The Road to Fluency

[Mark Mandel]

Lisa LeBlanc wrote...

>>>>>
In a message dated 10/28/99 8:17:35 PM, lonning at csd.uwm.edu writes:

<< mastery certainly
may never occur if the leaner only approaches the task of second language
"acquisition"/aquaintance with the notion of merely using the L2 as a
T O O L with which to act upon his environment to one degree or another. >>

Then there are those who believe that mastery can BEST occur if the learner
approaches the acquisition of L2 as a tool with which to act upon their
environment.  Why else do humans learn language?????   What other reason is
there?
<<<<<


Living as a human being and interacting with other human beings?



I think the apparent disagreement here is a difference of context and emphasis.
My native language is an aspect of my life, integrated into my psyche in many
ways I cannot analyze, much less apply or disregard consciously; and so are
other languages, to a greater or lesser extent as I use them more or less
natively. A language is not just a tool, like a screwdriver, that I pick up and
apply consciously to situations with the intention of achieving a particular
goal. Approaching interpersonal situations that way is called "using people",
and it's not complimentary.

   Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist and Manager of Acoustic Data
         Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Dragon Systems, Inc.
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
                     (speaking for myself)