'Complexification' and 'Communicative Potential' - Two Basic Notions in the Description of Learner Language.

This study focused on linguistic analyses used in the PIF Project (Project in Error Analysis, Interlanguage Studies and Contrastive Linguistics), an ongoing study of learner language and a project in foreign language pedagogy. For the project, 120 Danish learners of English were divided into 12 groups representing different Danish educational levels. Testing materials, several of which were computerized for multiple linguistic analyses, consisted of an oral and a written summary of a film, essays in English and Danish on set topics, and a video-taped 20 minute conversation with a native speaker of English. Analyses used included performance analysis, an expansion of traditional error analysis to include correct aspects of learner language, which can be broken down into: (1) linguistic performance analysis, dealing with phonological, syntactic, lexical and pragmatic properties of native or foreign language samples, and especially with the notion of "complexification," a process leading to increased correctness; and (2) communicative performance analysis, a measurement of communicative potential. Also used in the project were developmental performance analysis, which deals with stages of foreign language development, and contrastive performance analysis, i.e., comparing the learner's performance in his native and foreign languages or comparing the learner's and the native speaker's performance of the language in question. Implications for further interlanguage studies and pedagogical research are discussed. (MHP)