FROM ALMOST O TO ALMOST 100: SOME ASPECTS OF THE INTERLANGUAGE CONTINUUM

Abstract

The publication in the early seventies of several papers on the nature of second language (SL) learner output and its importance for developing and testing theories about second language acquisition (SLA) marked a fundamental departure from earlier contrastive analysis (CA) approaches to errors in SL production. Drawing on behavioural psychology notions, such as 'interference' and 'transfer', Lado (1957) states that the level of grammatical similarity between a learner's first language (L1) and his target language (TL) will determine the degree of ease or difficulty he encounters in acquiring that second language. Interference, the CA hypothesis insists, is the result of unfamiliarity with the rules of a TL and psychological causes, such as inadequate learning (Duskova, 1969). Grammatical structures difficult to learn will be those that are very different in the mother-tongue and the second language being learnt (Lado, 1957: 58-59). 'Transfer' can be positive or negative: linguistic features of the L1 that are similar to those of the TL will facilitate learning (positive transfer); those aspects of the L1 that are different to the TL grammatical and phonological system will hinder SLA and cause the learner to make numerous production errors (negative transfer). According to behaviourist theory, both types of transfer are the outcome of automatic and subconscious use of old habits in new learning situations (Dulay, Burt & Krashen, 1982). CA would predict, therefore, that learners of English as a second language (ESL) with Spanish as their L1, for example, will be more successful in acquiring English than native speakers of Thai. Armed with information from a CA study of Thai and English, the ESL teacher was to become aware of the errors likely to be produced by his Thai students, be prepared to predict learning difficulties, and discourage the production of such errors through constant correction and drilling of problematic TL structures: The role of the L2 teacher, then, was to insure, as far as possible, 'bad' L1 habits were replaced by the desired 'good' TL habits.