1. 1
LEARNER LANGUAGE

2. Learner Language
2
 Interlanguage
 Generalization
 Transfer
 Internal sequences

3. Interlanguage
3
Input Noticing Intake Interlanguage

4. Interlanguage Rules
4
 Learners create language rules from intake
 Rules determine learners’
 Comprehension
 Production
 Interlanguage rules are changeable
 From the outside (input)
 From the inside (learner hypotheses)

5. Interlanguage Rules
5
 Learners’ interlanguage changes with time
 Rules are altered
 Rules are deleted
 Rules are added

6. Irregular verbs
6

7. Interlaguage Continuum
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L1 IL L2
L1 IL L2

8. Interlanguage
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 Has rules
 Is changeable, but not random
 Moves towards L2, but may become fossilized

9. Processes
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 Processes that create interlanguage
 Generalizations
 Transfer
 Internal sequences

10. Generalizations
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 Generalizations are used in many learning
situations
 Learners group similar things, events,
information, etc. together into categories
 Learners make rules to predict how different
items will behave

11. Generalization
11
 Learners categorize what they hear and make
rules for those categories
 Learners use those categories and rules in
new situations

12. Overgeneralization
12
 Learners sometimes make mistakes because
 Categories have exceptions
 Learners put language in the wrong categories

13. Overgeneralization
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 An item belongs to a category but it is an
exception to a general rule for the category
 Irregular verbs: go – went, choose – chose
 Irregular plurals: wife – wives, mouse – mice
 An item belongs to a different category
 Auxiliary verbs and third person aspect: He goes to
the store – He will goes to the store

14. Transfer
14
 Learners use their knowledge of their first
language to understand and organize second
language information
 When there are differences in the first and second
language, transfer can lead learners to make
errors
 When first and second language are the same,
transfer help learners

15. Examples of errors due to
15
transfer
 Pronunciation
 Vocabulary
 Speech acts

16. Pronunciation
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 How do you pronounce the following?
 Salad
 Shirt
 Earth
 19
 90
 Base – vase
 Rob – lob

17. Vocabulary
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Idiom Meaning in English Meaning in Arabic
day after day every day every other day
red-faced embarrassed furious
(jokingly) say something
pull one's leg let him talk
untrue
stretch one's legs take a walk lie down
head over heels completely (in love) upside down

18. Speech acts
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 Americans hosts tend to offer food and drink
three times. American guests tend to refuse
the first two offers and accept the third.
 Dutch hosts tend to offer food and drink only
once. Dutch guests are expected to accept if
they are thirsty or hungry or refuse if they are
not.

19. Transfer and generalization
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 Transfer and overgeneralization are not distinct
processes
 Generalization: Learners make use of their
knowledge of the second language
 Transfer: Learners make use of their knowledge
of their first language to produce or understand
a second language

20. Successful learning
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 Overgeneralization and transfer are not bad
 Overgeneralization and transfer lead learners
to successfully produce language more often
than they lead them to make errors
 Errors are part of the learning process

21. Internal Sequences
 Learners
 Hear different language, for example, in
classrooms
 Have different first languages
 Therefore, we expect that learners learn a
second language in different ways

22. Morpheme studies
 Researchers studied how accurately learners
used different morphemes
 Studied learners with different first languages
 Analyzed how accurately the morphemes were
used

23. Morpheme Study Results 1
 Group 1: present progressive -ing as in boy
running
 plural -s as in two books
 copula `to be' as in he is big
 Group 2: auxiliary `to be' as in he is running
 articles the and a
 Group 3: irregular past forms as in she went
 Group 4: regular past -ed as in she climbed
 third-person singular -s as in she runs
 possessive -s as in man's hat

24. Morpheme study results 2
 Learners used morphemes in Group 1 most
accurately
 Researchers assumed that degree of
accuracy indicated the order in which
morphemes are learned
 English morphemes are learned in a
predictable sequence

25. Morpheme study results 3
 Sequence is only a tendency
 Variation in all studies
 Other studies have shown contradictory results
 Thus, morpheme studies are not completely
reliable

26. Questions
 Second language learners go through the
same stages in learning questions as first
language learners

27. Question Stages
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Stage Examples
Stage 1: What daddy doing?
wh-word goes in front Why Sarah crying?
Where you go?
Stage 2: Where he will go?
Adds the auxiliary verb What he is doing?
Why Sarah is crying?
Stage 3: What is daddy doing?
Grammatically correct Where will you go?
Why do you work?

28. Progress through the stages
 Progress is gradual
 One stage slowly disappears and is replaced
by another
 Learners often produce questions from
different stages

29. Conclusions
 Second language learners tend to learn
some language features in sequences
 Morphemes
 Negatives
 Questions
 Sequences are usually independent of the
learners first language
 Sequences indicate that there may be
something internal helping learners learn
second languages

30. Learner Language
30
 Interlanguage
 Generalization
 Transfer
 Internal sequences