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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Language Acquisition

Interlanguage

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/ˈɪntəlæŋɡwɪdʒ/nounCommon term

In linguistics & grammar, interlanguage means: A learner's developing language system, which has its own rules and is neither the first language nor the target language; the term was introduced by Larry Selinker in 1972.

In Turkish: ara dil

How it is used

Used in SLA to describe learner language positively, as a system rather than a list of errors. Researchers study how an interlanguage changes over time and where it stops developing.

Example sentences

  1. 'He goed home' shows that the learner's interlanguage has a rule for past -ed, applied too widely.

  2. Each learner's interlanguage moves step by step towards the target language.

Common collocations

  • learner interlanguage
  • interlanguage development
  • interlanguage grammar
  • interlanguage hypothesis
  • fossilizationThe point at which some features of a learner's language stop developing and keep their errors, even with more input and teaching.
  • second language acquisitionThe process of learning another language after the first one, and the research field that studies how this happens; usually shortened to SLA.
  • overgeneralizationA learner's habit of applying a grammar rule to cases where it does not apply, as when a child says 'goed' or 'mouses' instead of 'went' or 'mice'.
  • language transferThe influence of a learner's first language, or another language they know, on the language being learned; it can help (positive transfer) or cause errors (negative transfer).

More terms: Language Acquisition

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