fossilization

n. in second-language acquisition, an intermediate state at which the learner’s development ceases short of the attainment of full nativelike proficiency. See also idiolect; interlanguage; language transfer. —fossilize vb.

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Psychology term of the day

December 22nd 2024

compartmentalization

n. a defense mechanism in which thoughts and feelings that seem to conflict or to be incompatible are isolated from each other in separate and apparently impermeable psychic compartments. In the classical psychoanalytic tradition, compartmentalization emerges in response to fragmentation of the ego, which ideally should be able to tolerate ambiguity and ambivalence. See also isolation. —compartmentalize vb.