THE INTERLANGUAGE VARIATION OF NONTARGET-LIKE VERBS IN THE ORAL NARRATIVES PERFORMED BY INDONESIAN LEARNERS OF ENGLISH
Iwan Fauzi
Department of English Education
Palangka Raya University
Abstract
Interlanguage (IL) is termed as a "separate linguistic system based on the observable output which results from a learners attempted production" (Selinker (1972: 35). It situates the learner-system in an intermediate position between the native language and the target language. Second language acquisition (SLA) research has attempted to describe and explain the variation of learners IL. The IL variation based on linguistic context is the most frequently discussed by researchers in SLA field. The term linguistic context refers to either the phonological, morphological or syntactic features which surround the varying element. Some influential studies relating to the IL variation of learner language is illustrated in Ellis (1988), Dickerson (1975), and Young (1991) who investigate linguistic contexts in terms of syntactic variation, phonological variation, and morphological variation respectively. In relation with this study, the variation of nontarget-like English verbs is interesting to analyze especially produced through spontaneous speech by Indonesian learners of English in the university level. Three questions must be answered through this study; (1) do the Indonesian learners of English produce variation of nontarget-like verbs in interlanguage? (2) if they do so, how are the variant types? And (3) how is the suppliance of variant types of nontarget-like verbs performed by the learners into sentencial contexts based on the verb tense system of English?
Keywords: interlanguage, linguistic variation, nontarget-like verb, EFL learners
Topic: International Conference of English Language Teaching, Literature & Linguistics