Applied Linguistics: Interlanguage and latent Structures

Selinker

Summary

The term interlanguage was first used by Selinker (1969) to describe the linguistic stage second language learners go through during the process of mastering the target language.

There is a psychological structure which is latent in the brain, activated when one attempts to learn a SL. Interlanguage is an in between system that is among the native language and the target language, the one that the learner attempts to learn. Those latent structures àWeinreich àInterlingual identifications àphonemes – grammatical – semantic (differences of these structures in two languages)àpsychological structures which are in the brain and are activated at the time that the learner attempts to learn an L2.

Latent psychological structure
Lennenberg	Selinker
An already arrangement formulated in the brain Is the biological counterpart to UG it is transform through a certain maturation in the infant´s brain.	No guarantee of the activation of the latent structures No direct counterpart to any grammatical concept like UG No genetic time table
Reactivation of the latent structures àsuccessful learning of L2	No guarantee of successful learning of L2

It is not the same attempting to learn and be successful in the learning of the L2, successful second language learning, for most learners, is the reorganization of linguistic material from an IL to achieve the competence of the TL.

Behavioral event --> Interlanguage --> learner´s attempted production of a TL norm. --> meaningful performance.

Fossilization:

When incorrect language become in an habit it takes time in correct those erros.

Five central processes:
1.- Language transfer: This process occur in our IL performance and it is modified by our NL, the fossilizable items, rules and subsystems.
2.- Transfer of training: Are the result of identifiable items in training procedures
3.- Strategies of second language learning: If they are the result of an identifiable approach by the learner to the material to be learned.
4.- Strategies of second language communication: They are the result of identifiable approach of the learner to communication with a native speakers of TL.
5.- Overgeneralization of TL linguistic material: They are a result of a clear overgeneralization of TL rules and semantic features.

Problems with the perspective

- IL linguistic structures are never really eradicated for most L2 learner.

- Conditions --> anxiety, shifting attention and second language performance.

- Language errors that are fossilized.

- Linguistic systems (NL, IL and TL) activated in latent psychological structure.

1st problem --> how we learn? storage or retrieval - language transfer or transfer of training.

2nd problem --> Nonreversibility of fossilization effects for no apparent reasons.

- How do I recognize fossilizable structures in advanced?

- Why do the some things fossilize and others do not?

* Is very difficult to recognize which are those units and who fossilize those or other units, we can say that it depends on the person who is learning and the conditions which he or she is expose.

3rd problem

- Unsuccessful learning at the second language.

- Emphasis on what the teacher does in order to help learner´s learning be successful.

- Learning a second language --> successful learning of a second language --> reorganization of linguistic material from an IL to identify a particular TL.

4th problem--> Learners tend to overgeneralize units of language for the linguistic systems = (NL, IL and TL)

These units become available to the learner only after she/he has switched her/his psychic set or state from the native speaker to the new domain of interlingual identifications.

5th problem

- How can we experiment with the three linguistic systems, creating the same experimental conditions for each, with one unit which is identified interlingually across these systems?

*The syntax structures will be similar in many of them (languages).

Workshop

A) Short essay questions.

1. - Explain the five central processes with your own words.

- Language transfer: This process occurs in our IL performance and it is modified by our NL, the fossilizable items, rules and subsystems.

- Transfer of training: Are the result of identifiable items in training procedures.

- Strategies of second language learning: If they are the result of an identifiable approach by the learner to the material to be learned.

- Strategies of second language communication: They are the result of identifiable approach of the learner to communication with native speakers of TL.

- Overgeneralization of TL linguistics material: They are a result of a clear overgeneralization of TL rules and semantic features.

2.-Which of these processes can be apply to you in terms of your L2 acquisition?

I think that the processes that can be applied to me are the overgeneralization and transfer.

3. -Which aspects have you fossilized?

Is kind of difficult to say what kind of mistakes or errors I´ve fossilized, but some aspects that I think I´ve fossilized are grammatical and phonological mistakes for example at the time of speaking, sometimes I say I´M AGREE instead of I AGREE and the pronunciation of the word variety I always say /vərieti/ instead of /vəˈraɪə.ti/

B) True or false (justify the false)

a) Unsuccessful second language learning refers to the generalization problem. F (the generalization problem refers to the use of different units of language, and these units are used for all languages the NL, IL, TL )

b) Storage refers to the process of recalling information that is stored in memory. F (Retrieval In psychology, retrieval refers to the process of recalling information that is stored in memory, and storage refers to the process of storing information in the brain, those are mental processes)

c) Some conditions that affect in the process of learning a new language are anxiety, shifting attention and second language performance. T

d) Fossilization cannot be reversible. T