Selinker posits that when the learner is attempting to communicate in the target language, he employs a linguistic system distinct from (TL).There’s a continuum from the learner’s first language (L1) through successive learning stages to the acquisition of the target language. The learner progresses from A where he has no knowledge of the target language towards B and hoping to reach C where he will gain native speaker competence(target language). For every stage, there’s an interlanguage; one for the learner’s first attempts to communicate in the targets language, one for his near perfect use of it and many more in between. The assumption here is that IL evolves over a period of time and this evolution is presumably marked at every stage by systematic influence from the LI (source language) and L2 target language. This scenario is captured by Nemser (1971) in the diagram below:
According to Selinker in a SLA situation the majority of L2 learners rarely reach TL, in other words second language acquisition is seldom completely successful, in his view only 5% of L2 learners have successfully acquired the target language and 95% never reach native speaker competence.
A second principle in Selinker’s model is fossilization which is defined as:
“............... a permanent cessation of learning before the learner has attained TL norms at all levels of linguistic structure and in all discourse domains in spite of the learner’s positive ability, opportunity to acculturate into target society” (Selinker and Lamandella 1978: 187).
To some linguists fossilization is the inability of a person to attain native like ability in the target language (Lowther 1983: 127). It is however claimed that fossilization occurs when learners internalize a rule system that contains some rules that are different from those of the TL system; in most cases they apply the L1 rules to the TL. At this point the learners cannot be remedied by further instruction. The incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms into the learner’s second language competence is relatively permanent. Interestingly enough, the internalization of incorrect forms takes place by means of the same learning processes as the internalization of correct forms but we refer to the latter of course as “learning’''
Selinker maintains that language transfer is the main cause of fossilization. This is true when we consider that fossilization is ordinarily manifested phonologically in the learners’ “accents” in the speech of many of those who have learnt a second language after adolescence. For example in Kenya some groups have this problem: Kikuyu speakers tend to retain [r] instead of [l], Meru speakers retain [mb] instead of [b] and Luhyas retain [P] instead of [b].
Language transfer therefore involves linguistic items, rule or subsystems from the learner’s L1. It may also be that the L2 learners transfer specific features of the training process i.e. the features used to teach the L2. Some elements of the IL may however be as a result of overgeneralization of rules and semantic features of the TL.
francis1897 answered the question on
March 8, 2023 at 12:40