1.

Goal: to examine the claims that second language learners acquire a knowledge of a
Introduction
L2 in a fixed order as a result of a predisposition to process language data in highly
specific ways
2. The starting point: L1 acquisition
3. Will conclude with an examination of some the problems of explanations of SLA that
rely extensively on internal factors
4. Briefly consider the background theory and research in L1 acquisition
5. Will examine the notion of interlanguage

1. Language is a human specific faculty

2. Language exists as an independent faculty in the human mind
Mentalist accounts of first
3. The primarily determinant of L1 acquisition is the child’s
language acquisition
acquisition device which is genetically endowed and provides
the child with a set of principles of grammar
4. The acquisition device atrophies with age
5. The process of acquisition consists of the learner's mother
tongue is related to the principles of the universal grammar

1. Interlanguage = approximative systems = idiosyncratic dialects and

Interlanguage transitional competence
Interlanguage and the ‘natural’

2. Refers to the structured system which the learner constructs at any

route of development

given stage in his development

3. Refers to the series of interlocking systems which form the learner’s
built in syllabus
4. the assumption underlying interlanguage theory: the approximate
system is distinct from L1 and L2, the approximate systems form an
evolving series and the approximate systems of learners at the same
stage of proficiency roughly coincide in a given contact situation
5. The concept of hypothesis-testing was used to explain how the L2
learner progressed along the interlanguage continuum
6. Five principal processes operated in interlanguage: language
transfer, overgeneralization of the target language rules, transfer of
training, strategies of L2 learning, strategies of L2 communication
7. Fossilization cause by both internal and external as the result of
failing to reach target language competence
8. Language-learner language is permeable, dynamic and systematic

1. Errors provided information which could be used to sequence items

Error analysis for teaching or to devise remedial lessons
2. The procedure for error analysis: selected, identified, classified,
explained, and evaluated the corpus of language
3. Provide two kinds of information about interlanguage: linguistic type
of errors and psycholinguistic errors
4. Can be used to investigate the various processes that contribute to
interlanguage development

Empirical evidence for 1. Restructuring continuum  the continuum to be conceived as stretching

the interlanguage from the learner’s mother tongue to target language
hypothesis 2. Recreation continuum  the continuum to be conceived as the gradual
complexification of interlanguage knowledge
Cross-sectional 1. The morpheme studies  to investigate the order of acquisition of a range of
research grammatical factors in the speech of L2 learners
2. Longitudinal studies  to examine the acquisition of grammatical morphemes
3. Negation
4. Interrogation
5. Relative clauses
6. A composite longitudinal picture

1. Data gathers  can be achieved through the adroit use of ready-

Interpreting the empirical made chunks and the juxtaposition of nouns
evidence 2. Rule formers  attends closely to the input in the attempt to
identify the target language forms, and then tries to use them
accurately
3. The L2 = L1 hypothesis is not easy to investigate
4. Some outstanding issues  methodological problems: error
analysis, morpheme studies, longitudinal studies, the focus on
grammar, origins of interlanguage, neglect of external factors, the
problem of variability
Interlanguage and the ‘natural’
route of development