Interlanguage Development in Early EFL Learning in Croatia：An Insight Into Individual Learner Profiles

• 作者: Katica Balenovic
• 来源期刊: 中美英语教学：英文版
• 学科: 文学
• 关键词: interlanguage learner ORAL production
• 年，卷（期）: 2017,（7）
• 页码范围: 436-445
• 页数: 10页
• 分类号: H319

摘要

The goal of this paper is to gain insight into the individual lexical and syntactic development of learners＇interlanguage in early EFL （English as a Foreign Language） learning in Croatia. The total sample included 108Croatian L1 primary school learners （mean age 11-13）. In this research, we selected 12 focal learners from twoproject schools, whose interlanguage development was observed over a period of three years. The research wasbased on the recordings of individual oral production when the students were at the end of their second, third, andfourth year of EFL learning. The quantitative analysis of the collected data included the number of utterances andmorphemes count, mean length of utterances （MLU）, and type/token ratio （FREQ）. To gain better insight intostudent＇s individual development, learners＇ profiles were constructed consisting quantitative data analysis. Theinitial hypothesis is that students＇ oral production shows clear progress which supposes an increase in the meanlength of utterances and in type/token ratio as indicators of linguistic and lexical diversity. We also assume thatthere is a decrease in the use of L1 in learners＇ oral production throughout the years of EFL learning. The researchresults confirmed the initial hypothesis, i.e., due to the exposure to EFL learning, participants＇ overall languageproficiency gradually increased. The findings also showed expected interlanguage variations in early EFL learning.