Fossilization is a the term used generally to denote what appears to be a state of permanent failure on the part of a second-language learner to acquire a given feature of the target language. This article reviews different accounts of this phenomenon and offers another account. The implications of this new account of fossilization for…

Examines the nature of interlanguage as it affects second-language learning and teaching, focusing on the language transfer phenomenon, fossilization, how error analysis and error correction can be improved through understanding of interlanguage, native speaker norms, international varieties of English, and the contribution of interlanguage to…

This study is a continuation of an ethnographic study of a six-year-old Japanese child learning English as a Second Language. It is concluded that language transfer, overgeneralization, and simplification combined with natural development all worked together in the development of the subject's interlanguage, irrespective of the overwhelming input…

Reports a study investigating how multilingual language learners evaluate their own multilingualism, how they view the interaction of their different languages, and whether they think the different languages help or hinder them when speaking, listening, understanding, or writing the foreign languages. Ways in which these perceptions can be used to…

A study of error patterns of Arabic-speaking learners of French at a Jordanian university revealed a negative influence of Arabic polysemic words on the learning and use of French vocabulary. It is recommended that second-language instruction make use of explicit instruction in vocabulary that, in the native language, has multiple meanings. (MSE)