（英语语言文学专业论文）语际语理论对外语教学的提示.pdf

摘 要 七十年代以来 随着对人类交流和语言教学中出现的实际问题的研究 涌现了大量的应 用语言学和语言研究方面的论述这些论述广泛吸取语言学社会学心理学和教育学方面 的经验主义研究成果和理论精髓探索了语言习得和语言运用中出现的主要问题 本文力图基于经验主义的研究和当前语际语在第二语言习得理论中所处的地位 对学习 者语言的研究成果和思想理论的发展情况进行较为综合性的阐述 通过对这些研究成果的分 析和理解 作者试图说明语际语的研究成果蕴藏着很深的内涵 而这种内涵同样对于今天的 第二语言习得和教学有着实际的指导意义 这篇论文分为六个章节第一章简略介绍了语际语的起源定义和主要的性质特点第 二章讨论了基于 c o r d e r , n e m s e r 和 s e l i n k e r 三个学者的理论观点形成的语 际语理论框架以后的讨论主要就是在此理论基础上进行的语际语的可变性构建方式和 语际语连续体亦是本文涉及的主要内容为了便于理解对一些重要的概念如语际识别 僵化 语言变项规则等也作了相应的分析 经验主义的研究成果和语际语理论带来了许多具 体化的建议 它们对语言教学有着相当大的影响 这正是本文最末一个章节涉及的关键问题 本文力求从不同的角度来阐述学习者的语言 以引导外语教师 从而进一步提高外语教 学的效果 abstract since it was first established in the 1970s, the applied linguistics and language study series has become a major force in the study of practical problems in human communication and language education. drawing extensively on the empirical research and theoretical work in linguistics, sociology, psychology and education, the series explores key issues in language acquisition and language use. this paper tries to provide a comprehensive account of the development of research and thinking in the field of learner language from the empirical work to current speculation about the place of interlanguage in second language acquisition theory, and to show how earlier research contains further insights that have contemporary relevance to second language acquisition and teaching practices. this paper is composed of six chapters. the first chapter briefly describes the history, definition and principal features of interlanguage. chapter two discusses the theoretical frameworks of interlanguage by corder, nemser and selinker. the account that follows is mainly based on the three scholars prominent contribution in this field. variability in interlanguage, means of interlanguage construction and interlanguage continuum are chief concernments as well. some important notions, such as interlingual identification, fossilization and variable rules are also considered. together with the empirical research, interlanguage theory led to a number of specific proposals that had a considerable impact on language pedagogy. this is just the key issue considered in the last chapter. this paper attempts to provide the language teachers with different views on learner language. it is the authors hope that they will find the information useful in their teaching. - 1 - introduction the concept of interlanguage, a term coined by selinker (1972), is used to refer to both the internal system that a learner has constructed at a single point in time (an interlanguage) and to the series of interconnected systems that characterize the learners progress over time (interlanguage or the interlanguage continuum). this construct has been subject to both cognitive and linguistic interpretations. cognitive theories of il postulate that, with the assistance of learning strategies, learners build mental grammars of the l2. these grammars account for performance in the same way as a native-speaker grammar; that is, learners draw on the rules they have constructed to interpret and produce utterances. the theory that motivated and fed off the empirical research become known as il theory. it is a constantly evolving theory, having changed considerably since its initial formulation. it is, therefore, not any easy task to produce an accurate account of the theory. the aim here is to provide a brief and composite account of the central premises of il theory. (1) il is said to be systematic because learners behave grammatically in the sense that they draw on the rules they have internalizeda view that casts doubt on the use of the term error itself (cook 1971), as learners utterances are only erroneous with reference to tl norms, not to the norms of their own grammars. (2) the learners grammar is perceived as dynamic and subject to rapid change. thus, the il continuum consists of a series of overlapping grammars. each grammar shares some rules with the previously constructed grammar, but also contains some new or revised rules. a rule has the status of a hypothesis. each grammar or il is likely to be characterizd by competing rules, or as corder (1976) puts it, there will be several concurrent hypothesis, leading to a set of coexistent approximative systems. it is this that account for systematic variability in learner performance. (3) sla is characterized not by simplification but by - 2 - complexification. each grammar the learner builds is more complex than the one that preceded it. corder (1977a) has suggested that the learners starting point is the same as in l1 acquisition: a basic system consisting of lexical items and a few simple rules for sequencing them. this system constitutes the initial hypothesis and may be universal. it follows that sla involves a recreation rather than a restructuring continuum; that is, the starting point is not the full l1 which is gradually replaced by l2 rules and items, but a simple, reduced system of the l1, which is gradually complexified. (4) the process by which ils are constructed has been explained in various ways. one type of explanation identifies a number of cognitive learning processes such as l1 transfer, overgeneralization and simplification. the similarity between l1 and l2 acquisition lies in the process of hypothesis formation and testing. hypothetical rules, formulated on the basis of learning strategies, are tested out in comprehension and production and amended if understanding is defective or if the utterances produced fail to communicate. when learners are faced with having to communicate messages for which the necessary linguistic resources are not available, they resort to a variety of communication strategies. these enable them to compensate for their lack of knowledge. (5) the learners grammar is likely to fossilize. selinker suggested that many learners stop developing their il grammar in the direction of the tl.instead they reach a plateau beyond which they do not progress. this may be because there is no communicative need for further development. alternatively it may be because full competence in a l2 is neurolinguistically impossible for most learners. the prevalence of backsliding is typical of fossilized learners. fossilization does not occur in l1 acquisition and thus is a unique feature of il systems. . - 3 - chapter one description of interlanguage 1.1 historical perspective where second language acquisition (sla) is concerned, the key concept in the revised thinking about the process of learning was that of interlanguage (il). it is generally agreed that the study of il is only over thirty years old, dating from s. pit corder 1967. since corders seminal 1967 paper the significance of learners errors, there have been literally hundreds of empirical studies about il in sla. larry selinker honored corder as intellectual father in il and sla. in the edinburgh department of applied linguistics in the late 1960s, corder led to the formulation of the original il hypothesis. he also set up a context for creative work for younger scholars.as selinker stated, without pits personal hospitality and intellectual input, there would be no il hypothesis; how could we possibly manage without all he created? (1992). selinker found a further impetus for trying to create a new framework for what second language (sl or l2 ) learners appeared to be actually doing; this framework became known as the il hypothesis. in the early 1970s the il paper was first published. 1.2 definitions of interlanguage the concept il emerged from years of experience discussing the experimental language transfer (lt, it will be considered later in this paper) results. the term interlanguage, with the meaning from sla, appears for the first time in print in general linguistics as the write-up of the experimental portions of the lt study: an interlanguage may be linguistically described using as data the observable output resulting from a speakers attempt to produce a foreign norm, i.e. both his errors and non-errors. it is assumed that such behaviour is - 4 - highly structured. in comprehensive lt work, it seems to me that recognition of the existence of an il cannot be avoided and that it must be dealt with as a system, not as an isolated collection of errors .(selinker 1969) this quotation argues that one is compelled to the concept il after carefully studying experimentally obtained lt data. the key idea is that the learners observable outputis highly structured and that it must be dealt with as a system, not as an isolated collection of errors. it also states that: this notion of il may puzzle some readers and this is quite understandable. especially with regard to individual differences the status of the il as an unambiguous system is not clear; this concept should be developed in the coming years. (ibid.) in certain kinds of societies, the results of learner ils are clearly stabilized non-native varieties of the international english language used for specific purposes and learned to a large extent through the school system. part of the future discovery of il must be a more complete understanding of the relationships between learner ils and these stabilized new varieties. the term il was first used by selinker (1972). various alternative terms have been used by different researchers to refer to the same phenomenon; william nemser (1971) refers to approximative systems, and corder (1971) to idiosyncratic dialects and transitional competence or simply to learner language. nemser (1971b) defines approximative systems as: the deviant linguistic system which the learner employs when trying to use the target language (tl). the learner passes through a number of approximative systems on the way to acquring full tl proficiency. transitional competence is an important theme in corder 1967. that is the learners underlying knowledge of the language to date. the notion - 5 - competence, of course, comes from chomsky (1965). the idea that this competence in the l2 is transitional is meant to capture the dynamic nature of the learners developing system. il is the term coined by selinker to refer to the systematic knowledge of a l2 which is independent of both the learners first language (l1) and the tl. il was the theoretical construct which underlay the attempts of sla researchers to identify the stages of development through which l2 learners pass on their way to l2 (or near l2 ) proficiency. this research indicates that there were strong similarities in the developmental route followed by different l2 learners. these terms reflect two related but different concepts. first, il refers to the structured system which the learner constructs at any given stage in his development; second, il refers to the series of il systems which form what corder (1967) called the learners built-in syllabus. 1.3 principal features of interlanguage selinker raised three principal features of il in one way or another. these features were also generally acknowledged by a great number of researchers of il such as adjemian (1976), cook (1971) and ellis (1985)etc. let us examine each feature by focusing on the essential characteristics. 1.3.1 interlanguage is systematic that is, at a particular stage of development, learners consistently use the same grammatical form, although this is often different from that employed by native speakers. learners dont select haphazardly from their store of il rules, but in predictable ways. learners base their performance plans on their existing rule system in much the same way as the native speakers base their plans on their internalized knowledge of the l1 system. - 6 - it has been pointed out (cook 1971) that evaluating l2 performence in terms of the tl grammar is unsatisfactory, because the learner behaves grammatically in the sense that he draws systematically on his il rules. a learners utterance can be classified as erroneous only with reference to the norms of the tl. for the l2 learner, however, the true norms are contained in the il system he has constructed. 1.3.2 interlanguage is permeable the l2 learners il system is permeable, in the sense that rules that constitute the learners knowledge at any one stage are not fixed, but are open to amendment. in many respects this is a general feature of natural languages, which evolve over time in ways not dissimilar to the developments that take place in il. for example, in chaucers english the standard negative construction involved using not after the main verb; the present-day english pattern, where not is positioned between the auxiliary and main verb, evolved only gradually over several centuries. in a similar way some l2 learners of english (e.g. those with german or norwegian as a l1) pass through a stage involving main verb negation before introducing an auxiliary into their il system. in this way the historical development of english resembles the sla of english. all language systems are permeable. il differs from other language systems only in the degree of permeability (ad jemian 1976). 1.3.3 interlanguage is dynamic the l2 learners il is constanly changing. however, he does not jump from one stage to the next, but rather slowly revises the interim systems to accommodate new hypothesis about the tl system. this takes place by the introduction of a new rule, first in one context and then in another, and so on. a new rule spreads in the sense that its coverage gradually extends over a - 7 - range of linguistic contexts. for example, early wh-questions are typically non-inverted (e.g. what you want?), but when the learner acquires the subject-inversion rule, he does not apply it immediately to all wh-questions. to begin with he restricts the rule to a limited number of verbs and to particular wh-pronouns (e.g. who and what). later he extends the rule, by making it apply both to an increasing range of verbs and to other wh-pronouns (see chapter five). this process of constant revision and extension of rules is a feature of the inherent instability of il and its built-in propensity for change. - 8 - chapter two interlanguage studies as selinker (1992) stated, although i provided the term, the concept is surely evident in the material in the original empirical study. some description of il was provided early on, in terms of some il data, arguing for its partial autonomy from native language (nl) and tl data, in addition to some description of the processes, strategies and constraints going into its creation, as well as an extended discussion of possible units of il learning and production. such units cannot be covered by any known theory of linguistics. in this chapter i shall consider early il theory and attempt to make clear some important notions in il theory, as a result to show how il theory has evolved. 2.1 theoretical frameworks of interlanguage study concerning the formation and development of early il theory, much is owed to s. pit corder, william nemser and larry selinker for their prominent contribution in this field. in the 1970s the three scholars put forward similar theoretical perspectives almost at the same time. their happening to hold same views is the necessity of the development of il theory. 2.1.1 corders theoretical perspective corder looked at the nature of il as a type of language. then the study of il becomes part of the study of language or linguistics in its broader sense. the goal of il studies is to discover the way language learners process the data of language to which they are exposed, whatever the superficially different properties of the data may be, as well as to discover - 9 - what the naturesequence of development is (corder 1976 ). in corders view of il, the learner begins sla not from a fully developed form of the nl i.e. it is not full adult nl knowledge upon which further il development is based. for corder, the initial il hypothesis is a stripped down version of the nl, a simple, possibly universal code. simple does not mean simplified, i.e. simple codes do not necessarily mean that the learner has simplified anything. corder states that the explanation for this simple code is that: we all know a simple basic code because we ourselves have created one in the course of acquiring a l1 (1983). he also states that the starting point of the sla developmental continuum is a basic, simple, possibly universal grammar, which is learned in some unexplained way or, created and remembered from the learners own early linguistic development. in this scheme, the learner reverts to this basic simple code and begins to elaborate it. this elaboration takes place in the direction of the tl, though permanent non-learning, or fossilization, is recognized as having an important role. the nl is a facilitator, a heuristic tool, having the role of helping the learner to discover in the tl, nl-like features. corder (1983) holds that: (a) there is a difference between phonological and syntactic il learning; (b) for the acquisition of il phonology, there is successive restructuring from the nl; and (c) for the acquisition of il syntax, the starting point is not the nl but rather a universal starting point which is something like a universal core. further he pointed out that phonology alone in il involves the successive restructuring of the nl: no one would seriously suggest that a l2 learner replicates the phonological development of the infant acquiring its mother tongue (mt) (corder 1981). concerning the seeming contradiction between l2 simplification and l2 complexification, for corder th