In this article, we address the important issue of ‘how we know what
learners know’ based on evidence from second language (L2)
learners’ spontaneous speech samples gathered longitudinally. We first
examine some of the problems involved in the analysis of spontaneous speech, with
focus on L2 studies within the generative framework. Next, we revisit the issue of
the comparative fallacy in L2 research. We first consider the effects of the
comparative fallacy in relation to analyses of interlanguage with a target language
bias. Next, we extend the comparative fallacy to include interlanguage analysis
where the bias is towards the native language. We argue that the comparative fallacy
in interlanguage studies, regardless of the nature of the bias (i.e., target
language or native language) can lead to the underestimation and/or overestimation
of the learners’ linguistic competence.
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