David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

UNIT 2

GENERAL THEORIES ON LEARNING AND

ACQUISITION OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. THE
CONCEPT OF INTERLANGUAGE. THE TREATMENT
OF ERROR.

By David Navarro Sarabia

1
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

OUTLINE

1. INTRODUCTION.

2. LEARNING AND ACQUISITION OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

3. SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORY.

4. THE ROLE OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE

ACQUISITION.

5. THE CONCEPT OF INTERLANGUAGE.

6. THE TREATMENT OF ERROR.

7. INTERFERENCE OF SPANISH IN THE STUDY OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND

LANGUAGE.

8. CONCLUSION.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

2
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

1. INTRODUCTION.
Second-language acquisition (SLA), second-language learning, or L2 (language
2) acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language
acquisition is also the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. The field of
second-language acquisition is a subdiscipline of applied linguistics, but also receives
research attention from a variety of other disciplines, such as psychology and education.
A central theme in SLA research is that of interlanguage, the idea that the language
that learners use is not simply the result of differences between the languages that they
already know and the language that they are learning, but that it is a complete language
system in its own right, with its own systematic rules. This interlanguage gradually develops
as learners are exposed to the targeted language.
The primary factor driving SLA appears to be the language input that learners receive.
Learners become more advanced the longer they are immersed in the language they are
learning, and the more time they spend doing free voluntary reading. The input
hypothesis developed by linguist Stephen Krashen theorizes that comprehensible input
alone is necessary for second language acquisition. Krashen makes a distinction between
language acquisition and language learning (the acquisition–learning distinction), claiming
that acquisition is a subconscious process, whereas learning is a conscious
one. Subsequent work, by other researchers, on the interaction hypothesis and
the comprehensible output hypothesis, has suggested that opportunities for output and for
interaction may also be necessary for learners to reach more advanced levels.
In recent years, the subject of foreign language teaching has in fact developed to
become today the largest domain of enquiry within applied linguistics. The theory included
in this unit connects with the information the teacher must take into account when facing the
daily learning problems in a country, province, area, or minority of students who may speak,
mainly Spanish, with regional variations, or the language spoken in the Autonomous
Community, or whichever mother tongue the students may speak. Therefore, the theoretical
aspects of this topic connect also with the necessary background the teacher must have to
solve the problems arising from the reasons already stated above, which, on the other hand,
will interfere differently in the so-called interlanguage phenomenon and error treatment.

3
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

3. LEARNING AND ACQUISITION OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.

Many researchers use both terms interchangeably. Nevertheless, acquisition might
be considered more general or on a higher level in the lexicological hierarchy, as the
meaning incorporates both unconscious and conscious processes, while learning is
considered to refer to the latter only. Krashen characterises language acquisition as the
process that occurs when we learn our first language. On the other hand, he claims that
language learning is learning about a language, that is, learning about grammar rules,
vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. Krashen further argues that in order to learn a second
language, a learner needs to be provided with the opportunity (environment) to acquire it;
learning will occur without any conscious effort from the part of the learner. He, however,
has not made clear what is meant by conscious and subconscious.
Klein (1986) suggests the following categories of second language acquisition:
1. Spontaneous – when the learner has access to the target language in the course of
everyday communication within the environment;
2. Guided – when these materials are supplied in ‘digested’ form.
Similarly to other authors, Klein further distinguishes between foreign and second
language (he uses ‘second’ language as a more general term to refer to both of the above).
Learning a foreign language means studying, in a conscious and active way, how it works,
what the rules and principles are as well trying to act in the way these predetermine its
correct and effective use to be. Acquiring a foreign language not only refers to the above-
mentioned activities, but also includes subconscious receiving of information, knowledge
and experience.

4. SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION THEORY.

As second-language acquisition began as an interdisciplinary field, it is hard to pin
down a precise starting date. However, there are two publications in particular that are seen
as instrumental to the development of the modern study of SLA: (1) Corder's 1967
essay The Significance of Learners' Errors, and (2) Selinker's 1972 article Interlanguage.
Corder's essay rejected a behaviorist account of SLA and suggested that learners made use
of intrinsic internal linguistic processes; Selinker's article argued that second-language
learners possess their own individual linguistic systems that are independent from both the
first and second languages.
In the 1970s the general trend in SLA was for research exploring the ideas of Corder and
Selinker, and refuting behaviorist theories of language acquisition. Examples include
research into error analysis, studies in transitional stages of second-language ability, and

4
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

the "morpheme studies" investigating the order in which learners acquired linguistic features.
The 70s were dominated by naturalistic studies of people learning English as a second
language.
By the 1980s, the theories of Stephen Krashen had become the prominent paradigm
in SLA. In his theories, often collectively known as the Input Hypothesis, Krashen
suggested that language acquisition is driven solely by comprehensible input, language
input that learners can understand.
According to Krashen there are five hypotheses about second language acquisition:
• The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis.
Acquisition is not conscious process in which the person is not aware of grammar or
rules he uses. Errors are accepted as a normal part of the process.
Learning occurs consciously, we have to study the rules which govern a given
language. Learning has only one function: To make corrections and change our output.
• The Natural Order Hypothesis.
Grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order in L1 and L2; just as
children learn their L1 and natural order. So students learn structures in a predictable way.
Two points against this theory:
a) we don’t have information about the order of acquisition of every structure in every
language. There are individual variations.
b) the existence of a natural order of acquisition does not imply that we should teach
second languages along this order.
• The Monitor Hypothesis.
This hypothesis states the relationship between acquisition and learning.
Acquisition plays a more important role than learning because learning is used as
editor or monitor only and the function is to make self-corrections and change the output
before or after speaking.
To use the monitor, three conditions need be met:
a) Time
b) Focus on form: be aware of the grammar forms and of the choice of forms.
c) A correct knowledge of the rule.
• The Input Hypothesis.
o We acquire knowledge by understanding input that contains i + 1.
“i + 1” means a step by step progression. In order to progress the input (i) we should
be beyond (1) the acquirer’s current level of competence.
o We don’t teach speaking directly.

5
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

The best way to teach speaking is to provide comprehensible input. So early speech
is typically not accurate. Direct error correction should be avoided.
o The best input should not be “Grammatically Sequenced”.
Teachers should organise content on the basis of the themes relevant to student’s
needs and interests.
• The Affective Filter Hypothesis.
It deals with the effect of affective variables on L2 acquisition. They are variables like
anxiety, motivation or self-confidence.
The affective filter produces a mental block which prevents inputs to enter the
“language acquisition device”.

Age Differences in Second Language Acquisition.

Older acquirers are faster in the early stages of second language acquisition
because:
a) They are better at obtaining comprehensible input as they have good conversational
management.
b) They have superior knowledge of the world, which helps to make input comprehensible.
c) They can participate in conversation earlier.
Younger acquirers tend to attain higher levels of proficiency in second languages than
adults in the long run due to a lower affective filter.
Krashen's model was influential in the field of SLA and also had a large influence on
language teaching, but it left some important processes in SLA unexplained.
The 1990s saw a host of new theories introduced to the field, such as Michael
Long's interaction hypothesis, Merrill Swain's output hypothesis and Richard
Schmidt's noticing hypothesis.
Michael Long's interaction hypothesis similar to Krashen's input hypothesis, the
interaction hypothesis claims that comprehensible input is important for language learning.
In addition, it claims that the effectiveness of comprehensible input is greatly increased
when learners have to negotiate for meaning.
Merrill Swain's output hypothesis, the comprehensible output (CO) hypothesis
states that learning takes place when a learner encounters a gap in his or her linguistic
knowledge of the second language (L2). By noticing this gap, the learner becomes aware of
it and may be able to modify his output so that he learns something new about the
language.[1] Although Swain does not claim that comprehensible output is solely responsible
for all or even most language acquisition, she does claim that, under some conditions, CO

6
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

facilitates second language learning in ways that differ from and enhance input due to the
mental processes connected with the production of language.
Richard Schmidt's noticing hypothesis states that learners cannot learn the
grammatical features of a language unless they notice them. Noticing alone does not mean
that learners automatically acquire language; rather, the hypothesis states that noticing is
the essential starting point for acquisition.

5. THE ROLE OF THE FIRST LANGUAGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.

• Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis.
The L1 has been considered the major cause of a learner’s problem with the new
language. It “interferes” with the learner’s acquisition of his / her L2.
Interference or negative transfer. If a structure in L1 differs from that of L2, errors that
reflect the structure of the L1 will be produced. Ex.: La casa grande / * The house big.
Positive Transfer or Zero Transference. If a structure in both languages is the same
there will be no errors in L2 performance. Ex.: Libros / book --> Plural marker “-s”.
Two central concepts in Transfer:
a) The automatic and not conscious use of the old behaviour (habits) in new learning
situation.
b) The use of past knowledge and experience in new situations (other educational
and psychological views).
Present research results suggest that the major impact the L1 has on L2 acquisition
may have to do with accent, not with grammar.
• Error Analysis Movement.
Many teachers and researchers noticed that a great number of student errors could
not possibly be traced to their native languages. The late fifties and early sixties provided
the ultimate rationale for the error analysis approach:
Noam Chomsky’s Review of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour (1959). Chomsky´s
views along with Piagetian psychology stated that language learning is a creative process,
not a habit formation.
o Interlingual & Developmental errors.
The term error is used to refer to any deviation from a selected norm of a language
performance, no matter what the causes of the deviation might be.
• In the Error Analysis view, errors that reflect the learner’s L1 structures are not called
interference but Interlingual Errors.

7
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

• Developmental errors are errors similar to those made by children acquiring their native
tongue. For example: students of English as a foreign language.
Ex.: * He cans play football very well.
This error is also found in the speech of children acquiring English as their L1.
Researchers have found that the great majority of errors made by L2 learners are not
interlingual, but developmental. Although adults tend to exhibit more L1 influence in their
errors than children do, adult interlingual errors also occur in small proportions.
o Implications of Error Analysis for L2 Learning.
The Error Analysis is a research method which appeared in the 70s, it is based on
the generative theses by N. Chomsky (Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, 1965), on the study
of child’s mental development which deals with J. Piaget’s psychological cognitivism and on
S. P. Corder’s works.
According to this approach, errors reflect operations of the inner mechanism of the
acquisition of a foreign language. It is not considered like something negative to be avoided,
but as a sign that certain strategies to interpret and systematise are being used, my means
of provisional rules, comprehensible input. These rules are confirmed or rejected according
to the addressee’s reaction and the comparison between these momentary models and the
new linguistic data which are received.
These successive stages of approximation to the foreign language, which are
covered in the process of acquisition, are called by S. P. Corder transitory dialects.
Normally, errors are corrected in this process, however some are fossilised, that is,
the rule that generates them is not modified when passing to the next transitory dialect.
The concept of error was amplified by S. P. Corder in the mid 80s. Attention is centred
on the error as something that avoids the interpretation of messages. Therefore, it is
considered as an error those statements that are not understood by the addressee both
because of incorrect grammatical elements or because they are not appropriate to the
context where they appear. Grammatical competence is not valued, but communicative
competence, term introduced by D. Hymes, which includes four subcompetences:
grammatical competence, sociocultural competence, discursive competence and strategic
competence.
With regard to the classification of errors, several criteria may be used:
- Descriptive criterion:
▪ Omission or lack of morphological or lexical element, (for instance: * He go to park).
▪ Addition or insertion of an element that does not fulfil any function in the statement
(for instance, * I want for to go, childrens).

8
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

▪ Wrong function or word that has been formed incorrectly (for instance, *
questionation).
▪ Absence of order of the elements within the statement (for instance, The friend with I
play).
- Communicative criterion:
▪ Local errors that are found in some elements within the statement, but they do not
stop communication (for instance, * you want come?).
▪ Global errors are those which stop the transmission of the message (for instance, *
know you o’clock yes?).
- Pedagogical criterion looks into the relationship that must be established between the
activities carried out in class and the level of communicative competence of the group to
avoid the unbalance between the expectancies of a certain task and the participants’ real
possibilities. It is essential the adequacy of the level of the tasks to the group.
- Etiologic-linguistic Criterion takes into consideration the errors produced because of
interference of one’s mother tongue (for instance, * I have cold; I have sixteen).
- Grammatical Criterion studies the errors affecting the structure of the sentence (for
instance, * I seed some girles).
• Interlanguage.
Interlanguage is the linguistic system that a learner builds on his way to the mastery
of a target language i.e.: an intermediate stage between his native language and the target
language. These intermediate stages are considered as autonomous linguistic systems
which present the following characteristics:
- They present a subdivision of rules and lexical elements of the target language.
- They cannot be identified with any area of social group, that is why they are also called
idiosyncratic dialects.
- They reflect the concept of linguistic economy: to cover the demands of an increasing
number of communicative situations with a limited number of grammatical rules of
polysemic character, making use of the communicative strategies allowing the student
both to interpret what he/she hears and to produce acceptable sentences from a
communicative point of view. Communicative strategies have the aim of covering the
distance between the student’s communicative competence and the needs of the
communicative situation where he/she is.
Methodologically, interlanguage may be said to incorporate the assumption of both
Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis. While Contrastive Analysis contrasts the learner’s
native language and the target language, and conventional Error Analysis involves contrast

9
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

between the learner’s performance and the target language, interlanguage takes all three
elements into account.
The concept of Continuous Interlanguage may be presented by means of the
following scheme:

L1 (Native Language) ... IL1 ... IL2 ... IL3 ... IL4 ...Iln ..................... L2 (Target
Language
(Successive interlinguistic models)

7. THE CONCEPT OF INTERLANGUAGE.

Interlanguage is the type of language produced by second- and foreign- language

learners who are in the process of learning a language. In language learning, learner’s errors
are caused by several different processes. These include:
a. borrowing patterns from the mother tongue
b. extending patterns from the target language.
c. Expressing meanings using the words and grammar which are already known.
Interlanguage refers to the separateness of a second language learner’s system, a
system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and target language.
Interlanguage is neither the system of the native language nor the system of the target
language, but instead falls between the two; it is a system based upon the best attempt of
learners to provide order and structure to the linguistic stimuli surrounding them. By a
gradual process of trial and error and hypothesis testing, learners slowly and tediously
succeed in establishing closer and closer approximations to the system used by native
speakers of the language. Interlingual (Weinreich:1953), Interlanguage (Selinker , 1972)
Selinker (1972) coined the term ‘interlanguage’ to refer to the systematic knowledge
of an L2 which is independent of both these learner’s L1 and the target language. The term
has come to be used with different but related meanings: (1) to refer to the series of
interlocking systems which characterize acquisition, (2) to refer to the system that is
observed at a single stage of development (‘an interlanguage’), and (3) to refer to particular
L1/L2 combinations (for example, L1 French/L2 English v. L1 Japanese/L2 English). Other
terms that refer to the same basic idea are ‘approximative system’ (Nemser 1971) and
‘transitional competence’ (Corder 1967).

10
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

Teachers can give appropriate feedback after checking out learner’s interlanguage.
Learners need not worry so much about making mistakes. They can assume that making
mistakes is a procedure of development from mother tongue to Second Language.
• The variable shape of interlanguage
The concept of interlanguage has had a major impact on the field of second language
acquisition. Studies on interlanguage focus on the linguistic and psychological aspects of
second language acquisition research.
Before the 1960‘s language was not considered to be a mental phenomenon. Like
other forms of human behaviour language is learnt by processes of habit formation. A child
learns his mother tongue by imitating the sounds and patterns he hears around him. By
approval or disapproval, adults reinforce the child’s attempts and lead the efforts to the
correct forms. Under the influence of cognitive linguists this explanation of first language
acquisition was criticized. Language cannot be verbal behaviour only, since children are
able to produce an infinite number of utterances that have never heard before. This creativity
is only possible because a child develops a system of rules. A large number of studies has
shown that children actually do construct their own rule system, which develops gradually
until it corresponds to the system of the adults. There is also evidence that they pass through
similar stages acquiring grammatical rules. Through the influence of cognitive linguists and
first language acquisition research the notion developed that second language learners, too,
could be viewed as actively constructing rules from the data they encounter and that they
gradually adapt these rules in the direction of the target language. However wrong and
inappropriate learners’ sentences may be in regard to the target language system, they are
grammatical in their own terms, since they are a product of the learner’s own language
system. This system gradually develops towards the rule-system of the target language.
The various shapes of the learner’s language competence are called interlanguage. The
term draws attention to the fact that the learners’ language system is neither that of his
mother tongue nor that of the second language, but contains elements of both. Therefore,
errors need not be seen as signs of failure only, but as evidence of the learner‘s developing
system.
While the behaviourist approach led to teaching methods which use drills and
consider errors as signs of failure, the concept of interlanguage liberated language teaching
and paved the way for communicative teaching methods. Since errors are considered a
reflection of the students’ temporary language system and therefore a natural part of the
learning process, teachers could now use teaching activities which did not call for constant

11
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

supervision of the student‘s language. Group work and pair work became suitable means
for language learning.
- How does the learner proceed from one Interlanguage stage to the next?
According to the theory, it is by using the different strategies that learners build up mental
grammars of the L2. As these grammars are provisional heuristic constructions, the rules
can be seen as hypotheses. At any one time, the interlanguage may include several
competing hypotheses, so that the speaker's language is, in fact, variable, as he tries out
first one and then another.
Where does the learner start? According to Pitt Corder, the learner begins not with
his own L1, but with a highly-simplified version of it, which is, as it were, a memory of
one of the early stages of L1 learning. This 'stripped down' or basic system gives the learner
his first hypotheses - some linguists claim that it may be universal - that is, that these are
the rules that are at the basis of all languages. The learner then builds up from the
stripped-down form to greater complexity.
- Use and Acquisition - Tarone & Ellis
How does this building-up proceed? How does the learner get from one form of
interlanguage to the next? According to Tarone, we should recognise that the learner is not
simply a language learning machine - that is, he does not simply absorb syntax, phonology
and lexicon - he is an actor in the social world and is therefore concerned with the
pragmatic aspect of language - how to do what , and when. He quickly becomes aware of
register, and knows that he cannot speak in the same way to everyone, that he cannot use
the same language in all situations.
▪ We all have access to different 'codes' or registers - ranging from formal to informal.
Tarone holds that new language can enter the learner's system in one of two ways :
▪ - directly into the informal style, from where it may spread to more formal styles.
This may result in language being acquired in the 'natural' order
▪ - into the most formal style, and only used when the learner is paying close
attention to speech - then spreads into more informal styles
Ellis takes a similar position, only he insists on the distinction between 'planned' and
'unplanned' language. In unplanned discourse, the speaker uses automatic and unanalysed
knowledge. In planned discourse, the speaker uses analysed knowledge - monitoring is an
example of this. Development takes two forms:
▪ - learners make knowledge that was at first available only for planned discourse
available for unplanned discourse.

12
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

▪ - learners acquire new L2 by participating in different types of discourse - they create

new rules for themselves through discourse
The learner builds up a set of rules, some of which are in competition. To some extent,
different rules are used in different contexts - different levels of discourse, for example. But
the rules also may be used interchangeably - that is, in free variation, as Ellis puts it. It
is where there is free variation that learning takes place, for it is uneconomical to have two
forms for the same purpose - the learner either:
▪ a) replaces defective forms with more accurate forms. Thus, at one stage in the
acquisition of the negation, the learner may be producing both 'I no like it' and 'I don't
like it'. Gradually she replaces the first with the second.
▪ b) learns to use one form in one context, and the other in another - thus using different
forms for different functions.
A learner may have two request structures - "Would you mind passing the salt,
please?" and 'Hey, pass the salt!". She comes to realise that one of these belongs to a more
formal register. Just as I discovered that one is not supposed to 'tu-toi' the CRS officer who
is asking for your identity papers.
Ellis and Tarone's approaches both imply that Krashen is wrong in believing that we
learn a language simply by listening and reading. It is only through active participation that
new items enter the different registers, it is only through discourse that we learn that some
items are only to be used in certain settings. Krashen, leaning on Chomsky, has a tendency
to see language learning as being mainly a question of syntactic development. But the
pragmatic and, as we shall see, affective aspects of language are also important.
Through processes such as these, the language learner passes from one
Interlanguage to another; in each case, the interlanguage is a little closer to native speaker
competence. Thus, it might seem that, with time, sufficient exposure, and sufficient use, the
learner would normally achieve full bilingualism.
- Fossilisation
However, it is extremely rare for the learner of an L2 to achieve full native-like
competence: Selinker coined the term 'Fossilization' to refer to this phenomenon - non-
target forms become fixed in the interlanguage. Many examples can be found - Mukkatesh,
looking at the written production of 80 students at a Jordanian university, found that after 11
years’ instruction in learning English, they continued making errors such as the use
of simple past instead of simple present - no amount of grammatical explanation or of
error correction had any effect.
Fossilization may simply affect certain structures. Thus, Selinker says that:

13
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

Fossilizable linguistic phenomena are linguistic items, rules and subsystems which
speakers of a particular NL will tend to keep in their IL relative to a particular TL, no matter
what the age of the learner or amount of explanation and instruction he receives in the TL.
(NL - Native Language; IL - Interlanguage; TL - Target Language).
As this implies, a student may continue to make progress in certain areas, and yet
return again and again to the same error. Thus, for example, we find advanced students
who communicate with great skill and who make very few errors, but still do not master the
Pluperfect aspect of the verb in English.
- Alberto and 'pidginization'.
However, fossilization may set in once and for all, and the student simply gets stuck
at a plateau, never to go any further. One of the most well-known examples of fossilisation
is that of Alberto, a 33-year-old Costa Rican who had lived in Massachusetts for four months
when his language progress first began to be investigated. Along with five other Spanish-
speaking immigrants, (two five-year-old children, two adolescents and one other adult), his
speech was monitored over a period of 10 months, by a variety of means, including free
expression in natural settings to pencil and paper tests in the classroom. While the other
five all made progress, Alberto quickly fossilized. Schumann believes that what
happened with Alberto was that he went through a process similar to 'pidginization' -
that is, he constructed a basic lingua franca for the limited social purposes that brought him
into contact with English speakers.
▪ Thus, for negation, Alberto only used the two earliest stages
▪ 'no' + V - I no understand good
▪ 'don't' + V - don't know
using the first of these most often.
▪ For interrogatives, Alberto inverted subject and auxiliary in only 5% of cases,
reserving the correct form for only certain verbs - 'say' and 'like'. Occasionally he
would produce full verb movement - 'What are doing these people?"
▪ Although he achieved 85% accuracy for plural 's', he got the possessive 's' right in
only 9% of obligatory contexts, regular past tense in 7% and irregular past in 65%
He was particularly far from native-speaker forms in his use of auxiliaries, and
Schumann concluded that he could only be said to possess 'can' and certain copula forms
of 'be'. The other five learners were well ahead of him on this.
Why was his language 'pidginised' in this way? Schumann rejects both age and
cognitive level. Instead, he draws attention to the fact that Alberto's speech is very close to
classic pidgins in a number of ways. Schumann believed that Alberto found himself in a

14
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

situation very similar to that of a speaker of a pidgin. Pidgins are used between groups who
are at some social distance from each other. For Schumann, this is a crucial variable in
language learning. The relationship between the L1 group and the L2 group, may differ in a
number of ways
▪ 1. Dominance:
▪ L2 users may dominate the L1 group - French-speaking colonists in Tunisia.
▪ L2 users may be dominated by the L1 group - Hispanic immigrants to the USA.
▪ L2 users may be on an equal footing - middle-class French speakers in England.
▪ 2. Integration:
▪ L2 users may decide to assimilate to the L1 group - most Bretons now simply
regard themselves as French people.
▪ L2 users may decide to maintain their own culture - many Asian groups in Britain
continue to speak their own mother-tongue within the household, and to regard the
Indian sub-continent and their real home
The choice of assimilation or non-assimilation is not simply determined by the
members of the L2 group, but may be imposed upon them by the L1 group, who may
refuse to accept their efforts at assimilation. Thus West-Indian people in the United
Kingdom have increasingly come to look upon Caribbean Creoles as a mark of identity, after
discovering that the white majority were not willing to allow them to integrate. There has
indeed developed a British black Creole, distinct from both British English and true
Caribbean Creoles.
▪ 3. Enclosure:
▪ The L2 group may live separately from the L1 group - high enclosure - or may join in
the social activities of the L1 group.
For example, among first generation Asian immigrants to the UK, there was a
considerable degree of enclosure. It is interesting to note that this was of a higher degree
for the women than for the men. As female Asians have come to enter the wider society,
particularly through schooling, so there has developed a demand for separate
facilities. There is some evidence that it is the men who wish to see the women segregated,
rather than the women themselves.
Alberto found himself in a position where he belonged to a dominated group, with a
low degree of assimilation, and a high degree of enclosure. His life-style was such that he
had no need to develop his expressive powers in English, and so he declined to make the
considerable effort that it would have taken to make further progress beyond his semi--
pidginised state.

15
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

Alberto's pidginization of the English language, then, came about because he felt no
expressive needs could be met by the language. This is one other indication that the
Chomskian approach to language is not sufficient. We remember how Bruner insisted upon
the need for a LASS to complement the LAD - and how the baby's entourage provided a
context which was not simply communicative, but also affective. I want to suggest that this
affective aspect is also of great importance in the learning of the second language. Alberto
had no love either for or through the English language. The same is true of many of our
students, and may account for their relatively rapid fossilization.

8. THE TREATMENT OF ERROR.

The field of error analysis in SLA was established in the 1970s by S. P. Corder and
colleagues. A widely-available survey can be found in chapter 8 of Brown, 2000. Error
analysis was an alternative to contrastive analysis, an approach influenced by behaviorism
through which applied linguists sought to use the formal distinctions between the learners'
first and second languages to predict errors. Error analysis showed that contrastive analysis
was unable to predict a great majority of errors, although its more valuable aspects have
been incorporated into the study of language transfer. A key finding of error analysis has
been that many learner errors are produced by learners making faulty inferences about the
rules of the new language.
Error analysts distinguish between errors, which are systematic, and mistakes, which
are not. They often seek to develop a typology of errors. Error can be classified according
to basic type: omissive, additive, substitutive or related to word order. They can be classified
by how apparent they are: overt errors such as "I angry" are obvious even out of context,
whereas covert errors are evident only in context. Closely related to this is the classification
according to domain, the breadth of context which the analyst must examine, and extent,
the breadth of the utterance which must be changed in order to fix the error. Errors may also
be classified according to the level of language: phonological errors, vocabulary or lexical
errors, syntactic errors, and so on. They may be assessed according to the degree to which
they interfere with communication: global errors make an utterance difficult to understand,
while local errors do not. In the above example, "I angry" would be a local error, since the
meaning is apparent.
From the beginning, error analysis was beset with methodological problems. In
particular, the above typologies are problematic: from linguistic data alone, it is often
impossible to reliably determine what kind of error a learner is making. Also, error analysis
can deal effectively only with learner production (speaking and writing) and not with learner

16
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

reception (listening and reading). Furthermore, it cannot account for learner use of
communicative strategies such as avoidance, in which learners simply do not use a form
with which they are uncomfortable. For these reasons, although error analysis is still used
to investigate specific questions in SLA, the quest for an overarching theory of learner errors
has largely been abandoned. In the mid-1970s, Corder and others moved on to a more wide-
ranging approach to learner language, known as interlanguage.
Error analysis is closely related to the study of error treatment in language teaching.
Today, the study of errors is particularly relevant for focus on form teaching methodology.

9. INTERFERENCE OF SPANISH IN THE STUDY OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND

LANGUAGE.
Some aspects of Spanish which may influence the Spanish-speaking learner of
English include:
• PHONOLOGY.
o Vowels.
Spanish vowels have the approximate corresponding sounds in English:
/a/ father /o/ clock
/e/ step /u/ two
/i/ machine
There is no distinction between long and short vowels.
The vowel schwa has no Spanish equivalent.
o Consonants.
Knowledge of the point of articulation for the production of the sounds is necessary
to make the students aware of the differences.
o Beginning and Ending Sounds.
Cluster consonants used in English: street, school, small; final consonants in English.
o Stress.
First and second syllable in English, in Spanish last or next to last.
• GRAMMAR.
o Articles.
Veo al doctor Brown - I see the Dr Brown.
o Adjectives.
Tengo zapatos blancos - I have shoes whites.
o Subject Omission.
Lots of examples.

17
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

o Adverbs.
Toca bien la guitarra - He plays well the guitar.
o Verbs.
Does Peter lives here? Peter lives here.
o Personal Pronouns.
Lots of examples.
• Other Sources of Interference.
o Spelling Differences.
There are some interferences between both spelling system. Teachers should help
the students with transfer or cognate vocabulary.
o False Friends.
They are words which have the same or nearly the same spelling in both languages
but which semantically significantly. Ex.: Actual: *actual (real).
Library: * librería (biblioteca).
Conductor: *conductor (cobrador, director de orquesta).

11. CONCLUSION.
Foreign language teaching has not always counted on a theoretical basis of linguistic
characteristics. The most important schools which have approached foreign language
teaching appeared in the 19th. Century and mainly they have appeared in the 20 th and 21st
centuries.
In this unit we have studied the second language acquisition process and how it
differs from the age of the learner.
It is also important to consider the process of a second language acquisition in the
classroom. If there is a relaxing communicative atmosphere, with varied activities and tasks,
suitable linguistic models and a rich contextual backup, the unconscious mechanism of the
language acquisition will be operative. On the other hand, learning is a conscious process
of the assimilation of correct grammatical structures within a functional communicative
context.
To sum up - we have been looking at Krashen's natural order hypothesis, which holds
that the grammar of a second language is learnt in a specific order, whatever the learner's
L1. We have seen that there is some reason to believe that intralinguistic effects do occur,
and that there may well be some kind of a predictable sequence to the learning of a specific
L2. However, we have also noted that L1 does have some effects upon the acquisition of

18
David Navarro Sarabia Secondary English Unit 2 Updated Edition EPO

the L2 - these effects are both positive and negative - some errors do arise from
interference.
We have looked at the concept of interlanguage, which sees learners as constructing
their own grammatical systems. These systems are learner-driven rather than teacher-
driven - the learner progresses through employing a number of different strategies, some of
which are based upon her L1, some of which are based upon her desire to communicate,
and some of which may be rooted in the Universal Grammar.
We have also seen that learners of a second language tend to fossilize. They may be
partially fossilized, retaining certain errors while progressing in other ways, or they may, like
Alberto, get stuck upon a plateau. For some of us, like Alberto, the plateau is fairly close to
sea level: others attain higher levels. But most of us, it appears, get stuck sooner or later.
We have seen that the sociological situation of the learner and of the learner's
community in relation to the community that speaks the L2 can have a significant effect on
language learning. There are also other factors which intervene in the process, and which
may either induce fossilization or prevent it. Among the most important variables are
▪ - affective factors
▪ - amount of exposure - input
▪ - opportunities for expression
▪ - negative feedback - (note - not correction, but signalling incomprehension)
▪ - absence or presence of pressure on communication
Finally, we have seen that these factors put in doubt both Krashen's approach, and
the over-insistence on communication.

11. BIBLIOGRAPHY.
 Dale, P. Language Development, Structure and Function. Holt, Rinehart and Winston,
New York, 1976.
 Dulay, H., Burt, M., & Krashen, S.; Language Two. Oxford University Press. New York,
1982.
 Fromkin, V. & Rodman, R., An Introduction to Language. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
New York, 1978.
 Krashen, S. “Bilingual Education and Second Language Acquisition Theory”, in Schooling
and Language Minority Students: A Theorical Framework. Los Angeles: Evaluation,
Dissemination, and Assessment Center, California State University, 1981.
-

19