The Nature of Learner Language

1. The Nature of Learner Language Ulfah Nur Farida 2201410054 403-404

2. Errors and Error Analysis • There are good reasons for focusing on errors

3. Analysing Learner Errors

4. Identifying Errors

5. Describing Errors

6. Explaining Errors The identification and description of errors are preliminaries to the much more interesting task of trying to explain why they occur Errors are : • Systematic • Some of them universal, and some other not • Have different sources

7. Error Evaluation Some errors can be considered more serious than others, because they are more likely to interfere with the intelligibility of what someone says Some errors, known as global errors, violatethe overall structure of a sentence and for thiss reason may make it difficult to process Other errors, known as a local errors , affect only a single constituent

8. Developmental Pattern The early stages of L2 acquisition : Undergo a silent period. That is, they make no attempt to say anything to begin with Proporsitional simplification, learners find it difficult to speak in full sentences so they frequently leave words out.

9. In time, though, learners do begin to learn the grammar of the L2. This raises other questions. One concerns the acquisition order. • Another question concerns the sequence of acquisition.

10. The order of acquisition

11. Sequence of acquisition When learners acquire a grammatical structure they do so gradually, moving through a series of stages en route to acquiring the native-speaker rule. The acquisition of a particular grammatical structure, therefore, must be seen asa process involving transitional constructions.

12. Learners are likely to pass through the different stages shown in Table

13. Acquisition follows a U-shaped course of development ; that is initially learners may display a high level of accuracy only to apparently regress later before finally once again performing in accordance with target-language norms. As learners restructure their grammatical systems, they may appear to regress whereas in fact they are advancing

14. Some implications • The discovery of common patterns in the way in which learner language changes over time is one of the most important findings of SLA • It provides further support for the conclusionsreached from the study of learners errors, namely that L2 acquisition is systemic, to a large extent, universal, reflecting ways in which internal cognitive mechanisms control acquisition, irrespective of the personal background of learners or the setting in which they learn

15. Variability in learner language At any given stage of development, learners sometimes employ one form an sometimes another. Thus, one type of error may alternate with anither type Or an error may alternate with the correct target-language form: Yesterday the thief steal the suitcase Yesterday the thief stealing the suitcase Yesterday the thief steal the suitcase Yesterday the thief stole the suitcase

16. Summary • In this section, we have examined a number of properties of learner language and, in so doing, traced the way in which SLA has envolved as a field of enquiry • Early on, researchers focused on leraners’ errors, developing procedures for identifying, describing, explaining, and evaluating them • Subsequently, researchers focused on exploring the regularities of L2 acquisition by searching for ‘orders’ and ‘sequences’ of acquisition

17. Research on variabilty has sought to show that, although allowance should perhaps be made for some free variation, variability in learner language is systematic • Furthermore, variability plays an integrative part in the overall pattern of development, with learners moving through a series of stages that reflect different kinds of variability

18. Thank You