Second Language Aquisition

Dr. Yaseen Hmaid

Vriability in Interlanguage
Mona A. Elmogasbi
Content

 Variability
 Variability in Language Use
 Systematic Variability
 Non-systematic
 Variability in Interlanguage
 The Role of Interlanguage Variability in Second
Language Acquisition
 Implications to language teaching
Definition of Interlanguage:

• Interlanguage is the evolving linguistic system that a learner

constructs when learning a second language (L2).

• It is influenced by the learner’s native language (L1) and the

target language (L2).
Variability

In “Understanding Second Language Acquisition” (1985), Rod

Ellis defines variability as the phenomenon where a learner’s
use of the second language fluctuates depending on various
factors such as the context of communication, the task at
hand, and the social setting. Variability illustrates how
learners may demonstrate different levels of language
proficiency in different situations, highlighting that language
use is not static but dynamic and influenced by external and
internal variables.
:Importance of Studying Variability

• Understanding variability helps in identifying the factors that

influence language learning.

• It provides insights into the developmental stages of second

language acquisition (SLA).
Types of Variability
 Homogeneous and heterogeneous competence in the
context of language use:
• Homogeneous concept aligns with Chomsky’s idea of “linguistic
competence,” which focuses on an individual’s internalized
system of rules and knowledge about their language.

• Heterogeneous competence takes into account the social,

contextual, and pragmatic aspects of language use, emphasizing
that real-world language use is not uniform.

• Understanding both helps in comprehending how second

languages are acquired, processed, and used by learners in diverse
contexts.
Variability in Language Use
Types of Variability

• Systematic Variability:
 Regular patterns or of variability (variation) in learner
language due to social context, dialect, or linguistic structure.
 Predictable and consistent

• Non-systematic Variability:
Irregular patterns of variability without a clear contextual
cause.
Example: Performance errors, individual differences, or
situational context.
Systematic Variability
Labov’s Examination of Speech Patterns (1970)

• Categories of Speech Styles: Casual speech, careful speech,

reading, word lists, minimal pairs

• Findings:
 Speech styles vary along a continuum based on the attention
given to speech.
 The frequency of socially marked sounds changes with
different speech styles.
 Greater attention leads to fewer non-prestigious variants (e.g.,
replacing /θ/ with /t/).
• Systematic Variability: Influenced by linguistic factors and
contextual environment.
 Example: Use of the copula in Black English Vernacular is
context-dependent (more likely used with preceding noun
phrases, more frequent before certain grammatical structures
(e.g., “gonna”).

• Models of Competence:
 Homogeneous competence model excludes variability factors.
 Heterogeneous competence model includes contextual factors,
better representing linguistic performance.
Implicational Analysis (Decamp 1971; Bickerton 1975)

• Language is viewed as intersecting set of idiolects.

• The full range of dialect would be observed.
• The competence of the speech community can be viewed as
continuum.
o An idiolect (contains all of specified features) at one end of
this continuum
o An idiolect (few or none of these features) at the other end
o Example: Use of contraction: ‘I am’ would employ ‘I’m’, but
‘I’m’ might not necessarily employ use of ‘I am’
Non-systematic Variability
)Bickerton 1975: 183(

“While with the help of a little hindsight, a plausible

contextual explanation can be given for many stylistic
shifts, there are many more that operate in quite
unpredictable ways.”

 The complexity of SLA: Not all variations in language use

can be neatly explained by contextual factors, pointing to
the inherent unpredictability in the learning process.
Variability in Interlanguage
Types of Variability in Interlanguage

• Contextual variability (systematic): Situational context and

linguistic context
 Situational context:
 Some research by Schimidt (1977) noted that Arab-speaking
of English became more accurate in their use of English ‘th’
sounds in a formal task than in an informal task.
 These learners did exactly the same in L2 English as they did
in L1 Arabic, where they also style-shifted from relative low
to high frequency in the use of 'th' sounds, depending on
whether they were speaking colloquial Arabic (associated with
informal situations) or classical Arabic (associated with
formal situations).
Types of Variability in Interlanguage

• The stylistic continuum is the product of differing degrees of

attention reflected in a variety of performance tasks (in
accordance with the demand of the situation).
• Tarone views the stylistic continuum as competence, not just
as performance.
Types of Variability in Interlanguage

 Linguistic context:
 For example, the learner might produce correct exemplars of
the third person singular '-s' when the linguistic context
consists of a single clause utterance as in:
Mr Smith lives in Gloucester.
but fail to do so when the linguistic context consists of a
subordinate clause as in:
Mr Smith who live in Gloucester married my sister.
Types of Variability in Interlanguage

 Linguistic contexts are seen as a continuum ranging from

'simple' (e.g. single clause utterances for the third person
singular '-s') to 'complex' (e.g. subordinate clauses for the
third person singular '-s'), and if situational contexts are also
viewed as a continuum, then the use of any particular
interlanguage form can be plotted on the intersection of these
two continua.
Types of Variability in Interlanguage

• Free Variability (non-systematic):

 When learners first internalize new linguistic items, they do
not know precisely what functions they realize in the target
language. The result is free variability.

 Evidence comes from Huebner (1981). He investigated the

use of two formulaic expressions in the speech of a Thai
learner of English and found that the acquisition of the forms
of the formulas preceded the acquisition of their functions.
The Role of Interlanguage Variability in
Second Language Acquisition
The Role of Interlanguage Variability in Second Language
Acquisition

• From the point of view of systematic variability, Tarone

(1983) argues that one way, in which second language
acquisition can proceed, is by forms which are initially part of
the learner's careful style to spread to his vernacular style.

• Development regularities from formal to progressively

informal styles on the one hand, and from simple to
increasingly complex linguistic contexts on the other.
The Role of Interlanguage Variability in Second Language
Acquisition

• Ellis (1985) believes that second language acquisition involves

two stages: - the assimilation of new forms and the sorting-out
of form-function correlations.
• Assimilation results from the learner's being "open" to forms
occurring in the input and operating on these by means of one
or more interlanguage strategies.
• Then the learner forms an initial hypothesis regarding the target
language rules.
• The learner will try to maximize his linguistic resources by
creating a system in which different forms serve different
functions. The first stage consists of forms used in free
variation, but subsequent stages involve the progressive sorting
of forms in to functions.
 Implications to language teaching

• The aim of studying interlanguage variability is to explore the

natural rule of language learning to provide theoretical basis
and implications for classroom instruction, choices and
arrangements of teaching materials.
• The factors that influence the changes of interlanguage may
have an essential impact on language teaching.
• Interlanguage variability is rule-governed, systematic, but its
varieties also prove that this system can be changed by
employing different teaching methods, creating different
linguistic contexts and social contexts which can either
facilitate language teaching or hinder language teaching
conversely.
Implications to language teaching

 Pedagogical implications
 Error tolerance
 Awareness of over-criticizing
 Dealing with passive and active students
 Coordinating teachability and learnability hypothesis.
Exposure to the target language as much as possible.
 Summary and conclusion

 From a sociolinguistic perspective; that is, the learner's

competence has been described as heterogeneous, rather than
homogeneous.
 Language-learner language, like native-speaker language, is
variable (systematic and non-systematic).
 Systematic variability is determined by both the situational
and the linguistic contexts of use and is often referred to as
contextual variability.
 Learners systematically vary their choice of interlanguage
forms according to whether they call upon a vernacular style
in unplanned discourse or a careful style in planned discourse.
 Their choice of forms is also influenced by the nature of the
linguistic environment.
 The key to this pattern of variation is the extent to which the
learner monitors his own language.
 Heavy monitoring is likely to result in the learner using his
most advanced interlanguage forms or, alternatively, in the
more extensive use of forms borrowed from the Ll.
 A low level of monitoring will result in the vernacular style,
which is both more natural and more systematic. It is
characterized by the use of interlanguage forms that are 'deep'
and fully automatized.
 Free (non-systematic) variability is prevalent in early SLA and
continues throughout the course of development. It is evident
when the learner uses two or more forms to express the same
range of functions.
 Each stage of development consists of the rearrangement of a
previous variable system into a new variable system:
1. Forms that were to begin with available only in one style (e.g.
the careful style) move along the continuum so that they can
be used in another style (e.g. the vernacular style).
2. There is a constant reshuffling of form-function relationships
in order to maximize the communicative effectiveness of the
interlanguage system; non-systematic variability slowly
becomes systematic.
 Learner's competence is acknowledged as heterogeneous, so
it becomes very difficult to deal with SLA in terms of the
acquisition of forms only.
 In order to study SLA it is necessary to examine the
relationships between form and function that exist at each
stage of development (has not occured in SLA research – the
focus has been confined to morphosyntax.
Reference

Ellis, R. (2008). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford

University Press: UK