How does the rise of Korean as a second language in Korean society affect communication?

The increasing number of people who speak Korean as a second language emphasizes the important role that interlanguage plays in the L2 learning process. An intermediate language is a mixture of elements from both L1 and L2, reflecting the learner’s individual language development, and can lead to obstacles and errors in communication. Analyzing these errors can be an important tool in L2 education.

 

With the development of Korean society, it is not uncommon to encounter people who speak Korean as a second language. When we refer to the first language a person is born with as L1 and the language they learn after acquiring L1 as L2, Korean is their L2. The language that emerges during the process of learning L2, which is neither L1 nor L2 but has elements of both L1 and L2, is called an intermediate language. The system of the intermediate language is simpler than the L2, and it develops toward the L2.
People who speak Korean as their L1 and people who speak Korean as their L2 often experience communication difficulties because they do not share the same langue. A langue is a set of language rules that are embedded in the minds of members of the same language community. Speakers of different dialects of a language don’t face particular barriers to communication because they share the same langue. Since an intermediate language is a language that is in the process of developing toward an L2, each learner is individual, and we cannot assume a group of L2 learners with one and the same langue. Learners of the same L2, even if they have different L1s, can communicate imperfectly with each other because they utilize the rules of their acquired L2, not because they have the same intermediate language.
L2 learners make errors, and in the past, errors were considered to be something that should not be present for successful L2 acquisition. However, just as errors in infant language acquisition are viewed as a natural sign of language development, L2 learners’ errors are now interpreted in the same light. In many cases, errors are caused by negative interference from the L1, but some errors are not explained by any rules in either L1 or L2. They are generated by the L2 learner’s intermediate language rules and are evidence that the intermediate language is real. Errors are an inevitable byproduct of L2 acquisition. By analyzing their content, we can learn about the learner’s intermediate language system and the extent of L2 acquisition at a given point in time. We can also analyze the causes of errors and use the results in L2 teaching and learning to effectively reduce errors.
The language system of infants is similar to the intermediate language in that it is simpler than the language of adults. However, infant language differs from intermediate language in that it is not a mixture of two or more languages. Also, while infant language develops into the language of adults, L2 learners’ intermediate language does not develop into the language of native speakers of the L2, and the degree of development varies greatly among individuals.