INTERLANGUAGE PROJECT

TESL 568 Language Acquisition

Summer 2014
Dee Matchett

Photography: Dee Matchett
An Interlanguage Analysis
Learner: Korean Male
Age: 20
Level: Advanced Elementary

Method: Retelling
The subject watched a cartoon and retold the
story in his own words.






http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xiah78_uhuka-a-kis-bagoly-1969_people
LINE ANALYSIS CORRECT FORM
1
Developmental Error: wrong article, one
Self-correction: chooses the correct subject/verb
agreement form
There is an owl family.

2
sss pronunciation problem or insufficient vocabulary?
Simplification: omitted preposition
Self-correction: is (changed to tense and negation)
Developmental Errors : plural form
The mother owl didnt sit
on the eggs.

1-5 Note: some use of filler words NA
4&5 Circumlocution: to broke egg; auto broke egg machine hatch; incubator
6
Circumlocution;Developmental Error; Simplification:
for broke egg
So, they wait for the eggs
to hatch.
1. Um..there are..there is one owl family
2. and, butumthe mother owl is didntumah..sss egg
3. cause they have ah one small machine.
4. This machine isuh. To broke egg.
5. Soahauto broke egg machine (he laughs at his own
descriptor). Yeah
6. So, they wait for broke eggbroke egg
7. After one egg brokentwo egg broke
8. but.ahlast babys very
latebreakbreak broke
9. so, they wait for broke time.
10. So, broke, the owl babys
veryuhh..crying strange at firstfirst

LINE ANALYSIS CORRECT FORM
7
Developmental Error: Use of ordinal numbers
Verb tense: past perfect & 3
rd
person
After the first egg has
hatched, the second egg
hatches.
8
Simplification: article omitted; infinitive omitted
Circumlocution: break/broke
but the last babys very late to
hatch.
9 Circumlocution: broke time
So, they wait for the eggs to
hatch.
10
Circumlocution with Simplification: broke; correct
tense, but omitted article and subject
Self-correction: very
Developmental Error: used adjective instead of
adverb

So, the egg hatched. The owl
babys crying strangely at first.
11.And next..um..and they give to milk,
each babies..uh..
12. And suddenlyand next ..uh..
mother owl..uhum..
13, Go to near daddysowl,
14. Butdaddy owl is only watching TV.
LINE ANALYSIS CORRECT FORM
11
Interference: inverted word order, to milk each
Overgeneralization: plural form, each babies
And next, they give milk to each
baby.
12
Self-correction: suddenly
Simplification: article omitted
And next, the mother owl
13
Developmental Error: third person, go
Overgeneralization: word order, go to near
Goes near to the daddy owl
14
Simplification: article omitted
Circumlocution: only, wrong use of the word,
probably should form another sentence to explain
that Daddy owl watches TV a lot.
But the daddy owl is watching
TV ( as usual? or the only thing
he does is watch TV?)
LINE ANALYSIS CORRECT FORM
15
Simplification: article omitted
Self-correction: mother/wife

And the wife said,
16
Simplification: possessive pronoun omitted
Developmental error: plural possessive
We will go to our babies
17
Self-correction: bath/bedroom
Simplification: Subject pronoun omitted
Overgeneralization: for, not a prepositional phrase
Developmental Error: baby, needs plural form

bedroom. We will watch our
babies together.
18 Developmental Error: third person plural, go So, they went there.
15, And mother said.wife said,
16, We..uh..we..we will go to babys (or babies?)
17. Bathbedroomwill watch for our baby
together.
18. Sothey go there
LINE ANALYSIS CORRECT FORM
19
Developmental Error: disappear, requires past tense
form
But, one babys disappeared.
20
Self-correction: search/look, either is acceptable
Simplification: article omitted
Developmental error: adjective word order
So they search for the one small
baby owl.
21
Self-correction: discover
Simplification: article omitted

They discover the baby.
22
Developmental Error: present progressive; requires
is+ing
Circumlocution: only, wrong use of the word,
probably should form another sentence to explain
that the naughty owlet wants to watch TN all the
time like the Daddy
But this small baby is watching
TV. (The baby watches TV all the
time, like his father.)


19. But, one babysuh..disappear.
20. So they search forthey look for..uh one small
one owl baby
21. Theyuh///discover? discover baby.
22. But this baby only watching TV. Small baby,


ISSUE RECOMMENDATION
FILLER WORDS
These should decrease as systematic type errors are resolved.
SELF-CORRECTIONS These should decrease as the learner becomes more fluent.
CIRCUMLOCUTIONS
Do vocabulary building and give instruction on the use of
ordinal numbers.
SIMPLIFICATION

a) Omitting Articles




b) Omitting Pronouns




c) Omitting Prepositions


a) Most frequent error. Articles are in the second stage of the
acquisition sequence. Hopefully, this is within the learners
ZPD and can be corrected soon, since it is his most
troublesome deficiency. Practice using articles in both
writing and speaking.

b) Omission of subject pronoun was probably a slip in
production, but the omission of possessive pronouns is an
error. Since acquisition of possessives is in the final phase of
acquisition, it may be best to delay correction.

c) Give explicit instruction and practice with prepositions.

ISSUE RECOMMENDATION
GRAMMATICAL ERRORS
a)Verbs/Tense



b) Plurals


c) Adverbs

d) 3
rd
person
singular s

a) Acquisition of present progressive is an early phase
morpheme and the learner sometimes uses it correctly.
He should respond to correction at this time.

b) Plural formation is first phase acquisition, so the learner
should respond well to instruction and correction.

c) Give instruction in the use of ly to form adverbs.

d) This is last in the sequence of acquisition and is best
addressed later,

ISSUE RECOMMENDATION
WORD ORDER ERRORS

a) Adjectives




b) Inverted Word Order


a) This may be from first language interference and practice
with adjective/noun order and particularly using multiple
adjectives may need to be addressed to prevent
fossilization.

b) This may be an overgeneralization, since the learner uses
go to correctly elsewhere and has probably learned them
as a word cluster. Introducing an adverb (near) is confusing
to him. This seems to be beyond his skill level and explicit
instruction should wait until later.

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