Interlanguage

Interlanguage

1. Special language, created by the individual, and standing midway between the mother tongue and the target language

2. General Characteristics

   • According to Long (1990), IL are the psycholinguistics SL quevalent to idiolects.
     • Idiolects are the language system of an individual as expressed by the way he or she speaks or writes within the overall system of a particular language.
   • IL variability
     • Learners'monitoring their performance (Krashen 1977)
     • Sociolinguistics factors (Beebe 1980)
     • Adjustment of one's speech towards one's interlocutor or way one's interlocutor (Beebe & Zuengler 1983)
     • Linguistics or situational context of use (Ellis 1985)
     • Discourse domains (Selinker & Douglas 1985)
     • The amount of planning time learners have (Crookes 1989)
     • Acombination of factors: stage of acquisition, linguistic environment, communicative redundancy (Young 1988)
     • Learners' use of other-regulated or self-regulated speech (Lantolf & Ahmed 1989)

3. Psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics aspects

   • Latent language structure
     • The biological basis of universal grammar, and it is transformed by the child into the conscious structure of a specific grammar during the child's language learning
     • Features
       • It is an already formulated arragment in the brain
       • It is the biological basis of universal grammar
       • It is transformed by the child into the structure of a particular grammar in accordance with certain maturational stages
   • The built-in syllabus
     • Strong version
       • The processes involved in learning the L1 and the L2 are the same
     • Weak version
       • The order of acquisition is determined to some extent by the l1.
   • Stylistic continuum
     • Vernacular style
       • The less attention paid to the speech , the less learners are conscious of linguistics form
     • Careful style
       • The more attention paid to speech, the more consciously learners attend to linguistics forms
   • Creative construction
     • The subconscious process by which language learners gradually organize the language they hear, according to the rules they construct to understand and generate sentences
   • Restructuring continuum
     • The learner gradually replaces L1 rules with L2 rules, and thus moves along a continuum from the L1 closer and closer to target language norms

4. Linguistic Processes in the construction of interlanguage

   • IL cognitive processes
     • Language transfer
     • Overgeneralization of target language structures
     • Transfer of training
     • Strategies used in second language learning
     • Strategies used in second language communication
   • Transfer
     • The use of elements from one language while speaking another
     • Positive: facilitates learning and happens when there is a coincidence of elements between the L1 and the L2
     • Negative transfer (interference): refers to the use of a structure or element in the L1 that is not appropriate in the L2, therevy producing an error.
   • Overgeneralization
     • According to Ellis (1997), it is the oversuppliance of an interlanguage feature in contexts in which it does not occur in the target-language use. Overgeneralizations result in errors.
   • Learning strategies
     • According to Ellis (1997) are the oarticular approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn an L2
     • Cognitive stratgies
     • Metacognitive strategies
     • Social/affective strategies
   • Communication strategies
     • Techniques of coping with difficulties in communicating in an imperfectly known second language
     • Tarone's taxonomy
       • Avoidance
         • Topic avoidance
         • Message abandonment
       • Parapharse
         • Approximation
         • Word coinage
         • Circumlocution
       • Conscious transfer
         • Literal translation
         • Language switch
       • Appeal for assistance
       • Mime

5. Fossilization

   • Refres to the process whereby a learner's IL development stops some way short of target language norms.
   • Internal factors
     • Age
     • The lack of the desire to acculturate
   • External factors
     • Communicative pressure
     • Lack of learning opportunity
     • The nature of feedback on learner's use of L2