In the classroom

Example
Many advanced level learners who have Spanish as an L1 do not distinguish between ‘he' and ‘she'. This could be a fossilized error.

In the classroom

Errors in general take time to correct but a fossilized error may never be corrected unless the learner sees a reason to do so, e.g. if it is seriously hindering communication. Teachers can help learners notice their fossilized errors by for example recording them speaking, or by asking them to keep a record of written errors as part of a language portfolio.

What Is Fossilization?

Language fossilization refers to the process in the learning of a secondary language in which the student has more and more difficulty furthering his fluency in the language, until eventually, the student can learn no more. The language, for all intents and purposes, has been set in stone in the mind of the learner at this last point. Some potential for learning small superficial aspects of the language might still exist, such as vocabulary, but conceptual understanding of the material will not develop any further. Fossilization, thus, is a sort of stagnation in secondary language acquisition that cannot be overcome.

Why Does Fossilization Happen?

There’s no real rule determining when certain users may begin to fossilize. It varies widely by the individual and by the environment in which the language is learned.

Fossilization most often occurs in an inadequate learning environment. This usually means learning a language in a classroom, as opposed to learning it in the country where it is natively spoken. Many aspects of a language simply cannot be taught in a classroom, where one generally learns a highly academic version of the tongue, as opposed to the colloquial language.

However, fossilization can still occur despite complete immersion in a foreign language environment for decades, a well documented phenomenon among, for example, immigrants. Clearly, this is not the only issue at stake.

Fossilization often means that certain aspects of the language were learned incompletely or incorrectly, such as grammatical features like conjugating verbs in the wrong fashion or using the wrong vocabulary, in such a manner that they cannot be unlearned and replaced with correct usage.