ABSTRACT
This chapter review the central question covering the internal processes of second language learning, namely the extent to which first and subsequent occasions use the same processes. It starts with an analogy between adding a second language and adding a new car or a new plane type to one's repertoire in the domain of driving or flying skills. The notion of interlanguage is discussed as an entity, learner language, that needs description and analysis in its own right, and some of the problems of performing that analysis are described. The influence of Krashen's Monitor Model is then described, before turning to the implications of involving some of the ideas of Universal Grammar to investigate the internal technical contribution by the learner, perhaps even the recapitulation of independent linguistic processes used before in the acquisition of the learners' first language.
