Discourse

Aspects of
Interlanguage
Clara Claudea – Rizki Amalia – Sillvy Dwy
 Introduction

Discourse is the way to connect sentences

and organize the information which learners
participate in it to identify the nature of the
communication along with the effects L2
acquisition.
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 Goals of learner
discourse
in SLA.

◉ How L2 learners ◉ How interaction

obtain the “rules” configure
of discourse. interlanguage
development.

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 Acquiring
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Discourse
Rules

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 ◉ compliment usually calls for a reaction and
failure to serve one can be considered a
sociolinguistic error.
◉ compliment responses are usually quiet
complicated. The speaker to underestimate the
For compliment
example by creating some terrible comment.
A: I like your sweater.
B: It’s so old. My sister bought it for me in Italy some time ago.
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The role of input
and interaction
in L2 acquisition

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 Theoretical positions

◉ Behaviourist theory ◉ Mentalist theories

Treats language learning Maintaining learner’s brains,
as environmentally especially complete to learn
determined, controlled language and all that is
from the outside by the needed is minimal discharge
stimuli learners are to input in order to trigger
uncovered to and the acquisition.
reinforcement they
receive.
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The native speakers modify their speech when

communicating with learners.
foreigner talk:
the language that native speakers use when handle non-native
speakers.

“
 Ungrammatical Foreigners
talk

can be categorized by removing some grammar

features such as copula be, modal verb and
article, the use of past tense form, and the use
of special construction such as "no+verb".

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Grammatical Foreigners Talk
Grammatical foreigner talk is a standard.
Various types of modifications from baseline
(native speaker interlanguage) can be easily
identified.

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Baseline modified characteristic

1. Spoken at a slow speed.

2. Simple input
3. Regularized
4. Use elaborate language

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 Type of talk Example

Baseline talk You won’t forget to buy the ice-

cream on your way home, will
you?

Ungrammatical foreigner talk No forget buying ice-cream, eh?

Grammatical foreigner talk The ice-cream – You will not

forget to buy it on your way
home – Get it when you are
coming home. All right?

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Sometimes learners still fail to understand. This

results in interactional modification because
participants in the discourse are involved in
negotiation meaning.

“
 Example

Hiroko : A man is uh, drinking c-coffee or tea with uh the saucer

of the uh uh coffee set is uh in his uh knee.
Izumi : in him knee.
Hiroko : uh on his knee.
Izumi : yeah
Hiroko : on his knee
Izumi : so sorry. On his knee.

(from S. Gass and E. Varonis. 1994. ‘Input, interaction, and second

language production’. Studies in Second Language Acquisition.
16:283-302). 14
 Negative Evidence

• Michael Long’s interaction hypothesis

the interlocutors show misunderstanding and
gives the information that the utterance is
incorrect or not possible which may help to
comprehend and acquire new L2 forms. 

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 Contrasting

• Evelyn Hatch
interlocutors can develop the process of building
discourse through collaborative effort such
as scaffolding

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 Activity Theory L.S
Vyogotsky

‘motive’ ‘internalization’
The individual determines • Solve a problem without any support
the goals of their activities • how to internalize the resolution.

based on the activity theory, socially

constructed L2 knowledge is vital for
developing the interlanguage.  17
The role output
in L2 acquisition

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 Different Arguments

1. Krashen explains that learners only learn output

by treating it as an auto-input.

2. Merill Swan asserts that output can increase the

learners’ awareness function, which helps them
to notice the gaps in their interlanguages.

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Thank You

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