Introduction
Dewi [fictitious name] is an Indonesian who
immigrated to the United States 10 years ago. After
raising her family she would now like to return to the
vocation she had in Indonesia–that of teaching English.
However, she knows she needs to improve her English
in order to do that, so she looks for an ESL class.
Upon meeting her in your adult ESL class, you are
immediately impressed by her fluency in English. She
speaks confidently and without hesitation. At the same
time, however, you are sometimes a bit unsure of her
exact meaning and are struck by certain persistent
errors. You notice an absence of articles and plurals
and occasional incorrect use of prepositions. Verb
forms sometimes lack correct tense endings, and as a
result occasionally you are unsure of the time frame
that Dewi is referring to. You leave your encounter with
Dewi wondering if it is possible for one so fluent in
English to develop the accuracy that she needs in order
to pursue her goals.
Dewi is not alone. Many English learners achieve
impressive fluency without an equally high level of
accuracy. Persistent errors like Dewi’s in long-time
language users have sometimes been labeled
fossilization, or the cessation of language learning
before a point of high proficiency is reached (Selinker,
1972). Fossilization may occur in immigrant populations
because the pressure of work leaves no time for
formal language study, or fossilized errors emerge when
English learners speak mostly
with their own language group
even if speaking in English.
Such speakers have certain
errors in common and have
often lacked adequate exposure
to good language models.
In teaching English as a
second language (ESL) to
adults in the U.S. and abroad, I
have worked with many students
with fossilized errors.