Assesses the role of identity in interlanguage development and performance, focusing on what research suggests about the relationship of identity to the speaker's overall target, to selected features of the speaker's interlanguage, and to target language speakers' attitudes toward the interlanguage speaker. (Author/CB)

An examination of the social psychological basis of style shifting suggests that, contrary to Labovian theory, many style shifts are not a function of shifts in attention to speech and that there are other more explanatory ways of analyzing style shifts. Some reasons for this view are: (1) attention to speech is sometimes negatively correlated…

Explores the validity of Labov's (1969) "Observer Paradox," and the five axioms describing the problems involved in linguistic research, for interlanguage research. Methodological remedies are suggested. (AM)

A study investigated patterns in phonological errors occurring in the speaker's second language in both formal and informal speaking situations. Subjects were three adult learners of English as a second language, including a native Spanish-speaker and two Asians. Their speech was recorded during diagnostic testing (formal speech) and in everyday…

The notion that acquisition of a second language may be influenced by transfer of typological features from the first language is discussed, focusing on the role of topic-prominence in the interlanguage stages of a native Cantonese-speaker learning English. First, the topic-prominent surface structure manifestations in oral Cantonese are examined.…

From a consideration of variability in language-learner and language-user data, the concept of proficiency is considered in relation to models of second and foreign language learning. Proficiency is defined in relation to four separate dimensions: grammatical well-formedness, speech-act rules, functional elaboration, and code diversity. This…