INTERLANGUAGE DAN FOSILISASI KESALAHAN BERBAHASA ASING
Abstract
Learner errors are an inevitable sign of human fallibility; therefore, they always exist in second
language learning. They become the source for studying the system of the learners’ L2 or
interlanguage (IL). As a language system, IL has at least three main characteristics: systematicity,
permeability, and fossilization (Adjemian 1976; Saville-Troike, 2006: 41). That IL is systematic
and permeable is no longer disputable. However, the premise which claims that IL is fossilized is
still debatable. Schachter 1990; Han 2005, etc. view that there is critical period for SLA; adult L2
learners cannot attain complete TL grammar. Their IL errors are fossilized. Meanwhile, the
opposing view comes from White and Genesee 1996, Bialystok 1999, and Steinberg et al. 2004,
believing that there is no critical period for learning syntax. Based on these, the present study
concerned an error fossilization-related issue, with specific focus on grammatical errors.
The data were grammatical errors from the learners’ free compositions collected four
times: prior and after one-semester instruction and two months afterwards. The data were analyzed
qualitatively. The result indicates that almost all of the learners’ grammatical errors could be
eliminated. Further surveillance shows that they were dynamic. At a certain period of learning
course, some grammatical errors appeared. Due to the instruction, they changed their nature—
some were destabilized, some were fluctuating, while others were stabilized. Fluctuating errors
tended to destabilize and the stabilized errors were also likely to destabilize. The conclusion drawn
from this study is that the learners’ grammatical errors are dynamic and not fossilized. They may
get stabilized but just temporarily. The learners can take a lot of benefits from the given instruction
so as to make their grammatical errors can be destabilized.