Abstract

Sociolinguistics acknowledges the distinct varieties of “Englishes” and posits that Standard English is just one of them. In language teaching contexts, however, errors tend to be stigmatized as “wrong” grammar or non-standard English and not variations or diversities in utterances. This paper derives from the written discourse of second language learners to examine the distinct ways by which they construct texts and their error patterns. It uses the interlanguage continuum—which progresses from random errors, emergent, systematic, to stabilized stages—as a framework for the text and test item analysis of the language produced by university students. Interlanguage recognizes that errors ought to be viewed from a sociocultural perspective, focusing on items that will help these advanced learners improve in academic writing.