Interlanguage Analysis

Interlanguage analysis

Interlanguage analysis is a way of analyzing the progress of learners of a foreign language. Unlike the error analysis, interlanguage analysis focuses on the progress of the learner's language rather than focusing on the errors made. The thesis is that learners, of a second language, form hypotheses about rules to be formed in the target language, testing them and modifying them continuously. This way error promotes progress and improvement in the learning process. The objective of an interlanguage analysis is to determine where the learner is in his development and thus discover which issues are in the proximal development zone. Uncovering the proximal development zone helps the teacher deciding which areas to focus on and how to scaffold the learner.

Interlanguage analysis is used as a formative evaluation and can uncover which hypothesis' the learner is testing and thus the teacher is able to help the student into the zone of proximal development . Furthermore it can increase the learner's awareness of their own learning process.

Interlingual errors

An interlingual error is an error that can be traced to the interference of the native language. Learners use their native language as a resource, transferring e.g. grammatical rules or phrases from the native language to target language. Learners may also transfer words or grammatical rules from other known languages. An interlingual error could be a direct translation of idioms or incorrect word order, if the native language has a different syntax.

Intralingual errors

Intralingual errors are errors made within the language, such as wrong hypothesis like generalization or simplification. When learners have acquired some of the basic grammar rules, they tend to generalize the rules and then try to use it in a context where it doesn't belong, e.g. when learners inflect irregular verbs as regular.

New learners of a foreign language often simplify their language, "playing it safe" and sometimes leaving out some elements e.g. all verbs have the same form regardless of person, number or tense.

Feedback

When giving feedback to a learner it is important to stress the positive, encouraging the learner to continuously learn from his mistakes. A lot of red lines under errors can be discouraging for learners, so the feedback should focus on a few issues, where the learner is showing signs of testing hypotheses. If there's a lot of the same types of errors and the learner hasn't used the correct rule anywhere, it may indicate that the learner hasn't formed any hypothesis about the issue yet, making it beyond the zone of proximal development. In this case, I wouldn't mark the mistakes until the learner shows signs of being ready to learn that specific grammar point. Initially it would be appropriate to focus on significant errors that impair communication.

Some learners and teachers might wonder why not all errors are corrected, but if the errors are outside the zone of proximal