23.2976, Disc: Fossilization

[linguist at linguistlist.org]

LINGUIST List: Vol-23-2976. Mon Jul 09 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.2976, Disc: Fossilization

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Veronika Drake, U of Wisconsin Madison
Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin Madison
Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin Madison
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin Madison
       <reviews at linguistlist.org>

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Do you want to donate to LINGUIST without spending an extra penny? Bookmark
the Amazon link for your country below; then use it whenever you buy from
Amazon!

USA: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-20
Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-21
Germany: http://www.amazon.de/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistd-21
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-22
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistc-20
France: http://www.amazon.fr/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistf-21

For more information on the LINGUIST Amazon store please visit our
FAQ at http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.

Editor for this issue: Kristen Dunkinson <kristen at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  


Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:31:17
From: Lisa Grenier [llgrenier at pima.edu]
Subject: Fossilization

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=23-2976.html&submissionid=4549447&topicid=5&msgnumber=1
 
I have been teaching ESL for the past 20 years or so. I've been 
thinking about fossilization lately. I know fossilization isn't an exact 
term, so I'd like to define how I am using it. I specifically mean the 
syntactic (rather than phonological or lexical) errors that some students 
make that are very resistant to change over a period of years. And I am 
only concerned with the students whose interlanguage is so far from 
the target language that they are either 1) difficult to understand or 2) 
suffer stigma due to their lack of language skills.

The limited research on this (at least what I have been able to find) 
seems spongy, that is inexact and without much rigor, to me. 
Fossilization isn't even well defined, so it's not always clear that we are 
talking about the same thing when we refer to fossilized language. It's 
frustrating because this topic is very important to me as an ESL 
teacher. It can and should affect my teaching practice.

Many teacher/researchers have concluded that fossilization is due to 
affective factors. Something doesn't seem right to me about this. While I 
think that may be some of the answer, I am disinclined to think it is the 
whole answer. By and large, most students with highly fossilized 
interlanguage began learning the L2 after 30 which makes me think 
that age of acquisition is important here. In addition, many of these 
students seem to have somewhat weak skills in their L1. (Both of these 
observations are antecdotal. I often don't speak the students' L1 well 
enough to judge the second claim myself. I am basing this on native 
speaker reports.)
 
There are a number of theories about fossilization, and I find that a 
teacher's theory of its origin will influence their practice. I'm suspicious 
that grammar acquisition may have a (loose) critical period, and so that 
in spite of the best intentions of teachers and learners, it may be 
practically impossible to change certain fossilized forms in certain 
students. Other teachers believe that it is more an issue of bad habits; 
students have learned an incorrect form and have practiced it so much 
that it now sounds right to them.

The question is and remains, how does one best help the older second 
language learner? Does one continue to beat them over the head with 
do support or should one concentrate on vocabulary and stock 
grammatically correct phrases that can be learned as chunks? Does a 
teacher try to limit incorrect utterances (abhorrent to me, I must admit) 
or allow students to speak freely paying most attention to 
comprehensibility?



Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics
                     Language Acquisition






----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-23-2976	
----------------------------------------------------------