The 5 principle together constitute the way in which the learner tries to internalize the L2 system.
Learners have limited space for processing, cannot cope with the complex language system.
Some L2 learners fail to reach the target language, because they do not reach the end of the interlanguage continuum, stop learning, when their interlanguage contains some rules different from the rules of the target language. This is called fossilization. Fossilization occurs in most language learners. Fossilized structure can be realized as errors or as correct target language forms.
If the learner has reached the stage of development, in which 1 feature in the interlanguage has assumed the same form in the target language, than fossilization of the correct form will occur.
If the learner has reached the stage of development in which the feature does not have the same form as the target language, the fossilization will occur as an error. In that case the fossilization occur, because the learner believes that he does not need to develop his interlanguage any further, in order to communicate effectively.
We know from Chomsky, that children acquire languages, because of the existence of the child’s acquisition device, which changes with age and it’s not possible after puberty. The question: How do adults succeed in learning L2, if the acquisition device is not possible for them any more?
As Selinker argued that those adults, who successfully achieve native-speaker proficiency in the TL, do so, because they continue to make use of acquisition device and they are able to transform the universal grammar into the structure of the grammar of the target language.
But those adults who cannot achieve proficiency is because, they are unable to reactivate the acquisition device.
Until 1960, the prevention of errors was more important, than the identification of errors.
It was Corder, who first realised the importance of analysing the learner’s errors (1967).
As I said before, both L1&L2 learners make errors in order to test out certain hypothesis about the nature of the language, they are learning.
Corder saw the making of errors as a strategy, evidence of learners internal processing.
This was in opposition of the view of behaviourist psychology, presented in the Contrastive Analysis before.
Because Contrastive analysis believed that errors produced by the L2 learner, result from the interference of L1,Contrastive analysis was based on the comparison of L1 and L2, and teacher were aware of the errors.
The new interest in errors was the recognition that they provide information about the process of acquisition.
The interlanguage theory constitutes an attempt to explain those errors, using the error analysis. Error analysis had 2 questions to answer:
- What light can the study of learner’s errors throw on the sequence of development?
- What light can errors shed on the strategies that the learner uses to assimilate the rule of L2?
Error analysis provides 2 kinds of information about interlanguage.
- Linguistic type of errors produced by L2 learners.( errors with verbs)
However this type of information is not very helpful, when we want to understand the learner’s development sequences. Because these errors do not tell us much about the development of the L2.
Error analysis present an incomplete picture of SLA, because it focuses only on the part of the language L2 learner produce, containing only the idiosyncratic forms, and describing interlanguage requires examining the idiosyncratic and non idiosyncratic forms as well.
Also because SLA is a continuous process of development it’s doubtful whether much insight can be gain the route learners take from a procedure that examines language-learner language at a single point in time.
- Psycholinguistic type of errors produced by L2 learners. It is about the strategies used in interlanguage. Answering the 2. question. Lot of strategies identified, about the kinds of strategies learners employ to simplify the task of learning L2.
- Overgeneralization: used when the items do not carry contrast for the learner.(past tense(-ed, carries no meaning, because can be indicated lexically with yesterday)
- Ignorance of rules restriction: When rules are extended to context where in target language usage they do not apply.
- Incomplete application of rules: failure to learn the most complex type of structure, because the learner finds can achieve effective communication by using the simple rule.
- False concepts hypothesis: refers to errors, derived from faulty understanding of L2.
There are so many classifications for the errors, what learners make, in Error Analysis, one of them, when they distinguished, interference errors, inralingual errors, and development errors
- Interference errors, caused by the influence of the native language, in those areas, where the languages differ.
- Intralingual errors, originate with the structure of English itself.
- Development errors, reflect the student attempt to make hypotheses about the language
As a result of interlanguage theory, errors were no longer seen as unwanted forms, but as evidence of the learner’s active contribution.
Error analysis can be used to investigate the processes that contribute to interlanguage development. The most significant contribution of error analysis is that, it elevates the status of errors from the undesirability to the guide to the inner workings to the language learning process.
Error analysis can benefit the tutor in several ways. First, it accounts for many errors which Contrastive Analysis does not.
Second, because it emphasizes the student's recognition of language systems -- the fact that the student is learning rules and applying them -- the tutor can approach the student with a more positive attitude. Instead of seeing the student as simply an individual who has not or cannot learn proper usage, the tutor can understand the student as someone practicing cognitive skills -- analyzing, inducing, classifying, etc. From this perspective, the student becomes an active thinker -- not merely a passive receptacle waiting only to receive instruction.
Third, the tutor can use error analysis to classify the error according to a system and correct it by teaching proper target language examples. For instance, if the student consistently forms the past tense by adding -ed to all verbs but can identify and correct them when editing, the tutor may conclude that the student is overextending the rule during the composition of the first draft simply because he or she is concentrating on the ideas expressed rather than on spelling. Instead of reviewing past tense rules, the tutor might elect to stress the need to edit and proofread.