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Developmental Patterns Of A Second Language

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Developmental Patterns in Interlanguage Second Language Acquistion (SLA) scholars have focused on a wide range of theories to explain the complex process of learning a second (or additional) language. In the mid-1960s, as a relatively new field in its own right, SLA research was built upon a multidisciplinary base of studies from fields such as linguistics, psychology, and education to describe and explain the universal and variable factors involved in second language acquisition. Although much of the early research was focused on pedagogical applications, in recent years the orientation has realigned to more theoretical approaches to describe the learners’ developmental processes and the nature of learner language, otherwise known as interlanguage. The developmental patterns of interlanguage have received attention in numerous studies, albiet from different perspectives and not without controversy. While each study may provide an insight into an aspect of how language is acquired, and key developmental stages within that process, no single theory can yet explain the process of SLA comprehensively (Gitsaki, 1998, p.96). Rather than being schismatic, it could be argued that the divergent lines of enquiry into the orders and sequences of development in interlanguage will contribute to a more comprehensive overall picture of a learners’ cognitive and linguistic processes in the course of acquiring a second language. The term ‘interlanguage’ was coined by Selinker (1969, 1972)

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