Which term describes the process by which incorrect language becomes a habit and cannot easily be corrected?

• A. Fossilisation
• B. Acquisition
• C. ARC
• D. Affricatives

Answer: (A)

Fossilisation is the process where incorrect language becomes a habit and resists correction. In language learning, errors can start as part of the developing interlanguage, but with repeated use in real communication and limited corrective feedback, those faulty forms become entrenched. Once a form is fossilised, it tends to persist even when the learner is exposed to the correct forms and understands them, because the production patterns have become automatic. This helps explain why some mistakes stay in place despite awareness of the right form. Acquisition describes the overall process of learning language, not the persistence of a specific error. ARC isn’t a standard term for this phenomenon, and affricatives are a category of sounds rather than a process of error stabilization.