Question 30

The student's interlanguage is still developing the use of relative clauses.

The student's speech indicates that they are attempting to connect ideas but are not effectively using relative clauses, which would help clarify relationships between nouns. This suggests that their understanding and application of this grammatical structure are still in the developmental stage.

A) Use of causatives

The student's utterance does not indicate any attempt to use causative structures, such as "have" or "make" followed by another verb. Therefore, this option does not reflect a feature that is still in development in their interlanguage.

B) Use of contractions

There is no evidence in the provided extract that the student is struggling with or failing to use contractions. The focus of the sentence is more on the actions and descriptions rather than the grammatical forms that involve contractions, making this option irrelevant.

C) Use of verb tenses

While the student is using present tense verbs, the extract does not show any misuse or confusion with verb tenses that would indicate they are still developing this feature. Thus, this option does not accurately represent the area where the student's interlanguage needs improvement.

D) Use of relative clauses

The student's speech lacks the complexity that relative clauses would provide, such as descriptive phrases that connect additional information about the noun. This absence highlights that the student is still developing this aspect of their interlanguage, as they are not yet incorporating these structures into their speech.

Conclusion

In summary, the student’s interlanguage is most evidently still in development regarding the use of relative clauses, as indicated by their simplistic sentence structure. Other options, such as causatives, contractions, and verb tenses, do not reflect areas of struggle in the student's speech, reinforcing that relative clauses are the primary focus for further development.