‘Interlanguage and it contributions to our understanding of how a learner’s language develops’
1. Introduction
In this essay, I offer an analysis of the concept of interlanguage and the way in which it contributes to the understanding of the development of learners’ language. To illustrate the actual meaning of this concept and the different stages of learners’ language development, I rely on corpora from CHILDES, especially, Paradis and Liceras corpora. The former concentrates on spontaneous data elicited from children acquiring English as a second language (L2), while the latter consists of naturalistic samples of native speakers of English learning Spanish as an L2.
From Paradis corpus, I use the data of a Spanish speaking child called
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In section 3, I expound the conclusions reached throughout the study. Ultimately, in section 4, you can find a list of previous publications on which I have relied in order to carry out this study.
2. Interlanguage and second language acquisition (SLA)
The term ‘interlanguage’, coined by Selinker (1972), tries to describe the competence of L2 learners and the source of that competence. Brown defines interlanguage as “[…] a structurally intermediate status between the native and the target languages” (2000:215). Nevertheless, Brown’s definition omits some nuances of interlanguage, thus, it can be defined as the in-between system used in L2 acquisition which contains aspects of the L1 and the L2, but which is an inherently variable system with its own rules as example (1) below illustrates.
(1) She name is María. [L1SP/L2EN]
Example (1), which is an example typically used to explain interlanguage, is produced by an L1 Spanish speaker who is learning English as L2. This sentence is ungrammatical both in Spanish and English; therefore, the speaker is not using either a Spanish or English structure for the production of this sentence. This led scholars to establish that interlanguage has its own rules odd to either her L1 or L2. This the idea that innate predisposition for language acquisition may result in the
|A2 Researcher’s conclusion |The researchers gave a strong conclusion outlining the main findings of the research |
As Zentella has studied within these three families, she finds an assortment of variation, even in individuals that come from the same family. The author argues that children coming from similar backstories range differently in their expertise in the language of their immigrated parents and the standard language of their residency. She concludes that because each family’s outlook on learning a second language and each individual’s preference challenges one another, one’s ability to learn a second language varies as well; there is no solid explanation as to why some people from the same background are more advanced in Spanish rather than English, and vice versa. Most people would not have taken into account of all the different contributions that this author describes, including gender, social preference, location, and personal beliefs. The common person would assume that acquiring a second language is possible for these families because they are surrounded by it, and that they would be able to maintain both their primary and secondary language. However, the author does analyze the contrasting opinion through observing the differences found in her study. She finds that the development of each person greatly varies to where each has different learning abilities and preferences. Where they live, whom they are in contact with, gender, and even their own personal behavior affects their unique growth. Since all have varying opinions, their decisions and values are placed accordingly to their own desire; in conclusion, these are all major factors in how people’s language skills
· The results of the study, the interpretation of the data by the authors and any conclusions they include at the end of the article.
Richard Rodriguez, son of Mexican immigrants, was born and raised in California. As a result, he was exposed to several languages during his childhood. Rodriguez grew up listening to Spanish at home, but English was a strange and foreign language for him. In his essay “A Memoir of a Bilingual Child,” Rodriguez compares his native Spanish to the English that surrounds him. Through characterization and the tone, Rodriguez gives the reader a better understanding of the similarities and differences he finds in the two languages present in his life.
The second practice that supports the language development of all children is that of “Putting pointing and talking together” (Lally, 2006, p. 32) in which a caregiver will point to an object and say the name of the object that they are pointing at. Children can learn multiple words for multiple languages by a caregiver pointing at a chair, in which in English it is known as a “chair” but in Spanish it is known as a “silla” in which it is pronounced “Sill ya” yet the child would understand it once a caregiver points to it and will learn a new word for something in another language or their own.
There are many factors which can aid language development, particularly through writing (Watts et al., 2013). Jones and Coffey (2013) identified that writing should be developed procedurally through copying, initially at word level- to learn spellings and develop familiarisation with vocabulary and individual letters. Before then progressing to phrase-level and on to sentences. It is thought that through copying the children are beginning to memorise the vocabulary and can help them to engrain key sentence structures, as they pay close attention to the individual words and spellings. Macaro (2006) has also identified that copy-writing is often used as a way of remembering spellings for new target vocabulary. Hurrell (1999) criticises the motion of copy-writing: as it gives the children too many things to focus on.
It is a well-known fact that children acquire language through their environment. From the time of birth, they are exposed to many different phonetics which allow them to shape words and form language. As parents and families utilize specific words as symbols for different concepts and ideas, children learn that they must use these to communicate their desires. This is evident in everyday life, for example those born in different parts of the world, who grow up hearing a predominant language, grow up speaking that language with all of the same particular nuances, slangs and variations that are present. Therefore, Amy Tan’s claim that “the language spoken in the family, especially in the immigrant families, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child,” is definitely viable.
Children acquire language since they were born. They communicate with their parents. Furthermore, children and parents interact with each other using a language that we often call the first language or mother tongue. At an early age, children are only learning one language that is the mother tongue. By age and speech development, children improve to acquire a second language from the school or the environment around them. In terms of speed of langgauge acquisition, children are factorized by both the child and the child’s learning environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how children acquire second language. This paper is provided
Many second language acquisition theories have been developed over the years. These theories examine the avenues in which second language is acquired and the avenues in which they are
We learned in our text that the development of language is a complicated process that involves phonemes, morphemes, syntactic development among several other factors (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg & Saffran, 2014, p. 218). Proper and effective development of these language skills has been shown to have a critical learning period that enables successful fluency of a language; this period usually occurs between the ages of 5 and puberty (Siegler et al., 2014, p. 220). I believe that this critical period is the backbone of the argument against bilingual education. Proponents of this argument believe that the sooner a child is immersed in the new language, the better off they will be with regards to mechanics and use of that language.
Since, the second language is an additional language after we acquire the first language, the L2 learning process can be influenced by the L1 learning process This essay will demonstrate the similarities and differences in L1 and L2 acquisition by discussing various theories. Then, draw a conclusion based on the evidence provided and my own experience.
Why should people nowadays see languages as a big prize? A person speaks more languages have more opportunities are skewed to him because he benefits the profit comparing to a person who speaks only one standard language. It is time for globalization and its effects on children for speaking other languages as a must. In two articles “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez and “Whose Voice Is It Anyway?” by Victor Villanueva, the two authors both expressed their opinions on native language and how the assimilation impacts a child. However, Rodriguez believed that the assimilation was beneficial for him as he had grown up in the English-speaking world and he disliked bilingual education which created many controversy.
Babies are not born talking, they learn language, starting immediately from birth. How does this process take place? When do children master the skills needed for using language successfully? What stages do they go through as they learn to understand and talk? Do the languages they learn affect the way they think? This edition of Eve Clark's highly successful textbook focuses on children's acquisition of a first language, the stages of development they go through, and how they use language as they learn. It reports on recent findings in each area covered, includes a completely new chapter on the acquisition of two languages and shows how speech to children differs by social class. Skilfully integrating actual data with coverage of current theories and debates, it is an essential guide to studying language acquisition for those working in linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.
This portion of the Play Project was done back at Wendell Johnson. We met with Jihan and the teacher aides to discuss what we thought was working well in their classroom, and our suggestions to further facilitate language development. Since the last reflection, our goal was to come up with strategies the teachers could use to continue to promote language development for their children. Me and my other group members tried to attain this goal by providing handouts and examples of strategies that we thought would be helpful for the teachers. We used the acronym FIGS (Fill in the blank, Interactive Play, Gestures, and Speak) to help them remember the strategy. They seemed to respond well to this and thought it was a good way to remember the strategies.
The latter coined the term “interlanguage” in Selinker (1972). The term is used fairly loosely among numerous scholars to mean, differently, what the learner is able to do at any point after embarking on learning L2. Ellis (1994:710) defines interlanguage as the total profile of all the learner’s performance stages from the initial stages of learning L2 until reaching a native like production. Interlanguage is an imperative system essentially the same in the case of all learners regardless of their mother tongue, displaying a number of rules and patterns consistently found at any given stage, heedless of the L1 and the methods followed in the learning the target