Language Transfer in Learning Japanese and Interlanguage Development

This paper explains language transfer in second/foreign language learning by exploring the nature and sources of learner errors from some psycholinguistic perspectives. It claims that language transfer occurs at several abstract levels during second/foreign language production processes, rather than at the surface level of configurations. Three such abstract levels are identified in relation to potential sources of learner errors: the conceptual level, the functional level, and the positional level. Each level plays its own distinctive role, and the three levels are related in a sequential order of speech production process. It is assumed that language transfer may occur at any abstract level in second/foreign language production. Thus, language transfer and learner errors are viewed as part of learners’ active mental process, rather than mere surface carryover of linguistic items from one language into another. For the study, the language transfer data, including both speaking and writing instances, were collected from adult learners of Japanese as a foreign language with English as their native language.