Identity and IL Development and Use1

For theoretical as well as applied reasons, it is important to understand the social processes which have an impact on the development and performance of a learner's interlanguage (IL). ‘Identity’ is a theme that runs through much of the sociolinguistic research. This paper will present an assessment of the role of identity in IL development and performance, by focusing on what the research suggests about the relationship of identity to the speaker's overall target, to selected features of the speaker's IL, and to target language speakers' attitudes toward the IL speaker. Following the assessment, some of the outcomes regarding identity will be used to counter an argument made by Lowenberg (1986) and Sridhar and Sridhar (1986), which asserts that language learning in IL settings and non-native variety settings is fundamentally different.