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Oleo de José Tola
From: Donna D.
Date: 2/11/99
Time: 11:02:48 AM
Remote Name: 38.14.126.210
Ken (and class),
I believe what Corder is trying to say is that what may appear as an "interference error" is actually a learner's unsuccessul attempt to communicate (ie. an "unsuccessful communicative strategy" used by the learner. - I'm trying to avoid semantical gymnastics myself). As Corder points out, when learners try to communicate in the target language they use whatever linguistic knowledge they have available that can, in turn, help them to communicate. The more demanding the communicative activity the greater amount of unsuccessful "borrowing" there will be from the mother tongue. As a result, their will be a greater amount of L1 interference errors. I think this is what Corder means when he argues that language is being "recreated," rather than "reconstructed." L2 learners are simply using all their existing linguistic resources as tools of communication.