Interlanguage-Variation

InterlanguageVariation#Contents•1.Defininginterlanguagevariation1.1Definitionofinterlanguagevariation1.2Typologyofinterlanguagevariation•2.Approachesaccountingforinterlanguagevariation•3.Sourcesofinterlanguagevariation•4.Afurtherstep:themulti-factorapproach•5.Summary#1.DefininginterlanguagevariationFirstly,thereisaneedtoclarifythedistinctionbetweenthetwotermsvariabilityandvariation.Intheliteraturestodate,thesetwotermshavebeenusedasalternativesforthesamething(e.g.Tarone,1988;Ellis,1985b,1994).Thatis,theybothrefertoeithertheinherentpropertyofbeingvariableorthephenomenonwhereacertainlinguisticelementisfoundtobevariable.Thisconfusedusagehasbroughtreadersintosomeunnecessarytroubles.Therefore,Cai(2003)proposesadistinctionbetweenthesetwoterms:variabilityistheinherentpropertyofbeingvariable,whereasvariationreferstothephenomenonreflectingthepropertyofvariability.Hereweadopttheterm“variation”uniformlyunlessspecifiedotherwise.#1.1Definitionofinterlanguagevariation•AccordingtoTarone(1998),interlanguagevariationisthetendencyforasecondlanguagelearner’sutterances,producedintheattempttoconveymeaning,tovarysystematicallyingrammaticalandphonologicalaccuracyasspecificsituationalfeatureschange.Theterminterlanguagevariationoughttobereservedtorefertoshiftswithintheperformanceofanygivenindividualandnottodifferencesacrossindividuals.#1.2Typologyofinterlanguagevariation#•Ellis(1994)makesabasicdistinctionbetweenhorizontalandverticalvariation.Horizontalvariationreferstothevariationevidentinlearnerlanguageatanysingletime,whileverticalvariationreferstovariationovertime.Ellis(1985a,1985b,1994)alsodistinguishessystematicvariationfromnon-systematicvariation.Systematicvariationisthatvariationwhichcanbeexplainedandpredicted.Thiskindofvariationarisesasaresultofexternalfactorstodowiththelinguisticcontext,thesituationalcontextandthepsycholinguisticscontext.Linguisticcontextconcernstheelementsthatprecedeandfollowthevariablestructureinquestion.Thesituationalcontextcoversawholehostofextra-linguisticfactors.Thepsycholinguisticcontextreferstotheextenttowhichthetypeoflanguageuseaffordstimeforplanningandencouragesordiscouragesmonitoring.Languagelearnersareoftenfoundtovarytheiruseoflinguisticformssystematicallyinaccordancewiththesefactorsindifferentcontexts.#2.Approachesaccountingforinterlanguagevariation•Ellis(1994:119-120)pointsoutthattherearethreeapproachestoresolvetheapparentcontradictionbetweenvariabilityandsystematicityinlearnerlanguage.ThefirstapproachisthatpracticedbylinguistsintheChomskyantraditionwhoadoptwhatTarone(1983)hascalled“ahomogeneouscompetencemodel”.Inthisapproach,variationisseenasafeatureofperformanceratherthanofthelearner’sunderlyingknowledgesystem.Thegeneralclaimisthatinordertostudylanguageitisnecessarytoabstractwhatlearners“know”fromwhatthey“do”.Theproblemofvariation,therefore,issolvedbydistinguishing“competence”and“performance”,andbyestablishingthedescriptionandexplanationoflinguisticcompetenceasthemaingoalsofenquiry.Ineffect,then,variationisignoredinthisapproach.#•Thesecondapproachisasociolingusticone;itsgoalistostudylanguageinrelationtosocialcontext.Researchersinthistraditionaimtodescribeboththelearner’slinguisticandsociolinguisticcompetence.Theyareconcerned,therefore,bothwithwhatlearnersknowaboutthesecondlanguagesystemandwithwhattheyknowabouthowitisusedincommunication.Thethirdapproachispsycholinguistic.Psycholinguisticapproachesareconcernedwithidentifyingtheinternalmechanismsresponsibleforvariableperformanceandpaylittleattentiontothesocialfactorsthatmotivatethem.Sociolinguisticandpsycholinguisticapproaches,therefore,arecomplementaryandafullaccountofvariationinlearnerlanguage#TypeofmodelMainconstructsMethodsKeySLAstudiesSociolinguisticLabovianparadigmInter-andintra-learnervariation;styleshiftingoccursasaresultofvaryingattentiontospeechTasksdesignedtoelicitvaryingattentiontospeech;variablerules;VARBRULstatisticalmodels.Dickerson1975;Beebe1980Tarone185Yong1988DynamicparadigmLanguagechangeasasourceofvariability;environmentalweight;lectalvariation;code-switching;grammar-internalvariation;freevariationImplicationalscalingform-functionanalysisHuebner1983and1985;Ellis1985cSocialpsychologicalparadigmSpeechshiftsinvolvingconvergenceanddivergence;importanceofaddresseeandofspeaker’sattitudestoaddressee’ssocialgroup.Experimentalinvestigationoffactorsthatinduceconvergenceanddivergence.Beebe1981;BeebeandZuengler1983#Psycholinguistics:SpeechplanningmodelsPlannedandunplanneddiscourse;demandsofshorttermmemory.Experimentalmanipulationofdiscourseplanningconditions.Ellis1987b;Crookes1989SpeechmonitoringmodelsMacro-andmicro-monitoring;pre-andpostarticulationmonitoring;production-basedmonitoring.Experimentalmanipulationofconditionsthataffectmonitoring.HulstijnandHulstign1984Table4.2Summaryofdifferenttypesofmodelsusedtoexplainvariabilityinlanguageproduction#3.Sourcesofinterlanguagevariations•ThesourcesofinterlanguagevariationscanbetracedinthelightofSelinker’sfiveprincipalcognitiveprocesses.Thefiveprocessesaresummarizedasfollows:(1)languagetransfer,