second language learning

1. Interlanguage
• The type of language produced by
second- and foreign-language
learners who are in the process of
learning a language.
• This term was used by Selinker for
the first time.

2. • interlanguage hypothesis is the hypothesis that
language learners possess a grammatical system
that is different from both the first language and
the target language but is nevertheless a natural
language.

3. Interlanguage
In language learning, learner language is influenced
by several different processes. These include:
a. borrowing patterns from the mother tongue (see
language transfer)
b. extending patterns from the target language, e.g.
by analogy (see overgeneralization)
c. expressing meanings using the words and
grammar which are already known (see
communication strategy).

4. Interlanguage
• Since the language which the learner produces using
these processes differs from both the mother tongue
and the target language, it is sometimes called an
interlanguage.
• Interlanguage (IL) refers to the intermediate states of a
learner’s language as it moves toward the target L2.
• Selinker and others taking this approach considered
the development of the IL to be a creative process,
driven by inner forces in interaction with
environmental factors, and influenced both by L1 and
by input from the target language.

5. Interlanguage
• An interlanguage has the following characteristics:
• Systematic. At any particular point or stage of development, the
IL is governed by rules which constitute the learner’s internal
grammar.
• Dynamic. The system of rules which learners have in their minds
changes frequently, or is in a state of flux, resulting in a succession
of interim grammars. Selinker views this change not as a steady
progression along a continuum, but discontinuous progression
“from stable plateau to stable plateau” ( 1992 :226).
• Variable. Although the IL is systematic, differences in context
result in different patterns of language use.
• Reduced system, both in form and function. The characteristic of
reduced form refers to the less complex grammatical structures
that typically occur in an IL compared to the target language