These are ascribed to interference

These are ascribed to interference from the habits .of tlie mother-tongue, as it is sometimes expressed. In the light of the new hypotheses I ^tihey are best not regarded as the persistence of old habits, but rather as signs I that the learner is investigating the systems of the new language. Saporta (1966) .makes this point clear, ^TRe internal structure of the (language acquisition) device, i. e, the learner, has gone relatively unexplored except to point out that one of its components is the grammar of the learners native language. It has generally been assumed that the effect of this component has been inhibitoiy rather. jthan__facilitative,. It will be evident that the position taken here is that the learner^ possession of his native language is facilitative and that errors are not / to be ^regarded as signs of inhibition, but simply as evidence of his strategies .of / learmng.