Cognitive Processes Featuring Learner Language: A Study of Indonesian Students Learning English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Committing errors by students who are learning a new language is common. And language containing errors produced by second language learners is termed interlanguage. It is beleived that a learner‟s interlanguage is the product of various learning strategies. The main objectives of this study was to describe and explain the typical cognitive processes which feature the learner language under the study. This study was a qualitative research of second language acquisition in classroom context. The framework used in this study was error analysis discussed by James. Data on learner language were elicited through free composition as it was believed to be the best linguistic forms of closely observed language production. Data analysis used was a kind of contrastive activity; the learner language was contrasted with the target language. The collected data were analyzed using interlanguage framework to describe and explain the features of learner language found in the students' written production. The result of this study revealed some cognitive processes which characterized the learner language. This includes strategy of second language communication, language transfer, and strategy of overgeneralization.