Learning the language of loved ones: on the generative principle and the technique of mirroring

• Autores: Wolfgang Butzkamm
• Localización: ELT journal: An international journal for teachers of English to speakers of other languages, ISSN 0951-0893, Vol. 55, Nº 2, 2001, págs. 149-154
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Practising communication is an important classroom activity, but communication is not everything. Learners must also learn to divide messages into their component parts, otherwise each new message would have to be taken over from others and memorized, in which case there would never be any really new messages. Language only comes into its own when the learner discovers its sequential combinatorial system. Intuitively, parents have always taken pains to assist their children in this task. In language learning and teaching, the generative principle is just as important as the communicative principle. The two should be seen as companions rather than opposites: techniques are available to breathe communicative life into structural exercises.