A+gengeral+overview+of+interlanguage+fossilization

关于SLA里的IL石化(僵化)现象研究

教育论丛

A gengeral overview of interlanguage fossilization

徐 菁 长春师范学院 外语学院 吉林 长春 130032

[中图分类号]：K825.46 [文献标识码]：A [文章编号]：1002-2139(2010)-15-0097-02

Introduction

Interlanguage fossilization is a common phenomenon in the field of second language acquisition. Over the past 30 years or so, many researchers and linguists have made various careful studies on the phenomenon of fossilization and they have achieved a lot of insights in the studies and contributed greatly to foreign language teaching and learning. The study on fossilization phenomenon in SLA has been attracting more and more people’s attention.

I. The concept of “fossilization”:1.The definition of interlanguage

The term interlanguage was proposed by famous linguist Larry Selinker in 1972 in his thesis with the same title. It was used to refer to the systematic knowledge of language which is independent of the native language and the target language system which the language learner is trying to learn. It takes the mother tongue as the starting point, and gradually approaches to the target language and it is a dynamic language system. Most of the English teachers and language learners have this kind of experience: unlike the previous period when they can make progress steadily, they just didn’t have any progress after several years of studying the language and reach a certain period, at least they cannot see obvious progress.

The term has come to be used with different but related meaning: 1) to refer to the series of interlocking systems which characterize acquisition; 2) to refer to the system that is observed at a single stage of development (i.e. ‘an interlanguage’); 3) to refer to particular mother tongue/target language communication. In short, interlanguage refers to the interim grammar, or the continuum of the systematic knowledge of the target language, built by second language learners on their way to the target language. It is between the mother tongue and the target language and develops gradually, with the input increasing, toward the target language. The following figure

shows the development of an interlanguage:

Development of the Interlanguage 2. The notion of fossilization

Selinker (1972) remarks that perhaps a mere 5% of learners succeed in learning a second language, they can achieve native-speaker competence. That is, over 95% of L2 learners fail to reach the end of the interlanguage continuum. This is perhaps the most striking feature that distinguishes the second from the first language acquisition: children’s grammar generally does not get stuck at an interim stage short of full L1 competence, whereas the grammar of second language learners typically does. Selinker (1972) suggests that there is a psychological mechanism that underlies the production of fossilized items, which he terms as ‘fossilization’. Later researchers try to define fossilization from different perspectives, thus the definitions of fossilization vary a great deal. But Selinker’s original 1972 definition remains the most widely accepted one, which goes as follows: Fossilizable linguistic phenomena are linguistic items, rules and subsystems which speakers of a particular native language will tend to keep in their interlanguage relative to a particular target language, no matter what the age of the learner or amount of explanation and instruction he receives in the target language”.

Ellis also gives a definition of fossilization: Fossilization occurs in most languages and cannot be remedied by further instruction. Fossilized structures can be realized as errors or as correct target language forms. If, when fossilization occurs, the learner has reached a stage of development in which feature X in his interlanguage has assumed the same form as in the target language, then fossilization of the correct form will occur. If, however, the learner has reached a stage in which feature Y still does not have the same form as the target language, then fossilization will manifest itself as an error. Selinker makes it clear that fossilization applies to both non-target language and target language forms. What should be noticed here is that the presently and commonly accepted concept of fossilization is slightly different from what Selinker meant in 1972. Thus, it is evident that fossilization occurs not only when learners produce errors but also when they produce target-like utterances. Present understanding about this concept of fossilization focuses more, however, on the learner’s error.

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关于SLA里的IL石化(僵化)现象研究

青年文学家

II. Types of fossilization

property. In form, fossilization falls into two major categories, Selinker classified fossilization according to its form and namely property, it can be divided into temporary fossilization and individual fossilization and group fossilization. In permanent fossilization.

1.Individual fossilization and group fossilization

learnerIndividual fossilization is the persistence of individual fossilization is the plateau in the diachronic development of a ’s interlanguage development, while the group community language. Individual fossilization consists mainly of two types: error reappearance and language competence fossilization. The former type is the repeated appearance of inappropriate IL structures, which are not restricted to syntactic structures feedback. This type of fossilization, i.e. error reappearance, can in L2 learners’output in spite of any corrective be easily found in the interlanguage of beginners or learners with low proficiency. On the contrary, language competence fossilization is usually found in the L2 learners who have been learning the target language for a long period of time or the learners who are very fluent speakers of the L2. This type of fossilizat …… 此处隐藏：5994字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……