INTERLANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND LINGUISTIC DEVELOPMENT IN COMMUNICATION: TWO CONGRUENT BUT NOT IN-LINE PROCESSES

The goal of the present study is illumination of whether or not Iranian EFL learners` interlanguage development and linguistic development are congruent and in-line. For the desired goal, a case study on a class in one of the institute of Mazandaran province have been conducted with the aid of postmethod pedagogy and focused task. The class was a mixed-gender class of per-intermediate language proficient students. Researchers observed learners` oral performances in communication while they performed different tasks and free discussions. Through observation, deduced data have been analyzed in a qualitative way for depiction of learners’ interlanguage development and their linguistic development. The conclusion was that while interlanguage development and linguistic development of the students were interrelated and congruent, they were not in-line. The researchers observed certain decline in learners` command of target language constructions while, in fact, learners had development in their access to innate system.

Keywords:

interlanguage development , linguistic development , congruency , in-line process