(Thank you Jane for the quote) As St Augustine is comparing L1 and L2 learning I don't see a compelling reason to conclude "Intermental before Intramental" for...
Graham, I know what you mean, I presume you're referring to the inflections - declensions........ But I did five years of Latin at school (and I ain't THAT...
I have to admit, Fiona and list, that for a time I was very taken by the Chomsky Universal Grammar idea, at least the hypothesis of the black box with...
I thought I'd tell you about the conversation my 8-year-old son and I have just had. It's not earth-shattering or new, but .... The background: I speak to my...
Dennis mentioned: "What is universal is human behavior, I guess, at least as regards language". Doc questioned: "Is it?" I say yes. In fact, with respects to...
I wrote: "What is universal is human behaviour, I guess, at least as regards language." Dr. Evil wrote: " Is it?" All I meant was that all humans, who are not...
Fiona writes about her son: "There's a lot to be said for logic. And for words" When my daughter (bi-lingual: Greek/English) was 5 and she couldn't think of a...
Communicating maybe, but not necessarily speaking. And, I'm still not sure if this is a "universal behaviour" or just a "universal instinct". Why the...
... Indeed. On the morning I read your mail, I'd been reading a Japanese comic about someone on his way to visit a fisherman friend who was just back from a...
... I would be interested to know which race of human beings, who do not have any impairments that could hamper speech, would not communicate by speaking. Is...
... have any impairments that could hamper speech, would not communicate by speaking. Well deaf people don't speak, they use sign language. You may say they ...
I take your point, Adrian, about deaf people, but let's put Russ's question this way: 'Are there any known communities of human beings, or have their been any...
I do mean to offend anyone or treat them as inferior. And yes, sign language is a language with which people communicate. However, from a medical standpoint,...
Re: innate human attributes. Sorry all, but is the question whether speech is an innate human attribute or is language? 1) Parrots and mynah birds can imitate...
An interesting distinction between instinct and behaviour. In the case of human beings, though, social animals that they are, it must be awfully difficult to...
Jay, I guess, in answer to your question whether we are talking about speech or language in the innate abilities discussion, I am the one who has conflated the...
Re Russ's question, sound is the obvious medium to communicate, because of the traval factor. Birds do it, whales do it, even the educated at Yale do...
Jay, Apart from other things you wrote: " I think the need for a list of the 3000 most common mistakes, might outweigh the need for a list of the 3000 most...
Reality kicks in I'd noticed that S. likes to plan things carefully. He timed his sessions with me to fit in between preparation for an examination and doing a...
... This American pedagogy is a central focus of the NCLRC's (National Capital Language Resource Center) website "The Essentials of Language Teaching"...
... do not ... communicate by ... Ummmm....humans? Isn't it true that a great deal of our message is conveyed through non-verbal communication? This reminds me...
I have a students who has difficulty with spelling. What can I do? Any suggestions??? Thank you Adrianna [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]...
Vaguely related to the "impaired" theme of these posts. One of my students on a methodology course sent the following poem to me yesterday to use as a reading...
... Yes. Much of it is accountable to heritage language teaching/learning. However, I see no reason to be dismissive of this. I went to school in Texas, and at...
I was surprised to see Bill Templar's posting described as "transparently racist". I certainly doubt that this was the spirit in which Bill made those remarks....
