INTERLANGUAGE AS CHAMELEON1

Abstract

The clam is made that Labov's “Observor's Paradox” and the fire methodological axioms leading to this paradox apply to inter language Thus, we may mew interlanguage as a continuum of styles, which is defined by the amount of attention paid to speech; the most systematic second‐language learner speech is produced when the learner is paying the least attention to speech. Yet, when we do research, the presence of the researcher and the tasks presented to the learner, lead our subjects to pay attention to their speech. Therefore, we cannot claim that research can ever observe the most truly systematic form of a learner's interlanguage—unattended or “unmonitored” speech. The methodological implications of the claim are explored, and recommendations for research are made.

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