This document discusses language learners and learner language. It defines learner language as the written or spoken language produced by a language learner. Researchers study learner language to understand how a learner's internal language representations develop over time. Errors in learner language are important to analyze, as they reveal how the learner's grammar is developing. The document outlines different ways to identify, describe, explain, and evaluate errors made by language learners. It also discusses developmental patterns in learner language, such as common acquisition stages and sequences. Variability in learner language is influenced by linguistic, situational, and psycholinguistic contexts.
1. THE NATURE OF LEARNER
LANGUAGE
-Rod Ellis-
Ridha Ayu Karisma Dewi
2201410050
2. WHAT IS LANGUAGE LEARNER?
• Learner language is the written or spoken
language produced by a learner. It is also the
main type of data used in second-language
acquisition research. Much research in
second-language acquisition is concerned with
the internal representations of a language in
the mind of the learner, and in how those
representations change over time.
3. • The main way of investigating L2 acquisition is
by collecting and describing samples of
learner language. The description may focus
on the kinds of errors learners make and how
these errors change over time, or it may
identify developmental by describing in the
grammatical features.
4. Errors and error analysis
Reason for focusing on
error
They are a conspicious
It is useful for teacher to know what error learners make.
Paradoxically= making error help the learner to learn
5. Identifying errors
• How to analysing learner errors ??
• To identify errors we have to compare the
sentence learners produce with what seem to
be the normal or ‘correct’ sentences in the
target language with correspondent with
them.
6. Example:
• A man and a little boy was watching him.
It is not difficult to see that the correct
sentence should be:
• A man and a little boy were watching him.
7. Describing Error
• Errors that have been identified can be
described and classified into some types.
1. To classify errors into grammatical categories
by gathering all the errors relating to verb
and then identifying error in our sample.
2. Try to identifying general ways in which the
‘learners’ utterance differ from the the
reconstructed target-language utterances.
8. 3. Include ‘ommision’ (i.e. Leaving out an item
that is required for an utterances to be
considered grammatical.
4. Misinformation (i.e. Using one grammatical
form in place of another grammatical form).
5. Misordering (i.e. Putting the words in an
utterance in the wrong order).
9. Explaining error
• The identification and description of errors are
preliminaries to the much more interesting
task of trying to explain why they occur.
10. Error Evaluation
• Where the purpose of error analysis is to help
leanrners learn an L2, there is a need to
evaluate errors.
11. There are two errors:
1. Global errors.
2. Local errors.
12. Developmental Patterns
• We have seen that many of the errors that L2
learners make are universal. We can also
explore the universality of L2 acquisition by
examining the developmental pattern learners
follow.
13. 1. The Early Stage of L2 Acquisition
• Silent period: they make no attemp to say
anything to begin with.
• Their speech is likely to manifest two
particular characteristics (formulaic chunks
and performinguseful language functions such
as greetings and requests)
• The speech is proporsitional simmplification.
2. The Order of Acquisition
• Rank the feature according to how occurately
learners.
14. 3. . Sequence of acquisition
where particular grammatical features in a
language have a fixed sequence of
development, but the overall order of acquisition
is less rigid.
Example:
• Plural –s = Girls go.
• Progressive –ing = Girls going.
• Copula forms of be = Girls are here.
15. Variability in learner language
1. Linguistic context: in one context they use
one form while in other context they use
alternate forms.
2. Situational context: learners are no different
from native speaker. When native speaker of
English are talking to friends, they tend to
speak informally, using colloquial expression.
16. 3. Psycolinguistic context: It is more likely to use
target –language forms when he has time to
plan.
4. Free variation
A small fraction of variation in interlanguage
is free variation, when the learner uses two
forms interchangeably.