Learners

Learners

1. Sensitivity to degrees of distance and difference between languages

   • Study by Hakan Ringbom
     • Interference error made in English by both Swedish-Finnish and Finnish-Swedish bilinguals were most often traceable to Swedish.

2. Idiomatic or methaphorical uses of words are unique to a particular language

   • Study by Erick Kellerman.
     • Dutch learners of English didn't accept that the sentence: "The wave broke on the shore" was possible, but accepted the sentence: "He broke the cup", eventhough both are straightforward translations of the Dutch verb breken.

3. It's difficult for them to notice that something they are saying it's not a feature of the target language

   • Example given by Lydia Vhite: Adverb placement in French and in English
     • Both groups have difficulty with a pattern that doen't exist in the target language if it's similar to the one in their first language.

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