First Language, Target Language and Learning Strategies in Learners’ Interlanguage: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Interlanguage is the developing linguistic system that learners construct while moving between a first language and a target language. This integrative review examines how first-language influence, target-language development, and learning strategies jointly shape that system. Ten peer-reviewed studies published from 2017 to 2024 were purposively selected from publisher archives, indexed discovery services, and scholarly search records. The studies address Indonesian EFL writing, Indonesian as a foreign language, interlanguage pragmatics, learner language analysis, communication strategies, pragmatic learning strategies, learner autonomy, and fossilization. A thematic synthesis identified four connected patterns. First, learner production is permeable to both languages: L1 influence appears especially in lexical choice, word order, and pragmatics, whereas incomplete target-language knowledge is visible in overgeneralization and other developmental patterns. Second, error forms cannot be assigned to L1 transfer alone because learners actively test and reorganize target-language hypotheses. Third, pragmatic performance depends on the relationship between linguistic forms, social distance, power, and culturally situated norms. Fourth, strategy use and autonomy can support noticing, practice, monitoring, and revision, although strategy use varies with proficiency and learning experience. The review argues that Indonesian language education should diagnose errors as evidence of development, combine contrastive and form-focused support with meaningful interaction, and make pragmatic strategy instruction explicit. Because the included studies differ in language pairs, methods, and contexts, the synthesis does not estimate a common effect size. Instead, it offers a transparent, context-sensitive account of how linguistic and strategic factors interact in interlanguage development.