Independent language learning (was Uzbek)

[gthomson]

At 09:53 -0400 06/06/01, Patricia Chaput wrote:

>Nothing in my postings indicated that my opinions were based on my own
>personal history, except insofar as that history encompasses all of
>my experience with instructors, students, the literature of
>language learning, and the courses I have taught on language and language
>teaching for over 22 years.

Yes, what I had in mind when I said, "personal history" was meant to
include your academic background, scholarly work and teaching
experience. It would be interesting to hear some of the major ways
that your approach to teaching and learning languages and guiding
learners has changed over the past 22 years as a result of your
experience (especially for me, as an outsider to the North American
Russian pedagogy scene).

My personal history is radically different from yours (and just about
anybody else's). I've helped a fair number of people learn a number
of Amerindian languages, South Asian languages,  languages of the
Former Soviet Union, and others. Formal language courses have not
played a major role in any of my own language learning. In fact, I've
never taken a university language course. I've tried a variety of
approaches to learner-directed language learning, and my own approach
is always evolving. In any case, I would still say that your personal
history leads you to advise independent learners to find study
materials first, and find a native speaker second, while my personal
history leads me to put first priority on finding a native speaker to
interact with (and I should add, training the learner to learn with
the native speaker). That was the point of that comment about
personal histories. (What I said about learning disembodied
linguistic patterns was more central to that post, however.)

>        Personal histories *are* useful, in showing us what beliefs people
>bring to a discussion of language study, and they are also a source of
>ethnographic data about language learning.  But they are only raw data and
>only one source of useful information.  Pat Chaput

I hope it is clear now that in the broad sense that I intended, our
personal histories are all that we have. Obviously, your opinion was
appropriately grounded in an appropriate personal history. I didn't
mean to imply otherwise.

Cordially,
Greg

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