2.3 Interlanguage, Error Analysis & Affective Factors
Key Takeaways
Selinker's Interlanguage theory establishes that learner language is an autonomous, systematic, dynamic, and permeable linguistic continuum.
Error Analysis reframes errors from harmful habits into vital diagnostic evidence of active hypothesis testing, separating competence errors from performance mistakes.
Errors are categorized by their psycholinguistic source as interlingual (L1 transfer) or intralingual (overgeneralization, rule ignorance, incomplete application), and by severity as global or local.
Affective variables—including instrumental and integrative motivation, foreign language anxiety, and willingness to communicate—powerfully shape individual learning trajectories.
Explicit training in Oxford's direct compensation strategies and indirect metacognitive strategies empowers learners to cultivate communicative autonomy.
Selinker's Interlanguage Theory
In 1972, Larry Selinker introduced the construct of Interlanguage (IL), establishing that second language learners construct an independent, rule-governed linguistic system along a continuum between their native language (L1) and the target language (TL). Rather than an imperfect target imitation, interlanguage is a legitimate system with internal coherence.
Interlanguage exhibits three core properties:
- Systematicity: Governed by internal rules at each developmental stage, producing consistent structural hypotheses.
- Dynamism: Continually evolving as learners test hypotheses against new input and feedback.
- Permeability: Open to new target data, though stress or fatigue can cause temporary backsliding.
Fossilization Dynamics
Fossilization occurs when interlanguage development ceases before target proficiency, entrenching non-target forms despite adequate exposure and motivation. Key causes include:
- Communicative Satisfaction: Achieving basic functional communication reduces pressure to master formal accuracy.
- Premature Affective Feedback: Interlocutors responding to meaning without correcting form signals that non-target speech is acceptable.
- Neurobiological Constraints: Adult processing limits make subtle morphological nuances harder to detect naturally.
Educators counter fossilization through Focus on Form (FonF), consciousness-raising tasks, and pushed output.
From Contrastive Analysis to Error Analysis
Pedagogical views on errors shifted radically during the cognitive revolution of the late 1960s.
Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH)
Rooted in behaviorism (Robert Lado, 1957), CAH claimed learning difficulty was predictable from structural differences between L1 and L2:
- Positive Transfer: Structural similarities facilitate learning (e.g., cognates between Spanish and English).
- Negative Transfer (Interference): Differences produce errors (e.g., French speakers placing adjectives after nouns: "car blue").
The Strong Version (predicting all errors) was disproven: many predicted errors never occur, and learners across diverse native languages make identical developmental errors. The Weak Version merely explains observed transfer errors retrospectively.
Error Analysis (EA)
S. Pit Corder (1967) launched Error Analysis (EA), reframing errors from harmful habits into vital evidence of active hypothesis testing. Errors reveal the learner's internal syllabus and illuminate their developing interlanguage grammar.
Comprehensive Error Taxonomy
Errors versus Mistakes
Corder distinguished errors from mistakes based on self-correctability and underlying competence:
- Error (Competence Deficit): A systematic breach reflecting gaps in linguistic competence. The learner does not know the rule and cannot self-correct independently; explicit instruction is required.
- Mistake (Performance Slip): An unsystematic lapse caused by fatigue, anxiety, or processing overload. Underlying competence is intact, and the learner can self-correct when prompted.
Interlingual versus Intralingual Errors
- Interlingual Errors (L1 Transfer): Errors resulting from native language interference, such as calques ("I have 20 years" from Spanish Tengo 20 años) and phonological substitutions.
- Intralingual Errors (Developmental Errors): Errors generated internally within the target language system:
- Overgeneralization: Extending regular rules to irregular forms ("runned", "sheeps").
- Ignorance of Rule Restrictions: Applying rules to prohibited contexts ("He explained me the plan" on analogy with tell).
- Incomplete Application: Omitting required transformations ("Where you are going?").
- False Concepts Hypothesized: Misunderstanding what a form means, such as treating was as a general past-time marker ("It was happened yesterday") or using too to mean very ("The food was too good").
Global versus Local Errors
Marina Burt and Carol Kiparsky (1972) classified errors by communicative severity:
- Global Errors: Violate overall syntactic organization, obscuring sentence meaning ("English uses many people although difficult"). These severely impede communication and require immediate priority.
- Local Errors: Affect a single constituent without disrupting comprehension ("She work downtown"). The message remains clear.
Error Categorization with Authentic Student Utterances
| Student Utterance | Target Form | Error Category | Psycholinguistic Source | Recommended Pedagogical Intervention |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "I have 25 years." | "I am 25 years old." | Interlingual (L1 Transfer) | Direct semantic calque from Romance languages (Tengo 25 años) | Contrastive awareness task analyzing age idioms |
| "The childrens played." | "The children played." | Intralingual (Overgeneralization) | Overextending plural suffix -s to an irregular collective noun | Focus-on-form task contrasting irregular plural morphology |
| "She suggested me to stay." | "She suggested that I stay." | Intralingual (Rule Ignorance) | Misapplying reporting verb patterns (advise/tell) to suggest | Guided discovery analyzing reporting verb complement syntax |
| "Why he did say that?" | "Why did he say that?" | Intralingual (Incomplete Application) | Omitting auxiliary inversion and base-form verb transformation | Visual prompt cards scaffolding question inversion |
| "Since he was ill, but he came." | "Although he was ill, he came." | Global Error | Conjunction redundancy destroying subordinate clause cohesion | Discourse analysis contrasting subordinating and coordinating conjunctions |
| "My brother live here." | "My brother lives here." | Local Error | Third-person singular -s omission; late developmental feature | Light conversational recast during communicative fluency tasks |
Note
Address global errors promptly to ensure intelligibility. Reserve local error treatment for delayed feedback to avoid elevating learner anxiety during fluency activities.
Affective and Individual Learner Factors
Language acquisition is deeply mediated by affective and psychological variables.
Motivation Dimensions
- Integrative vs. Instrumental (Gardner & Lambert): Integrative motivation seeks social connection with the target language community; instrumental motivation targets utilitarian goals like employment or exams.
- Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic (Deci & Ryan): Intrinsic motivation arises from inherent task enjoyment, while extrinsic motivation relies on external rewards or avoiding penalties.
- Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System: Comprises the Ideal L2 Self (aspirational vision of oneself as an L2 speaker), Ought-to L2 Self (social obligations and expectations), and L2 Learning Experience (classroom atmosphere and teacher rapport).
Foreign Language Anxiety
Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) identified three facets on the FLCAS scale:
- Communication Apprehension: Shyness and difficulty speaking in an unfamiliar code.
- Test Anxiety: Fear of academic evaluation and performance failure.
- Fear of Negative Evaluation: Dread of social embarrassment and peer criticism.
While mild facilitating anxiety sharpens focus, severe debilitating anxiety causes cognitive freezing and elevates the affective filter. Teachers reduce anxiety through predictable routines, collaborative pair work, and low-stakes rehearsal.
Willingness to Communicate (WTC)
Peter MacIntyre's Willingness to Communicate (WTC) pyramid model shows how distal traits (personality, intergroup climate) and intermediate factors (perceived competence, self-confidence) converge into the situational intention to initiate discourse.
Learning Strategies and Learner Autonomy
Rebecca Oxford (1990) categorized language strategies into two domains:
- Direct Strategies (Direct Language Manipulation): Memory strategies (mnemonics), cognitive strategies (summarizing, analyzing), and compensation strategies (gestures, circumlocution).
- Indirect Strategies (Managing Learning Processes): Metacognitive strategies (goal planning, monitoring), affective strategies (anxiety reduction), and social strategies (asking clarification, peer cooperation).
Tip
Empower learner autonomy by teaching direct compensation strategies for immediate conversational breakdowns alongside indirect metacognitive strategies for independent, long-term acquisition.
During a small-group discussion, an adult intermediate student says, 'Yesterday, my sister buy a new computer.' Two minutes later, during a teacher-guided review, the teacher points to a timeline on the board and asks, 'What did she do yesterday?' The student immediately smiles and self-corrects: 'Oh! She bought a new computer.' How should this initial utterance be categorized, and what does it reveal about the learner's linguistic system?
An interlingual error caused by L1 grammatical interference that requires intensive explicit re-teaching.
A fossilized developmental plateau that indicates premature stabilization of past-tense morphology.
A global error that destroys propositional comprehension and requires immediate interruption of conversational flow.
A performance mistake rather than a competence error: the learner knows the rule but had a temporary processing lapse.
A Spanish-speaking adult learner writes in an academic essay: 'The scientist explained me the methodology.' Which specific error classification and psycholinguistic source best describe this sentence?
Interlingual error caused by negative transfer of Spanish sound patterns into written English.
Intralingual error: ignorance of rule restrictions, extending the 'tell/give' pattern to 'explain'.
Global error resulting from scrambled syntactic word order that prevents comprehension.
Performance mistake resulting from momentary cognitive fatigue during timed writing.
An adult English language learner in a workplace ESL class frequently experiences intense anxiety, communication apprehension, and dread of making public mistakes during whole-class discussions. According to affective research by Horwitz et al. and Rebecca Oxford's strategy taxonomy, which instructional combination would most effectively reduce the learner's debilitating anxiety and foster communicative autonomy?
Increasing the difficulty of public impromptu questioning to rapidly desensitize the student to negative evaluation.
Relying exclusively on individual silent worksheets while removing all interactive speaking requirements from the curriculum.
Administering timed oral grammar tests with immediate error correction to extinguish communicative apprehension.
Think-pair-share routines with small-group rehearsal, plus explicit teaching of affective and metacognitive strategies.
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