SLA Chapter 3 - Interlanguage

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CHAPTER 3: Interlanguage

Interlanguage is the mental system of a learner‘s L2 knowledge. The explanation of interlanguage can be answered by considering two things, that are the nature of the linguistic representations of the L2 that learners form and the way those representations always change. In order to know and understand what interlanguage concept is, we have to consider two major learning theories. 

1. Behaviourist learning theory (1950s & 1960s)      

According to this theory, all behavior is determined by the environment either through association or reinforcement, including language learning. It involves habit formation that is formed when a learner could give his response to a given stimulus. It would be remembered when his responses reinforced.

There are two connected important components that support language acquisition: stimulus and response. Stimulus is model of correct language that is imitated by learners. Learning happens when learners could practice the correct response to a given stimulus and received positive reinforcement. For example, learners are considered achieving their communication goal when closing the door after hearing someone said, “Close the door!” Behaviourist accounts of L2 acquisition emphasize on what can be directly observed and ignore what goes on the learner’s mind.

Learning is not just a response to external stimuli because the output is produced differently with the input. It is the result of the systematic nature of their error caused by their “own” rules that sometimes produce little resemblance to the language pattern modeled in the input.

2. A mentalist theory of language learning

The researchers change their attention from "nurture" or how environmental factors shape learning into "nature" or how the innate properties of the human mind shape learning for this theory.

According to a mentalist of this theory, learning language is only capable for human beings and their mind is equipped by language acquisition device, a faculty to learn language as the primary determinant of language acquisition. Input is still needed, but only to trigger the operation of language acquisition device. The concept of interlanguage draws directly on the mentalist theory with elements from cognitive psychology.

What is interlanguage?

Interlanguage is a unique linguistic system that draws, in part, on the learner`s L1, but also differs from it as well as from the target language. The concept involves some premises about:

- The learner constructs a system of abstract linguistic rules which underlies comprehension and production of the L2.

-  The learner’s grammar is permeable, means that grammar is open to influence from the outside and the inside.

- The learner’s grammar is transitional, means that learners change their grammar form one time to another by adding rules, deleting rules, and restructuring the whole system.

- The system learners construct contain variable rules. Researchers see variability as an aspect of performance rather than competence.

- Learners employ various learning strategies to develop their interlanguage. The different kinds of errors produce reflect different learning strategies.

- The learner’s grammar is likely to fossilize. The prevalence of backsliding (the production of errors representing an early stage of development) is typical of fossilized learners.

The concept of interlanguage needs to be elaborated to address such questions.

As a result, the concept offers a general account of how L2A takes place, but it does not offer a precise explanation. It can also be viewed as a metaphor of how L2A takes place.