Interlanguage, fossilization

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'Interlanguage' and 'fossilization' are two terms we do not believe are very useful at The Linguist. However, Jill and I discussed them at the request of one of our members. If you would like to learn more about them, please listen to our podcast.

Comments

[Alexandre Rafalovitch]

I wrote a reply at my blog to this entry. As pretty much usual, I disagreed with Steve. Not anywhere as violently as last time though. :-)

The trackback for the post seemed to be disabled or denied, so I am putting the response article's link as a direct reference.

[Steve]

Suffice it to say that Alexandre and I differ fundamentally when it comes to language learning. It is not some clever teacher that will enable a learner to learn.

Furthermore,in response to Alexandre´s ideas about levels of efficiency in organizations, the learners at The Linguist are in no way like the employees of a firm. Employees have to follow the company´s philosophy and standards. That is not the case with language learners. They follow their own interests and natures. They are free individuals.

The fact that one is Russian and another Chinese does not matter. Chinese students learn for ten years amongst other Chinese students and still get "he and she" wrong. Same with Russians and the article. The same with me for masculine and feminine in French or Russian. This is not interlanguage it is just the process of gradually improving in a language. Only exposure will develop the right reflexes, not explanations of grammar and certainly not meaningless terms like "interlanguage."

Is a native speaker of English who regularly says " I would have went´" speaking interlanguage? What about my Swedish friend who speaks flawless English but says " It is many people here" instead of "there are many people here". Is he speaking interlanguage?

When I get to a proper internet connection (this is at a cafe) I will post the brief reference to Zhuangzi´s tree from my book. This was written five years ago and quotes Zhuangzi´s parable of the crooked pine tree.

The important thing for all language learners is to follow their interests and their natures. Listen and get used to the language. What The Linguist does is to make the content available and accessible, to help in the learning of the words and phrases, and to provide a community of tutors and learners to help keep the learner motivated.

There will be more on this subject, but I just wanted to make the point that Alexandre, like so many professionals of language, greatly overestimates the possibility of a teacher to "teach" someone the language, or even to provide guidance on "metacognitive strategies".

By the way I came across a new term recently, "code switching". I have not a clue what it means, but am certain it is a term that neither for the teacher nor the learner, is a useful term.

[Alexandre Rafalovitch]

I went back to reread my own blog entry to see how I could be so misunderstood.

When I talked about CMM (very much NOT my idea), I was talking about _teachers_ not learners. That, unfortunately, makes the rest of Steve's response a waste.

I would appreciate a response to the actual points I raised just to have this thread closed, as I am still intensely curious in Steve's thoughts on that.