论文总字数：31268字

摘 要

中介语作为一种从语言系统的分析和解释中产生的概念，从它被提出以来，就为外语习得规律提供了理论依据，也为外语课堂教学提供了新的方向。中介语是一个独立于母语和目标语言的语言系统，它是不断变化和发展的。目前为止，中国的外语教学目前还存在着很多的缺陷和错误。中介语的研究对改正这些错误有着极其重要的意义。本文通过中介语的特点及形成原因，结合小学英语学习的一些特点，探讨其对小学英语教学的启示，以便更好地促进第二语言学习者的英语习得。

关键词：中介语；小学英语教学；启示

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1
3. The Causes of Interlanguage ……………………………………………...2

3.1 Language transfer………………………………………………………….2

3.2 Overgeneralization……………………………………………………........3

3.3 Transfer due to the effects of teaching.…………....………………..,….…...4

3.4 Learning strategies…………………………………………………………..4

3.5 Communication strategies…………………………………………………..5

1. The Features of Interlanguage………….………………………………….6

4.1 Being dynamic……………………..……………………………………..…6

4.2 Being petrified...………………………………………………….………....6

4.3 Being permeable..………………………………………………………..….7

4.4 Being systematic...………………………………………………………..…7

4.5 Being repeatability…………………………………………………………..8

5. The Enlightenment of interlanguage in primary school English Teaching………………………………………………………………………8

5.1 Understanding the Interlanguage correctly……………………....…...……..9

5.2 Positive attitudes towards errors…………..………………………………..9

5.3 Appropriate requirements for the students………………………….…..….10

5.4 Making full use of positive transfer…………………………..……………11

5.5 Arranging teaching according to the cognitive ability of the students and teacher……………………………………………………………………….…11

5.6 Paying attention to the reappearance of the teaching content...………........12

6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..12

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...13

1. Introduction

American linguist Selinker put forward the concept of Interlanguage in 1969, and then it became a significant theory in second language acquisition. Interlanguage is an independent language system of foreign language learners, which is structurally in the middle state of the mother tongue and the target language. Recently, Interlanguage has become a hot topic in the process of foreign language learning. Therefore, the study of Interlanguage has become a major course in foreign language learning. Researches have proved that it is an intermediary stage L2 or foreign language learners cannot pass over on the way to master the target language.( Rod Ellis 121). It is a transitional language competence, and it cannot simply be regarded as ‘wrong’, it is the transition phenomenon and temporary phenomenon from monolingual learners to multilingual, and it is a kind of learning strategy of the learners to get rid of the interference of their mother tongue and move closer to the target. In fact, the second language learning process is the process of overcoming the differences between the two languages. It is necessary to explore the influence of Interlanguage in foreign language learning and teaching. Primary school is the initial stage of English learning, the distinctive characteristics of students in this stage is that they start learning a second language before they have not yet formed a systematic understanding of the first language, so we can make use of the theory of interlanguage to provide some help for English Teaching in primary school.

2. Literature Review

In 1960s, the linguists began to use the strategies of first language acquisition to discuss the Second Language Acquisition (SLA), they tried to describe the incorrect use of target language in SLA. Since Professor Gabriele Kasper put forward the concept of Interlanguage Pragmatics in his work ‘Pragmatische Aspekte inder Interimsprache’ (Pragmatic Aspects in Interlanguage) in 1981, a great deal of research has been carried out at home and abroad. Some scholars have explored the theory of Interlanguage Pragmatics (Kasper, 1981; Kasper amp; Blum-Kulka, 1993; He Ziran, 1996; Kasper amp; Rose, 1990; Liu Shaozhong, 1997). Since twenty-first Century, more and more researchers have begun to examine the phenomenon of second language acquisition in the framework of human cognitive law revealed by cognitive science. The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (2003), edited by Doughty and Long, replaces the subject attributes of the second language acquisition, and makes it clear that it belongs to the cognitive science.

There are a lot of studies on interlanguage. However, there are few studies about interlanguage based on the characteristics of primary English Teaching in China. This paper expounds the revelation of Interlanguage according to the actual teaching problems in primary schools in China.

3. The Causes of Interlanguage

Selinker generalize the origin of learner’s interlanguage into five aspects: language transfer, generalization of target rules, training transfer, learning strategies and communication strategies (Selinker 75).

3.1 Language transfer

Language transfer refers to a phenomenon that when the learner is unfamiliar with the rules of the target language in second language learning and in the use of the pronunciation, word meaning, structural rules or habits of the mother tongue to express the idea or to deal with the target language information consciously or unconsciously. It usually applied the term ‘transfer’ to refer to the influence of one language on learning another language. This influence is manifested in second language acquisition into two aspects: (1) the positive transfer: If native language rules are consistent with foreign languages, then the transfer of native language will have a positive effect on target language, which is called positive transfer. If Chinese learners are learning English, the Chinese structure SVO will produce positive transfer. For example:

1) 我爱中国. (S V O)

2) I love China. (S V 0)

In this example, English and Chinese have the same structure; China learners can easily understand the structure and meaning of English sentences; (2) the negative transfer: If the native language rules do not conform to the habits of foreign languages, they will have a negative impact on foreign language learning. People think that it mainly because of the different forms and rules of the mother tongue and the target language, and the learners mistakenly think it is the same. For example:

1) Although I am ill, but I go to work today.

2) I tomorrow will go home.

In the Chinese language, we usually use ‘虽然…但是…’and ‘我什么时候要去哪里’such a grammatical structure. Therefore, Chinese students will write 1 and 2 by the influence of their mother tongue. Generally speaking, in second language acquisition, knowledge that is similar to native language is relatively easy to learn. Conversely, knowledge that is different from native language is confused and difficult to learn.

Mother tongue transfer is caused by the similarity or difference between the target language and the mother tongue. This phenomenon exists universally in language teaching and cannot be ignored or avoided. In the preface of ‘Linguistics Across Culture’, Lado had an incisive exposition: ‘learning second language and learning the first language are quite very different tasks. The basic problems are not due to the necessary difficulties of the characteristics of the new language itself, but mainly due to the setting of the first language.’ From the initial stage of learning English by using Chinese as a tool, we have gradually moved to the advanced stage that uses English as a tool. At any stage, mother tongue transfer exists more or less. How to utilize and control the transfer of mother tongue effectively and improve the efficiency of English teaching is a challenge that we must figure out in English teaching. The stone of other mountains can attack jade. As educators, we should dig into the common elements of these two languages so as to promote the students to master the rules of grammar in English learning. Only in this way can we improve the efficiency of English teaching.

3.2 Overgeneralization

Another important source of the formation of interlanguage is the overgeneralization of the rules of the target language. In the process of learning a second language or foreign language, learners often treat some language rules as a universal rule to simplify the language structure of target language, so as to create some structural variants in some target languages. This structural variant does not have the characteristics of the mother tongue, but it reflects the target language characteristics of the learners. We called this phenomenon as ‘overgeneralization’. Overgeneralization is an inevitable phenomenon, but it also reflects the positive exploration of learners and the process of trying to regularized language.

Selinker has cited such an example: What did he intended to say (Selinker 82)? The reason for this kind of phenomenon is that the generalization of the rules of the verb plus the suffix -ed. This rule is applicable to the context of a regular verb in a declarative sentence, but it is not applicable in the context of the interrogative and irregular verbs.

3.3 Transfer due to the effects of teaching

According to Selinker"s point of view, improper teaching or the use of wrong learning materials is also one of the causes of interlanguage. In the classroom, teachers do not speak clearly, make mistakes, or do not match proper contexts with sentence patterns may make students make mistakes. It is easy to confuse the meaning of the two phrases over time if the teacher puts two different words together to explain, such as out of question (possible) and out of the question (impossible). The transfer due to the effects of teaching is different from the transfer of the mother tongue, and it is also different from the overgeneralization of the target language rules. For example, in English teaching, if we emphasize the rule of ‘Adjective plus -ly suffix to form Adverbs’ too much, it will causes students expand the coverage of this rule improperly, and produce an interlanguage form such as ‘He treated me friendly.’ For example, in practice, the frequency of using that ‘he is high’, and the frequency of using that ‘she is low’. As a result, learners often misuse ‘he’ in ‘she’ unconsciously when they speak English.

3.4 Learning strategies

Learning strategy is a way that language learners try to find out the meaning and usage of words, grammar rules and other language items. It is an important sign for learners to input language and know its knowledge development process. The ‘overgeneralization’ mentioned above is a learning strategy. ‘Simplification by omission’ is also a learning strategy commonly used by foreign language learners. In the face of a large number of target language input, the learners cannot be completely absorb it for a moment so it simplify it into a simple system. For example, people who begin to learn English use simplified and simplified learning strategies often omit The morpheme -s of the singular third person of the verb, or the affix -s that represents the concept of the noun plural etc. omitted, thus they will say ‘She dance very well.’ or ‘I can see three chair in the room.’

3.5 Communication strategies

Communication strategies refer to the method used by second language or foreign language learners to express their meaning. If the learners can"t fully grasp the target language, they have to use some language or non-verbal means to communicate consciously when they need to express some contents that can be expressed beyond their existing language knowledge or skills. These means are the communicative strategies of the learners. The adoption of communication strategies is also one of the reasons for the formation of the learner"s interlanguage system. Avoidance and paraphrase are two kinds of communication strategies commonly used by beginners of foreign languages. They have a great influence on the formation of learners" interlanguage system. For example, when the beginners of second language want to express the means that ‘I lost my way.’, and they do not know the word ‘way’, they will avoid the word, then to say ‘road’, ‘I lost my road.’ Another example is when in English class, a student wants to use English to express ‘the classroom is very messy’, but he does not know what to say the ‘mess’ in English, so he said such a sentence: ‘The classroom is very Luan’, hoping to use a native word to let the other person understand their own meaning.

Besides, people"s personality and thinking style are also related to the number of language mistakes. A steady and conservative learner is generally more cautious and less prone to make mistakes. On the contrary, overconfident learners tend to be sociable and not afraid of making mistakes.

4. The Features of Interlanguage

4.1 Being dynamic

Interlanguage is constantly changing, and it has strong permeability and openness. The interlanguage changes with the output of the target language. When the learner is learning the second language, the interlanguage will absorb its new rules of grammar unconsciously. With the deepening of learning, the learners constantly modify the old rules and establish new rules. The interlanguage system will also be constantly improved and gradually approaching the target language. The higher the level of learner’s second language, the closer the interlanguage system is to the target language. Otherwise, the learner’s level of second language is low.

When the learners continue to accept the new two language knowledge and the learning level is increasing, most of the errors associated with the interlanguage will disappear. Only when teachers understand the essence of interlanguage correctly, can teachers show the correct teaching state in teaching process, and help students ease negative emotions in English learning.

4.2 Being petrified

The Fossilization of Interlanguage is first proposed by Selinker(Selinker 82). He points out that Fossilization in language refers to some linguistic items; language rules and systematic knowledge in the interlanguage of learners tend to be identical. Age and change of learning volume do not play a role in changing this state. Fossilization of Interlanguage contains two meanings: one refers to the target language form is not right or wrong for long-term use; another refers to when the foreign language learning is up to a certain extent, you will in a stagnant state like wandering, no longer in a steady progress like the initial stage of learning. During the process of the second language learning, most learners will appear the phenomenon of language development stagnation. Only about five percent of the learners can reach the same level of language as the mother tongue. No matter how close the second language learners say to the second language, there is a difference in comparison with native speakers of that language.

Since the concept of interlanguage fossilization has been published, scholars from all walks of life have their own understanding. Some scholars believe that fossilization is a failure of acquisition. Ellis believes that fossilization refers to the language regression behavior of learners. Schumann believes that fossilization is a fixed error. Kellerman believes that fossilization is a typical mistake. Lardiere equates fossilization to an ultimate or static state. Throughout all the schools, scholars have not agreed on the performance of the fossilization, but it does not prevent the researchers from exploring and studying such ‘language stagnation’.

There are many explanations for the fossilization of interlanguage. Krashen starts from the process of language acquisition to explain the formation of fossilization as follows: (1) the quantity of target language input is insufficient; (2) the quality of target language input is not good; (3) emotional filter; (4) target language output filter; (5) The acquisition of the variant forms of the language of the target language (Krashen 32). How to prevent and reduce the formation of language fossilization is of great significance to foreign language learning and foreign language teaching

4.3 Being permeable

The L2 learner"s interlanguage system is permeable, that is, the rules that constitute the mediator are not fixed and invariable. It can be permeated by the rules or forms of the learners" mother tongue and the target language. The permeability from the mother tongue is the result of positive and negative transfer and interference, and the permeability of the target language is the result of the generalization of the rules or forms of the target language that has been learned.

In many respects it"s a general feature of natural languages, which evolve over time in ways not dissimilar to the developments that take place in interlanguage. (Rod Ellis, 75)

4.4 Being systematic

Interlanguage is systematic, that is, interlanguage is a relatively independent language system. It has a unique system of pronunciation, grammar and lexical rules.

Selinker thinks that although the interlanguage is dynamic, it is possible to understand the internal rules of interlanguage. The use of interlanguage rules is not arbitrary for second language learners. The mode of interlanguage used by second language learners is consistent with that of people using their mother tongue. Relative to the rules of target language, learners" linguistic rules are biased, so they are classified as interlanguage rules. Although interlanguage rules do not have perfect grammatical system with purpose and rules, interlanguage itself constitutes a series of transitional language systems. It can be seen that interlanguage"s systematicness exists, and it can be recognized and perceived.

4.5 Being repeatability

Interlanguage is gradually approaching the target language, but this movement is not straight forward but rather repetitive and tortuous. It is mainly manifested in the recurrence of errors in correction.

1. the Enlightenment of interlanguage in primary school English Teaching

According to the interlanguage theory, primary school students may experience such stages in English Learning: the first stage: the nonsystematic error stage. Due to the lack of systematic knowledge of English knowledge, thus their listening, speaking, reading and writing are still in a very childish stage. The second stage: the presentation stage. This stage is based on the first stage, and the students get some rules of English. On the one hand, these rules are formed in English learning; on the other hand, due to the characteristics of internal construction has a certain distance from the exact rules of English. As a result, its actual status is not correct, but it is ‘reasonable’ for students, in many cases, students learn English according to the set of rules they have built. The third stage: the system stage. The main feature of this stage is that students can adjust themselves and correct themselves in English learning. The fourth stage: the stable stage. The stable stage in primary school English learning refers to the stage that students can express and communicate in simple English according to the learning requirements of primary school English. At this stage, the students" low-level mistakes are largely absent. The fluency and accuracy of language use are relatively high; the ability to correct themselves is also stronger under the absence of an external reminder.

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