Chapter 4.

Social Aspect of Interlanguage

OCTOBER 4, 2012NAFITRIANA LEAVE A COMMENT

Summary

Second Language Acquisition

Rod Ellis

Social aspect 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.

Social aspects play an important role in interlanguange development. There are three different
approaches to incorporate social factors on the study of L2 acquisition:

Interlanguage as consisting of ‘different style’ which learners called upon under different conditions of
language use

Concern how social factors determine the input that learners use to construct their interlanguage

Considers how the social identities that learners negotiate in their interaction with native speakers
shape their opportunities to speak and, thereby, to learn an L2

Interlanguage as a stylistic continuum

a. Elaine Tarone

Elaine Tarone argues that learners develop a capability the L2 and this underlies ‘all regular language
behavior’. Thus, the learners are able to attend to their choice of linguistics form, as when they feel they
need to be correct, and they are able to make choice of linguistic form spontaneously, as likely in free
conversation. It seems that interlanguage is a stylistic continuum. The continuum is the careful style and
vernacular style.

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

ž First, later research has shown that learners are not always most accurate in their careful style and
least accurate in their vernacular style.

ž Second, is that the role of social factors remains unclear

Howard Giles

Another theory is howard giles’s accomodation theory. This seeks to explain how A learner’s 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 giles’s 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.

Idea of stylistic variation also came from him. He argues 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 (a process of convergence) or to make it different in order to emphasize their social
distinctiveness ( a process of divergence). It has been suggested that L2 acquisition involves
Convergence  levels of proficiency ensue; divergence  less learning takes place. Thus, social factors
influence interlanguage development via attitudes.

c. John Schumann

The main reason for learners failing to acculturate is social distance. A learner’s 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:

ž 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 learne’s changing social
experiences.

ž 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.

The acculturation model of L2 acquisition

Schuman proposed that Pidginization in L2 acquisition is a very simple language that used by learners to
contact other people. They fail to acculturate to the target language group because of unability or
unwillingness to adapt to a new culture. He stated that the main reason for learners failing to
acculturate is social distance. A learner’s social distance is determined by a number of factors such as
the opportunity of the learner to share the same social facilities with the target language group.

Social identity and investment in L2 learning

Bonny Pierce argues that language learners have complex social identity that can only be understand in
terms of power relations that shape social structures. A learner’s social identity is multiple and
contradictory’. Learning is successful when learners are able to summon up or construct an identity that
enables them to impose their right to be heard and thus become the subject of discourse. This requires
investment, something learners will only make if they believe their effort s will increase the value of
their cultural capital. Learners use language to locate themselves in their community and also in L2
environment. Successful learners are those who reflect critically on how they engage with native
speakers and who are prepared to challenge the accepted social order by constructing and asserting
social identities of their own choice.

New Words

Convergence: The process by which speakers make their speech similar to their interlocutors’ speech. L2
acquisition can viewed as ‘long-term convergence’ towards native-speaker norms.

Divergence: The process by which speakers make their speech different from their interlocutors’ speech.
Frequent divergence can be considered to impede L2 acqiosition.

Investment: Learners’ commitment to learning an L2, which is viewed as related to the social identities
they construct for themselves as learners.
Three socio-cultural models of L2 acquisition

1 Interlanguage as a stylistic continuum

-stylistic continuum (Elaine Tarone)…Why learner language is variable, from a careful style to a
vernacular style

-accomodation theory (Howard Gile)…How a learner’s social group influences the course of L2
acquisition

2 The acculturation model (John Schumann)

-Pidginization takes place when learners are unable or unwilling to adapt to a new culture because of
the social distance and psychological distance from L2 group

3 Social identity and investment (Bonny Peirce)

-Learners have complex social identities. Investment is required in order to establish an identity

Conclusion

Social cultural models of L2 acquisition, such as those of Giles, Schumann and Pierce, are intended to
account for learner’s 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.