Toward Assessing Interlanguage Performance: The Relationship Between Selected Errors, Learners' Characteristics, and Learners' Explanations

This study dealt empirically with certain aspects of second language learning among three university students, who all had a relative degree of proficiency in Mandarin and who were in an advanced English‐as‐a‐second‐language class at UCLA. An error analysis of written verb forms was undertaken with two purposes in mind: first, to determine the short‐term effects of teacher correction procedures on the eradication of errors and second, to relate interlanguage background (past language experiences, current language environment, and language learning strategies) and learners' explanation of errors to the errors themselves. A close look at the effects of correction in written work revealed that correction was neither systematic nor enlightened enough to actually influence the production of errors. Although broad in scope and in some ways rudimentary, the gathering of interlanguage background information and error explanations from the learners provided useful insights concerning the production of errors and what these errors tell us about interlanguage.