Not sure what to call this

Jonathan Centner

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Feb 28, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/28/97

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John Gamber wrote:

>Perhaps we need, as Hammerly suggests, to go back to the top ten percent of
>students in foreign-language classes (sometimes lopped off for no defensible
>statistical reason in studies), i.e., those who _did_ become functional in
>new languages, to find out what they did that was different from those who
>were not completely successful.

Okay

1- The top ten % audio-linguists
2- The top ten naturalists
3- The top communicativists
4- The Berlitzers (no, really!)
5- immersionists
6- grammar-translationists

etcetera etcetera (is the serial nature of success ever problematic?)

Greg Thompson wrote:

>if L2s don't work fully like L1s that does not
>imply a radically different mechanism, but only a loss of ability to use
>the _same_ mechanism as effectively.

Yes. Viewed in terms of the acquisition of closed and open form elements
this makes sense. I would add that there are two processing mechanisms, as
the terminology implies. Perhaps L2 acquisition proceeds on an equal
footing, more or less, for both forms, but there is a problem in processing
for the closed form elements. (Acquisition of closed forms does occur in L1
after the CP: _sans_ for _without_, e.g.: did it feel brittle to any of you
out there who acquired it?).

I think this accounts for fossilisation, among other things, not as
fossilisation per se, but as fossilisation for those forms that are
acquired. Is this what interlanguage is? I do _not_ think it is a
linguistic stepping stone to be taught to. I think it is time to shelve the
crystal balls (Lian, 97).

It has been a rough week for Kevin Gregg ( >Kevin Gregg--for that matter,
bleeding Professor Kevin Gregg). I say stand ye: Kevin Gregg; thanks for
your excellent defense of matters Chomskyean.

Best Jon Centner

Jonathan Centner

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Feb 28, 1997, 3:00:00 AM2/28/97

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Yes and let that be _closed **class** elements_ and _open **class**
elements_, now that I have actually referred to my notes and see what the
terms really are.

Sorry Jon Centner

Jonathan Centner

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Mar 1, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/1/97

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Just a further thought: has anyone identified fossilisation isomorphically?

Jon Centner

Greg & Angela Thomson

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Mar 10, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/10/97

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I am interested in being in contact with people who are interested in
Russian as a Second Language and/or the SLA of inflectional morphology.
In the past I contacted Andrea Nelson through SLART-L and Catherine
Jarvis through her. However, their addresses no longer seem to work. If
they are reading this, could they get in touch? Any others?

I am engaged in dissertation research on RSL. We'll soon be moving from
St. Petersburg to Rostov-na-Donu. I am also an active acquirer of
Russian, along with Angela and two of our kids. I'm planning to look at
(something like) the development of automaticity in the processing of
inflectional morphology during comprehension. My motivating interest was
inflectional morphology, not Russian per se. We were inspired to tackle
Russian by Emily Tall, also via SLART.

Hoping to hear from hundreds of you who are either interested in RSL or
in inflectional morphology. Reply by private email (unless you are
addressing an issue of general interest).

Greg
--
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
...HUNGERING AND THIRSTING TO HEAR IT LIKE THE REST.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Greg & Angela Thomson
c/o Dept. of Linguistics, Univ. of Alberta, 4-32 Assiniboia Hall,
Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2E7, CANADA
**PHONE** (St. Petersburg, Russia): 011-7-812-291-1720.