 Interlanguage (Larry Selinker, 1972), or

learner language, has some characteristics

influenced by previously learned languages,
some characteristics of the second language,
and some characteristics that seem to be
general and occur in all or most
interlanguage systems (e.g. the omission of
function words and grammatical
morphemes).
 Two texts, written by two learners of English,
describing a cartoon film entitled The Great Toy
Robbery. Task: retell the story in writing.

Learner 1: L1 French, secondary student

During a sunny day, a cowboy go in the desert with
his horse, he has a big hat. His horse eat a flour. In
the same time, Santa Clause go in a city to give
some surprises. He has a red costume and a red
packet of surprises. You have three robbers in the
mountain who sees Santa Clause with a king of
glaces that it permitted us to see at a long
distance. Every robbers have a horse. They go in
the way of Santa Clause, not Santa Clause but his
pocket of surprises. After they will go in a city and
they go in a saloon…

Learner 2: L1 Chinese, adult

This year Christmas comes soon! Santa Claus ride
a one horse open sleigh to sent present for
children. on the back of his body has big packet. it
have a lot of toys. in the way he meet three
robbers. They want to take his big packet. Santa
Claus no way and no body help, so only a way
give them, then three robbers ride their horse
dashing through the town. There have saloon,
they go to drink some beer and open the big
packent. They plays toys in the Bar. They meet
a cow boy in the saloon.

Are there any similarities between these two

texts?
 NEGATION
Stage 1
The negative element (‘no’ or ‘not’) is placed
before the verb or the element being negated:
No bicycle – I no like it – Not my friend.

Stage 2
‘No’ and ‘not’ may alternate with ‘don’t’, which
is not marked for person, number, or tense
and may even be used before modals:
He don’t like it – I don’t can sing.
Stage 3
The negative element is placed after auxiliary
verbs like ‘are’, ‘is’, and ‘can’. The ‘don’t’ form
is still not fully analized:
You can not go there – He was not happy –
She don’t like rice.
Stage 4
‘Do’ is marked for tense, person, and number,
and most interlanguage sentences appear to be
like those of the L2:
It doesn’t work – We didn’t have supper.
Tense, person, and number are still sometimes
marked on both the auxiliary and the verb:
I didn’t went there.
 QUESTIONS
Stage 1
Single words, formulae, or sentence fragments:
Dog? – Four children?

Stage 2
Declarative word order, no inversion, no fronting:
It’s a monster in the right corner? – The boys throw
the shoes?
Stage 3
Fronting: do-fronting; wh-fronting; no
inversion; other fronting:
Do you have a shoes on your picture?
Where the children are playing?
Does in this picture there is four astronauts?
Is the picture has two planets on top?
Stage 4
Inversion in wh+copula; yes/no questions with
other auxiliaries:
Where is the sun? - Is there a fish in the water?
Stage 5
Inversion in wh-questions with both an
auxiliary and a main verb:

How do you say proche? – What’s the boy

doing?
Stage 6
Complex questions:
Question tags: It’s better, isn’t it?
Negative question: Why can’t you go?
Embedded question: Can you tell me what the
date is today?
 Error Analysis involves a series of steps:
1) Collection of a sample of learner language.
2) Identification of errors.
3) Description or classification of errors.
4) Explanation of errors.
 COLLECTION OF A SAMPLE
Samples of learner language can be:
1) Massive: several samples of language use
from a large number of learners in order to
compile a comprehensive list of errors,
representative of the entire population.
2) Specific: one sample of language use
collected from a limited number of learners.
3) Incidental: one sample of language use
produced by a single learner.
 Most researchers employ specific or
incidental samples.
 Regarding the manner in which the samples
are collected, they can be:
1) Natural, spontaneous language use, or
2) Elicited. There are two types of elicitation:
a) Clinical: the researcher gets the
informant(s) to produce data of any sort
(e.g. through a general interview or asking
learners to write a composition).
 b) Experimental: the researcher uses special
instruments designed to elicit data containing
the linguistic features to be investigated.
The data collection methods can influence the
results. For example, translation tasks can
contain more transfer errors than other tasks.
 Samples can be collected cross-sectionally
(i.e. at a single point in time) or longitudinally
(i.e. at successive points over a period of
time). Most research has been cross-
sectional.
 IDENTIFICATION OF ERRORS
Errors can occur in oral or written productions.
They can also occur in comprehension but
traditionally, EA has focused on production.
They can be:
- Overt: there is a clear deviation in form.
e.g.: *I runned all the way.
- Covert: utterances are superficially well-
formed but they do not mean what the
learner intended them to mean.
e.g.: *It was stopped. (‘It’ refers to ‘the wind’).
- Global: when they affect the whole text.
- Local: when they affect only a portion of the
text and don’t impede its comprehension.
- Sociocultural or pragmatic: there is a
deviation in appropriatenes, in language use.
e.g.: ‘I want you to come to the cinema with
me’ (a learner inviting a relative stranger).
In general, EA has focused on ‘breaches of the
code’ and has ignored ‘misuse of the code’.
 DESCRIPTION OR CLASSIFICATION OF ERRORS
From a psycholinguistic point of view and
according to their source, errors can be:
1) Interlingual (transfer): they are a result of
the use of elements from one language
while speaking another. e.g. ‘I no go’
(Spanish = yo no voy).
2) Intralingual: they reflect the general
characteristics of rule learning, such as
overgeneralizations, incomplete application
of rules…
3) Unique: for example, induced.
Errors can be classified according to a surface
strategy taxonomy:
1) Omission: the absence of an item that must
appear in a well-formed utterance (e.g. ‘She
sleeping’).
2) Addition: the presence of an item that must
not appear in well-formed utterances (e.g.
‘We didn’t went there’).
3) Misinformation: the use of the wrong form of
the morpheme or structure (e.g. ‘The dog ated
the chicken’; ‘John is taller that me’).
4) Misordering: the incorrect placement of a
morpheme or group or morphemes in an
utterance (e.g. ‘What daddy is doing?’).
Errors can be classified according to linguistic
categories: morphological, syntactic, lexical,
phonetic; errors in clauses, in the auxiliary system,
in passive sentences, conjunctions, complements;
errors in verb form, articles, prepositions…
 Error Analysis is not a straightforward
methodology to study interlanguage. For
example, for each description or classification of
an error there are alternative classifications, and
even explanations.
 It has also been criticized for not taking into
account the phenomenon of avoidance, typical of
L2 learners, and of not considering what learners
do well. However, this latter issue has been
addressed and EA continues to be used, at least
in the initial stages of investigation.