Interlanguage: What Can Errors Tell Us about How We Learn a Language? An Analysis of Native Spanish Speakers’ L2 Learner Language

Abstract

In the field of second language acquisition, Selinker’s Interlanguage theory suggests that there is an intermediate mental stage suspended between the native and the target language. This theory has been interpreted as a way to describe what the process of learning the target language is like. This theory, along with Corder’s Significance of Errors are the basis of error analysis studies. This study aims to analyse learner language from the perspective of both theories. Our study will focus on Spanish native speakers who are learning English as their first foreign language, with the aim of discovering what their errors can reveal, and to what extent their native language influences their target language production. Our hypothesis is that some mistakes are caused by language interference, not only because learners transfer features from their first language, but also because they may ‘think’ in their native language. Admittedly, it is not possible to trace their thoughts back to their origin to really determine in what language they are produced, but it is nevertheless likely that their errors can, to some extent, reveal how these Spanish speakers learn English.