INTERLANGUAGE AND THE

NATURAL ROUTE OF
DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION
The goal of this chapter is to examine the
claims that second language (L2) learners
acquire knowledge of a L2 in a fixed order (in
stark contrast to behaviorist accounts of SLA).
This emphasized the importance of
environmental factors and first language.
Interlanguage was the theoretical construct
which underlay the attempts of SLA researchers
to identify the stages of development through
which L2 learner pass on their way to L2 (or
near-L2) proficiency.

MENTALIST ACCOUNTS OF FIRST LANGUAGE

ACQUISITION
According to mentalist theory, L1 acquisition was the product of an
Acquisition Device (AD) by which means the child related a set of
Universal Grammatical Rules to the surface structure of the language he
was learning.
Mentalist view of L1 acquisition posited the following:
Language is a human-specific faculty.
Language exist as an independent faculty in the human mind.
The primary determinant of L1 acquisition is the childs AD, which generally
endowed and provides the child with a set of principles about grammar.
The acquisition device atrophies with age.
The process of acquisition consists of hypothesis-testing, by which means
the grammar of the learners mother tongue is related to the principles of
Universal Grammar (UG).

INTERLANGUAGE
The term interlanguage was used by Selinker (1972).
Interlanguage refers to the structured system which the learner
constructs at any given stage in his development and it also refer to
the series of interlocking systems which form what Corder (1971)
called the learners built-in syllabus (i.e. the interlanguage
continuum).
Interlanguage focused on its three principle features, all of which
were raised by Selinker in one way or another. They are listed as
follows:
Language-learner language is permeable
Language-learner language is dynamic
Language-learner language is systematic

ERROR ANALYSIS
The goals of traditional Error Analysis were pedagogic-errors
provided information which could be used to sequence items for
teaching or devise remedial lessons.
The procedure for Error Analysis is spell out in Corder (1974) It is as
follows:
A corpus of language is selected. This involve deciding on the size of
sample, the medium to be sampled, and the homogeneity of the sample
(with regard to the learners age,L1 background, stage of development)
The errors in corpus are identified. Distinguish lapses from errors
The errors are classified. This involves assigning a grammatical
description to each error.

 The errors are explained. In this stage of procedure an attempt is

made to identify the psycholinguistic cause of the errors.
The errors are evaluated. This stage involves assessing the
seriousness of each error in order to take principled teaching
decisions.

Empirical evidence for the interlanguage

hypothesis
Restructuring Continuum : the learner is seen as gradually
replacing features of his mother tongue as he acquires features of the
target language.
Recreation Continuum : the learner is seen as slowly creating the
rule system of the target language in a manner very similar to the
childs acquisition of his first language.

CROSS-SECTIONAL
RESEARCH
The morpheme studies were carried out to investigate the order
of acquisition of a range of grammatical functions in the speech of
L2 learners.

Longitudinal studies
Longitudinal studies have tried to account for the gradual
growth of competence in terms of the strategies used by a learner at
different developmental points.

NEGATION
Some expert had researched about the development of
negatives in using L2 are ( Raven 1968; Milon 1974; Cazden et al.
1975; Wode 1976; and 1980; Adams 1978; Butterworth and Hatch
1978).
At the first time, the learners combine the use of negation by adopting
their L1 form. For example:
No very good
No you playing here
After going through several developments, their known the using
of do+not. For examples:
Mariana not coming today
I no can swim
I dont see nothing mop

The next step the negatives attachment to modal verbs, it is going

better although still in simple form, for example:
I cant play this one
I wont go
In the final stage of negation the target language rule is reached. It
became completely correct. They began use the variety of tenses, for
example:
He doesnt know anything
I didnt said it
She didnt believe me

Interrogation
Some expert who studied for the description of interrogation
are Raven (1974), Cazden et al. (1975), Gillis and Weber (1976), Wode
(1978), Shapira (1978), Adams (1978), and Butterworth and Hatch (1978).

The first produce are intonation questions with declarative word

order but spoken with a rising intonation. For example:
I am colouring?
Sir plays football today?
I writing on this book?
Whats this?
Then the development becomes the appearance of productive Wh
questions but the auxiliary verb is often omitted. For examples:
What are you doing?
What tub mean?
Where you work?
The next improvements, inversion occurs in yes/no questions and
in Wh-questions. Inversion with be tends to occur before inversion
with do. For examples:
Are you a nurse?
Where is the girl?

Do you work in television?

What is shes doing here?
At the last developments, they have a subject-verb inversion, as
in ordinary Wh question:
I tell you what did happen.
I dont know where do you live.
And later the learner able to differentiate the word order of
ordinary and embedded Wh-question. For example:
I dont know what he had.

Relative Causes
Relative causes used to modify the object of a sentence
were acquired first. For examples:
And she said all the bad things that he do.
Joshuas a boy who is silly.

Later, relative clauses modifying the subject of a sentence, it

appears like:
But the one you gonna go, it dont have ice.
The boys who doesnt have anybody to live,they take care of the dogs.

The L2 = L1 Hypothesis
Cazdens (1972) summary of the order of development for
interrogatives in L1 acquisition is strikingly similar to that SLA.
The main stages Cazden identifies:
One word utterances are used as questions.
Intonation questions appear on a regular basis and there are some Whquestions learnt as ready-made chunks.
Intonation questions become more complicated, and productive Wh
questions without inversion occur.

 Inversion involving auxiliary verbs occurs in yes/no questions, but not

in Wh-questions.
Inversion occurs in Wh-questions.
Embedded Wh-questions develop.

Methodological problems
Error Analysis
The procedure for error analysis was elaborated by Corder (1974) as
Comprising five stages:
1)

2)
3)
4)
5)

selection of a corpus of language

identification of errors in the corpus
classification of the errors identified
explanation of the psycholinguistic causes of the errors
evaluation (error gravity ranking) of the errors

 Morpheme studies
Longitudinal studies
The focus on the grammar
Origins of interlanguage
Neglect of external factors

Summary and conclusion

The common issues which concern in interlanguage is the
learner difficult to understand language structured of L2 because its
different with L1. Interlanguage refers to structured system which
the learner construct any given stages in his development. So there
are many steps of development passed by the learners in
comprehending the structured form in L2.

As a result of theoretical attacks on the behaviorist view of

language acquisition as habit-formation, it was hypothesized that L1
acquisition was the product of an acquisition device by which
means the child related a set of universal grammatical rules to the
surface structure of the language he is learning. Interlanguage
theory both generated and fed off emperical research in SLA.

THANK
YOU!!