Analysing interlanguage: how do we know what learners know?

In this article, we address the important issue of 'how we know what learners know' based on evidence from second language (L2) learners' spontaneous speech samples gathered longitudinally. We first examine some of the problems involved in the analysis of spontaneous speech, with focu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSecond language research Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 393 - 420
Main Authors Lakshmanan, U., Selinker, L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Sage Publications Ltd 01.10.2001
Subjects
Bias
French as a second language
Hypotheses
Interlanguage
Language acquisition
Learning Processes
Linguistic competence
Linguistics
Native language
Native languages
Researchers
Second language learning
Speech disorders
Spontaneous speech
Studies
United States > US
Illinois
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Summary:In this article, we address the important issue of 'how we know what learners know' based on evidence from second language (L2) learners' spontaneous speech samples gathered longitudinally. We first examine some of the problems involved in the analysis of spontaneous speech, with focus on L2 studies within the generative framework. Next, we revisit the issue of the comparative fallacy in L2 research. We first consider the effects of the comparative fallacy in relation to analyses of interlanguage with a target language bias. Next, we extend the comparative fallacy to include interlanguage analysis where the bias is towards the native language. We argue that the comparative fallacy in interlanguage studies, regardless of the nature of the bias (i.e., target language or native language) can lead to the underestimation and/or overestimation of the learners' linguistic competence.
ISSN:0267-6583
1477-0326
DOI:10.1191/026765801681495886