SOCIAL ASPECT OF

INTERLANGUAGE

Chapter 2
Rod Ellis, 2003
PP 37-42
By:
Fresi yuliana rahma yusita

The Elements

Interlanguage as a stylistic continuum

The aculturation model of l2 acquisition
Social identity and investment in l2 learning

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF INTERLANGUAGE

The prevaling persepective on interlanguage

is psycholinguistic, as reflected in the metaphor
of the computer. That is, researchers have been
primarily concerned with identifying the
internal mechanisms that are responsible for
interlanguage devolopment.

Three rather different approaches to incorporating a social angel on the study of L2 acquisition can be
identified:

First, views interlanguages as consisting of

different styles which learners call upon under
different conditions of language use.
Second, concern how social factors determine
the input that learners use to construct their
interlanguage.
Third, considers how the social identities that
learners negotiate in their interactions with
native speakers shape their opprtunities to speak
and, thereby, to learn an L2.

INTERLANGUAGE AS A STYLISTIC CONTINUUM

Elaine Tarone has proposed that interlanguage

involves a stylistic continuum. She argues that
learners develop a capability for using the L2 and
that this underlies all regular language
behaviour. This capability, which constitutes an
abstract linguistic system, is comprised of a
number of different style which learner access
in accordance with a variety of factors.

Elaine Tarone

The careful style, evident when learners are

conciously attending to their choice of
linguistic forms, as when they feel need to
be correct.
Vernacular style, evident when learners are
making spontaneous choices of linguistic
form, as is likely in free conversation.

ELAINE TARONE
Tarones idea of interlanguage as a stylistic
continuum is attractive in a number of ways. It explains
why learner language is variable. It suggests that an
interlanguage grammar, although different from a
native speakers grammar, is constructed according to
the same priciples, for native speakers have been
shown to posses a similar range of styles. It relates
language use to language learning.

Tarone has acknowledged, the model also has a number of problems:

First, later research has shown that learners

are not always most accurate in their careful
style and least accurate in their vernacular
style.
Second, is that the role of social factors
remains unclear

HOWARD GILES
Another theory is howard giless accomodation theory. This seeks to explain how A
learners social group influences of the course of L2 acquisition. For giles the key idea is
that of social accomodation. He suggests that when people interact with each other they
either try to make their speech similar to that of their addressee in order to emphasize social
cohesiveness or to make it different in order to emphasize their social distinctiveness.
According to the giless theory, then, social factors influence interlanguage development
via the impact they have on the attitudes that determine the kind of language use learners
engage in.
Accomodation theory suggests that social factors, mediated through the interactions that
learners take part in, influence both how quickly they learn and tha ctual route that they
follow.

THE ACCULTURATION
MODEL OF L2 ACQUISITION
A Similar Perspective On The Role Of Social
Factors In L2 Acquisition Can Be Found In John
Schumanns Acculturation Model. Schumann
Investigated A Thirty Three Years Old, Costa Rican,
Named Alberto, Who Was Acquiring English In The
United States. Alberto Used A Reduced And
Simplified Form Of English Throughout.

The Problems

he did not progress beyond the forst stage in

the development of negatives
he continued to use declarative word order
rather than inversion in question
he acquired vortually no aixilary verbs
and he failed to mark regular verbs for past
tense or nouns for possession.

JOHN SCHUMANN
The main reason for learners failing to acculturate
is social distance. A learners social distance is
determined by a number of factors. Schumsnn also
recognizes that social distance is sometimes
indeterminate.
As presented by Schumann, social factors
determine the amount of contact with the L2
individual learners experience and thereby how
successful they are in learning.

Two Problems With Such A Model

First, it fails to acknowledge that factors like
integration pattern and attitude are not fixed
and static but, potetially, variable and dynami,
fluctuating in accordance with the learnes
changing social experiences.
Second, It fails to acknowledge that learners
are not just subject to social conditions but can
also become tha subject of them; they can help
to construct the social context of their own
learning.

SOCIAL IDENTITY AND

INVESTMENT IN L2 LEARNING

Eva, an adult immigrant learner of English in

Canada. Eva felt humiliated in this conversation
because she found herself positioned as astrange
woman, someone who did not know who Bart
Simpson was. She was subject to a discourse which
assumed an identity she did not have.

SOCIAL IDENTITY AND

INVESTMENT IN L2 LEARNING

The notion of social identity is central to the theory Pierce

advances. She argues that language learners have complex social
identities that can only be understood in term of the power relations
that shape social structures. A learners social identity is, according
to Pierce, multiple and cintradictory. Pierces social theory of L2
acquisition affords a different set of metaphor. L2 acquisition
involves a struggle and investment. Learners are not computers
who process input data but combatants who battle to assert
themeselves and investor who expect a good return on their effort.

CONCLUSION
Social cultural models of L2 acquisition, such
as those of Giles, Schumann and Pierce, are
intended to account for learners relative success or
failure in learning an L2. That is, they seek to
explain the speed of learning and the ultimate level
of proficiency of different groups of learners.

THANK YOU