Psycholinguistic Aspects of

Interlanguage

1.MAHMUDAH PUJI R.
(14020084057)
2.ZAHROTUZ ZAINIAH
(14020084058)

Content

What is Psycholinguistics ???

A study of the mental structures and process
involved in the acquisition and use of language
Or
The study of mental processes involved in
constructing and using an interlanguage

L1 Transfer
L1 transfer the influence of the learners L1 applies
over the acquisition of an L2.
This influence appears in several ways. They are :
1. Negative transfer A process when learners L1
can cause error in L2 acquisition
2. Positive transfer A process when learners L1
can facilitate L2 acquisition
3. Avoidance
The avoidance of certain
structures/forms in L2 that do not have equivalent in
learners
L1
4. Overuse The overuse of certain forms due to the
learners L1 habit.

Considerable Revision for Theoretical Accounts of

L1 Transfer

Behaviorism Era

Errors were majorly

caused by interference

Led to
Strong mentalist
accounts of L2
acquisition
Reconceptualize transfer
within a cognitive
framework

Very few errors were

caused by L1 transfer

L1transfer viewed as
cognitive process in forming
interlanguage hypotheses

Another Factors Influencing L1 Transfer

Learners perceptions toward transferable and

non-transferable features of their L1
The learners stage of development

The Role of Consciousness in L2 Acquisition

Stephen
Krashen

Richard
Schmidt
Distinguish

Acquired L2
knowledge

Learned L2
knowledge

Consciousness as
intentionality
Consciousness as
attention
Consciousness as
awareness

Implicit Knowledge & Explicit Knowledge

Explicit knowledge may help learners in developing implicit knowledge

because:
1. A direct interface may occur (when learners are at the right stage of
development)
2. Explicit knowledge may facilitate the process by which learners attend to
features in the input
3. Explicit knowledge may help learners to move from intake to acquisition by
noticing the gap between what they have observed in the input and the
current state of their interlanguage

Processing Operations

1.Operating principles a number of general strategies

children use to extract and segment linguistic information from
the language they hear (Dan Slobin).
2. Processing Constraints mechanisms to account for why
learners follow a definite acquisitional route (multidimensional
model)

Communication Strategies

Learners may avoid problematic items

Learners may substituting certain items
Learners may borrow a word from their L1 or use
another word in L2 that has similar meaning
Learners sometimes try to paraphrase the meaning of
the word or even construct an entirely new word

Two Types of Computational Model

1.Serial Processing: information is processed in a series of

sequential steps and results in the representation of what has
been learned as some kind of rule or strategy.
2.Parallel Distributed processing: learners are having the
ability to perform a number of mental tasks at the same time.