Learner language (or Interlanguage. As this research is interested in charting out what Norwegian university students struggle most in using S-V agreement in English, an important source of information comes from learner language. Learner language, according to Xxxxx and Barkhuizen (2005), refers to oral or written language produced by L2 learners, which serves as the primary data for studying second language acquisition. Learner language can be used to inform us about L2 learners’ competence and how it develops over the course of L2 acquisition, provided with more input or individual learners’ experiences with L2 (e.g., practice, explicit instruction) (see also Vaurula 2012). Learner language is also called “interlanguage”, which is the term first introduced by Selinker (1972).1 According to Selinker (1972), interlanguage is L2 learners’ developing or provisional knowledge of the target grammar which is independent of both the leaner’s native language and the target language. It is a developing system, rather than an incomplete or 1 According to Song (2012), other terms referring to the same concept of “learner language” have also been used such as “approximative system” (Xxxxxx 1971) and “idiosyncratic dialect” (Xxxxxx 1971), both cited in Song (2012). See Song (2012) for further descriptions of these terms. imperfect version of the target language, which learners construct and revise in the course of L2 acquisition. Interlanguage is argued to be systematic and predictable but at the same time dynamic and permeable as it is subject to change as learners constantly reconstruct their hypotheses about L2 based on the input they receive (Selinker 1972; XxXxxxxxxx 1987). Interlanguage is argued to be shaped by several factors partaking in the process of L2 acquisition such as L1 transfer, individual learners’ learning strategies, explicit instruction, practice, not to mention linguistic input, among other things (Selinker 1972; Song 2012; Vaurula 2012).
