A Brief Note On Costa Rican Speakers As English Foreign Language Learners

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Many Costa Rican Spanish speakers as English foreign language learners face several linguistic implications that affect the improvement of their learning process (input) and language production (output). In order to have a better understanding of the topic, it is necessary to note the definition of interlanguage and fossilization. According to George Yule (2010) interlanguage is defined as the language produced by second language learners (L2) which includes several “errors” that seem to have no connection between the forms of L1 or L2. For example, the Spanish native speaker who says in English “She name is Maria” produces a form or structure that is not used by English native speakers. This example suggests that there is some in-between system …show more content…

First of all, in the quest of learning a new language it is common to see a progress that is based on acquiring new knowledge about structural terms and vocabulary; however, there is a moment where students continue applying their native language structures and forms called fossilization. According to Selinker & Lamandella as cited by Long “Fossilization is the permanent cessation of L2 learning before the learner has attained target language norms at all levels of linguistic structure and in all discourse domains in spite of the learners’ positive ability, opportunity or motivation to learn or acculturate into target society (Selinker & Lamandella, 1978, p.187).” As the authors pointed, in linguistics and second language acquisition, fossilization refers to the often observed loss of progress in the process of learning a second language, following a period where learning occurred despite regular exposure and interaction with the L2 and regardless of any learner motivation to continue. Learners with this problem would advance their learning process of a second language; however, they keep making some errors in speaking or writing. As a result, learners are not able to identify errors by themselves and those errors continue going through the whole learning process. In addition, Spanish and English have a similar alphabet, …show more content…

According to Campbell (1999) this anomaly is known as “Epentheses that consists of inserting a sound into a word. (Epenthesis is from Greek epi- 'in addition' + en 'in' + thesis 'placing'.).” Inside this kind of language interference, there is a subcategory that affects Spanish speakers in the process of learning EFL called “Prothesis (from Greek pro- 'before' + thesis 'placing.” The same author cited before, considers it “as a kind of epenthesis in which a sound is inserted at the beginning of a word.” (p.33). In accordance with the definition provided by this author, prothesis is the insertion of an initial [Ɛ] sound of an English word (consonant cluster) that starts with [S] sound. It occurs because in Spanish Language there are not words that are pronounced with [S] sound at the

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