Learning Japanese as a Second Language: A Processability Perspect ...

thus a grammatical knowledge of the target language is a prerequisite for language processing at this stage.

Stage X+4 (–COS, –IFS, –SCS), where all three constraint strategies are removed, is the last stage that Clahsen (1984) identified. The grammatical substrings are recognised and learners are able to process elements across strings. Subordination is now available to learners.

Variational Features

Although developmental sequences do not differ according to the learner, the learner’s IL displays different features as he/she moves through the developmental stages. According to the multidimensional model, this is best explained in terms of the learner’s orientation towards simplification. One item of evidence supplied by the ZISA Group is the observed tendency among learners to omit L2 German grammatical elements, including articles, prepositions, copula, and so forth. The variational features were deeply related to the learners’ psychosocial orientations: A group using a language to perform an ‘instrumental’ function (i.e., mainly for essential communication) tended to simplify the language, whereas another group using a language to perform an ‘integrative’ function (i.e., in order to identify themselves as a member of the host language group) tended to strive for standard and accurate language usage (Pienemann, 1988a).

One important point is the fact that developmental features and variational features are independent. Therefore, even a learner in an advanced developmental stage can retain nonstandard features in his/her IL. All second language learners traverse a series of developmental stages, and the transfer from one stage to the next is the result of the accumulation of a language ‘processing’ strategy. The variational feature, in contrast with the developmental stage, differs according to the individual and is influenced by his/her psychosocial orientation. This orientation determines the learner’s preference for standard or simplified language usage.

From an application of the multidimensional model, the important notion of ‘teachability’ was generated in the field of teaching L2. Pienemann’s (1984, 1988b) ‘teachability hypothesis’ was derived from the developmental stages. The hypothesis claims that learners cannot skip