisition
2) Developmental stages are not ‘closed room’
3) A stage is more like ‘emergence’ & ‘increasing frequency’ of particular form
4) Stress & complexity in communicative interaction can cause slips to earlier stage

Question 29

What is the influence of L1 on Interlanguage?

Answer 29

1) L1 helps to learns parts of L2 similar to L1
2) L1 may interact with developmental seq of L2
3) Avoidance of features that are distant & different from L1
4) Learners aware that idiomatic uses of words are unique to language
4) Fossilisation may occur when learner finds interlanguage form does not cause any difficulty in communicating meaning