INTERLANGUAGE THEORY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE CLASSROOM

Abstract

The Interlanguage theory, that assumes that an active and independent learning mind makes its own generalizations upon grappling with a new language, argues that the errors that a learner makes in the rules of the target language are often in fact "correct" by the rules of an "interlanguage" invented by the learner as a provisional and sufficiently workable substitute. To insist on penalising all such "errors" has the effect of breaking down the learner's capacity to organize his or her progress in this way. Frith reviews the research supporting this hypothesis and outlines some practical steps to be taken by the teacher of second languages who would conform wih its implications.