Interlanguage and fossilization in SLA (Second Language Acquisition)

[@zulalkaya00]

Thank you for your explanation precisely… I was able to undertand the term “fossilization” finally… Thank you so much,greetings from Turkey

[@shiroojima1810]

Glad to know the video helped

[@cecicuevas655]

Such a wonderful explanation, thank you so much. I will definitely recommend your video to my colleagues. Greetings from Argentina!

[@dirlynorberg8255]

Excelente explanation! Thank you! ❤

[@luisablackwell2471]

Thanks for sharing. Everything makes sense to me now. Many thanks!!

[@shiroojima1810]

Glad to hear that!

[@leroycharlesdiazurena9595]

I have a class presentation Tonight and this helps a lot. Thank you!

[@gborsonello]

Great explanation, thank you. Arigato gozaimas

[@navenchang]

Your explanation is very clear, thanks.

[@rodandoenlibertad7114]

thanks a lot for your contribution of my language acquisition. I´m from Argentina. your explanation was very helpful for my learning.

[@shiroojima1810]

Glad to hear the video helped. Happy learning.

[@mehdi6205]

Thank you so much! Your presentations are very clear and enjoyable to watch. They provide great support for a confused student like me! ありがとうございます！

[@shiroojima1810]

Glad to hear the video helped

[@UsmanShah-lg8wn]

Excellent video.. Really appreciated

[@Gabu_Dono]

Thank you for your helpful presentation. Some people insist that fossilization is the result of a lack of input beyond what is necessary for day-to-day communication. Input like listening to the radio, reading literature like magazines, watching TV shows, etc. Do you believe there is evidence for or against this assertion?

[@shiroojima1810]

Thanks for your comment. In the SLA literature, there are a few famous cases of fossilization, where the ability to use some grammatical morphemes seems to have stopped developing event though the learners have spent years (or even decades) interacting with local people in the target-language community. In English (and perhaps other languages as well), grammatical morphemes are everywhere, so it is not the case that the leaners are not exposed to them in their input. They have a lot of input but their ability to use grammatical morphemes does not become native-like. This can be evidence against the assertion you raised. Or is it not enough?

[@Gabu_Dono]

​@@shiroojima1810 That is an excellent argument, thank you. I am convinced it is sufficient. However, in language learning communities some people would ask, "Well, are they reading novels? Are they actively engaging in compelling, language dense content?" It is true, that in my own personal experiences I have never heard of or met an immigrant who engages in deliberate extensive reading and listening who exhibits fossilization. However, I would assume that socioeconomic background is a better and more relevant predictor of whether and when a person's language starts to fossilize...

[@shiroojima1810]

@@Gabu_Dono Thank you for your insight. I want to add two things. First, fossilization does not occur to native English speakers. Only some of them engage in deliberate extensive reading. If adult L2 leaners need some sort of special input or experience like deliberate extensive reading to avoid fossilization, one may say this itself is evidence that adult L2 learning is different from child L1 acquisition. Second, as you say, socioeconomic status may be a factor here. At least in the classic SLA literature on fossilization, it did not receive much attention, but I’ve got the impression that L2 speakers who were studied by researchers had not had high-level education. The relation between fossilization and socioeconomic status (or education level) might be a good topic for future research.

[@lirome1535]

This video really helped me. I love your accent btw ❤️

[@nickbarton9219]

Very helpful. Thank you very much.

[@neginshayesteh3543]

it was a perfect explanation, wonderful. thanks a lot

[@kellychen3784]

Great explanation! Thanks a lot!

[@nouhabenyamina4429]

I have a class presentation next week about interlanguage, and I find your explanation very helpful.Thanks a million.

[@shiroojima1810]

Glad to hear that the video helped.

[@alshaimaaalsowat5982]

Well said!! Thanks

[@ldelossant]

Really instructive. I wish I had your powerpoint presentation. I can use it in my class.

[@Love4ever1223]

hi there, for the last part, fossilization, does it mean, for some cases, when ppl are approaching to Target language (English), they never really completely master English (coz they somehow reach a plateau) ,hence their developed L2, is English (but not 100%fluent type of English?)

[@shiroojima1810]

Sorry I didn’t notice your comment. If one starts learning an L2 late (or in an input-poor situation), what we see generally at the end is that they don’t completely master the L2 to a native-like level. So as you say, their L2 knowledge (in the case of ESL) may be “not 100%fluent type of English” or may contain problems with syntax leading to grammatical errors in speech production or may retain noticeable foreign accents.

[@nicfarrow]

I wonder if L1 transfer might emerge less in the form of grammatical errors but more as a result of incorrect concepts as to how the L2 operates. Since examples work best, I think: My Japanese EFL students - even higher level ones - will very commonly respond wrongly to negative questions, such as "Didn't you do your homework?" These can be quite serious errors, as they can cause a real breakdown of communication. Other areas can be choice of tense, as English and Japanese tenses frequently do not "match." (I would argue that the Japanese equivalent of the English present progressive is not an equivalent at all, despite some slight formal resemblance. Why? Because the uses are so very different.) Another example: a Japanese person may send me an e-mail with, say, attachment X and the comment, "I will send you attachment X." Again wrong, but the error is not grammatical. I am not sure what thinking process leads to this (something about the common use of the simple present in Japanese with a future meaning?), but I find it to be very common. This is just a spontaneous (maybe not well expressed) reaction to one point in your "developmental errors."

[@cumbamurane7357]

⁰00⁰⁰

[@miamolydie3417]

I love your presentation!!!! Please if you have other useful links you've produced on language learning theories, I'll appreciate to have them. Thanks so much! Then how can this plateau stage exist in an immersion context, especially as it's generally said that practice makes perfect?

[@shiroojima1810]

Almost all the videos with English titles on my KZbin are about second language learning, so if you want to watch more videos about SLA, please watch them. And regarding your question about the plateau in immersion contexts, one well-known study on immersion schools in Canada says that immersion gives you an ample amount of input but it does not follow that you will also have opportunities for output. This study reports that immersion students lack a high degree of grammatical accuracy in their output although they are fluent. The author claims that the cause is the lack of opportunities for output. I personally suspect there is also some interference from the mother tongue.

[@miamolydie3417]

te@@shiroojima1810 Possible. Thanks. There could be immersion, but if the more knowledgeable person is not active to correct or speak the more advanced language around the learner, the plateau effect steps in.

[@sywu7856]

excellent thank you!

[@meriemadamou1749]

Please would you explain to me " of performance"and "some explanations of errors".thanks in advance .

[@shiroojima1810]

Can you specify which parts of the video you are talking about? Thanks.

[@meriemadamou1749]

Sorry I'm struggling with mistakes of performance in error analysis and i want to know the drawbacks of error analysis methodologicaly speaking. Thanks in advance

[@shiroojima1810]

Again, we need to specify what we mean by "mistakes" here, but for me, mistakes are like slips of the tongue, which we sometimes produce even when we speak our mother tongue. These mistakes don't indicate a problem with our competence. The competence is OK, but people still make mistakes. On the other hand, when we say "errors" as in error analysis, we're talking about systematic errors that reflect a problem with the learner's competence. One methodological difficulty with error analysis is that it is sometimes difficult to determine how systematic learners' errors are. If they are not systematic, they may be simply performance mistakes. Another well-known difficulty comes from the possibility that learners avoid structures that are problematic for them. When they use those structures, they know they'll make errors and hence they avoid them. If they avoid them, they will not make errors, and researchers can never know, through error analysis, that they have a problem with those structures.

[@changliu8430]

Hi Professor Ojima! May I ask a question? Why isn't "He didn't went there" an example of transfer errors? Because I thought Japanese people make this error because in Japanese, the verb should still be changed into a past tense even if the whole sentence is negative.

[@shiroojima1810]

We cannot say for sure that this is a transfer error even if it's uttered by a Japanese speaker. It can be a transfer error, but it can also be a developmental error. The reason is simple. This kind of error (marking of past tense both on the verb and on the auxiliary) is often seen in L2 English of speakers of other languages and also in L1 English of children. So the error could be transfer, but it could also be developmental in nature (developmental errors occur because learners are developing). We can't determine for sure in this case. I hope this helps.

[@changliu8430]

@@shiroojima1810 Wow that's clear!!Thank you!!!! Aligatogozaimasu!!!

[@Santiago-ig8ui]

Hey man nice video but I have a question. Why did her usage of Plurals become worse?

[@shiroojima1810]

As far as I know, grammatical accuracy in the mother tongue does not get worse that much as one gets older. My guess is that, in this Japanese lady’s case, grammatically accurate production of L2 English was effortful even when she was young. As she got older, grammatical processing became more difficult. During aging, the frontal lobe of the brain shrinks faster than the other parts, and it is the frontal lobe that is essential in grammatical processing. Hence it’s not that surprising that her aging brain couldn’t really control the grammatical aspects of her L2 English.

[@Santiago-ig8ui]

@@shiroojima1810 Ooooooh thanks man! I didn't expect you to answer! I really appreciate

[@amalmohammad2244]

U r super