ABSTRACT
Students learning a second language move across a continuum from no listening, speaking, reading, or writing ability in the language to near-native or native-like prociency. Along this continuum they progress through predictable stages, from uttering one word or short, simple phrases, to producing complete sentences with complex grammatical forms. At each stage students take in more complex vocabulary and grammatical structures and attempt to use them for real communication. When a structure is new, students o¢en go through a process of producing it with errors before it becomes part of the individual’s working grammar. For example, students at the beginning stages may say, “I no go,” which precedes “I don’t go” at a later point on the continuum. ese types of erroneous utterances are called interlanguage, and for most middle and high-school students the errors will be replaced by the correct form over time and with more opportunities to communicate.
