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child feels most comfortable using. Often this term is used synonymously with NATIVE LANGUAGE [1,
202].
According to L.V.Ekshembeyeva, L1 is acquired by a child in the process of the surrounding world
acquisition, and it is a means of codification of his conceptual system which was primarily formed on the
basis of his genetically given linguistic ability.
Second language (L2) being a non-native language is acquired by a person in addition to his mother
tongue. L2 is a means of codification of a foreign linguistic picture of the world, thus, it is a means of
forming individual conceptual system under the influence of foreign language community [2, 4].
Foreign language (FL) is a language which is not the native language of large numbers of people in a
particular country, it is not used as a medium of instruction in schools and is not widely used as a medium of
communication in government, media etc. It is noted that foreign languages are typically taught as school
subjects for the purpose of communicating with foreigners or for reading printed
materials in the language
[1, 206].
Scholars note that the difference between the notions of ‘second language’ and ‘foreign language’ is that
the former is acquired in the natural setting under the influence of the environment (for example, in a country
where it has the status of the state or official language) usually without any formal teaching, while the latter
is learned in artificial academic situations controlled by instructors (people who are professionally engaged
in the process of teaching). In this case they often face difficulties due to a limited number of hours granted
for studying this subject, a large average number of students in language groups (13-15 people), different
backgrounds (levels of initial competence) of students in one and the same
group which could have a
negative impact on the quality of language teaching and learning and lead to a relatively low level of foreign
language proficiency. It should be noted that the second language could be also taught as a subject in
educational institutions. For example, in Kazakhstan, high school, college and university students learn either
Kazakh or Russian depending on the language of instruction (students in Kazakh-medium schools learn
Russian as an L2 and in Russian-medium schools they learn Kazakh).
Thus, the terms
second language and
foreign language can be used as closely connected and sometimes
interchangeable: Second language acquisition is not always intended to contrast with foreign language
acquisition. It is used as a general term that embraces untutored (or “naturalistic”) acquisition and tutored (or
“classroom”) acquisition [3, 50].
The next key concepts connected with the theory of SLA are
interlanguage and
fossilization.
The term
interlanguage (IL) was introduced by the American professor of applied linguistics Larry
Selinker who adapted it from U.Weinreich’s term ‘
interlingual identifications’ to refer to the existence of a
separate second language learner’s system based on the observable output which results from a learner’s
attempted production of a target language norm and has a structurally intermediate status between the native
and target languages [4, 215]. Thus, it is different from both the individual’s first language and his target
(second or foreign) language.
In
Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics the term
interlanguage is defined
as the type of language produced by second- and foreign-language learners who are
in the process of learning
a language [5, 267].
It is interesting to note that second language learners’ interlanguage systems have some essential
characteristics considered by Rod Ellis in his book “Understanding Second Language Acquisition” [6, 50-
51]:
- IL system is permeable in the sense that rules constituting the learner’s knowledge at any one stage are
not fixed;
- IL system is dynamic, it is constantly changing;
- IL system is systematic.
According to L.Selinker, the formation of interlanguage is connected with the following characteristic
features:
- Language transfer or interference;
- Transfer of language training;
- Second language learning strategies;
- Second language
communication strategies;
- Overgeneralization of the material of the target language [7, 216-221].
One of the most important cognitive factors is language transfer.
Language transfer could be positive (facilitation) and negative (interference). Facilitation contributes to
successful acquisition of similar words, structures, patterns or rules of the native and target languages. For
example, English is estimated to have a high degree of lexical similarities with the German and French
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languages. This fact explains the conditions for positive transfer, which can potentially make easier learning
or acquiring of some common elements in the English language for the native speakers of French and
German.
On the contrary, negative transfer or interference hinders target language acquisition. It can be illustrated
by the peculiarities of the English word order acquisition by Kazakh and Russian learners. It is recognized
that word order is one of the major factors differentiating world languages. Different typological and
structural classifications of languages are usually based on the relative order of such
parts of the sentence as
subject (S), direct object (O), and verb (V). The basic word order for the English and Russian languages is
SVO (subject – verb – object), as for the Kazakh language, its basic order is SOV (subject – object - verb).
The Russian and Kazakh word order is flexible (with the only exception that in Kazakh the verb is always in
the final position), while the English word order is fixed, although some deviations from the canonical word
order patterns are observed. It is evident that the English, Kazakh and Russian languages differ in the rigidity
of canonical elements and/or the order of these elements, and it can lead to errors in the target language. The
word
order in English, Kazakh and Russian can form the so called field of potential interference and present
difficulties for acquisition and learning [8].
The analysis of English compositions written by native speakers of Kazakh and Russian languages shows
that word order deviations are connected with the negative transfer.
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