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THE APPLIED LINGUISTICS OF PEDAGOGIC DIALOGUES
Author(s) -
James Carl
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-1770.1970.tb00044.x
Subject(s) - transformational grammar , argument (complex analysis) , linguistics , possession (linguistics) , generative grammar , psychology , theoretical linguistics , cognition , grammar , function (biology) , epistemology , cognitive science , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , neuroscience , evolutionary biology , biology
The tenets of audiolingualism are being challenged by those who subscribe to the cognitive‐centered views of language‐learning implicit in Transformational‐Generative Grammar. The proposed move is from a teacher‐centered to a learner‐centered methodology, owing to the belief that the learner will acquire the L 2 on condition that he is exposed to many representative instances thereof. The dialogue has been proposed as a medium for such exposure. Its function, it is claimed, is to teach the use rather than the form of sentences. This paper questions the necessity for teaching language‐use, on the ground that possession of an L 1 is evidence of the learner's knowledge of language‐use. It is then demonstrated that the dialogue has a long history in L 2 pedagogy, so that the current proposals are not innovative. The author goes on to suggest possible definitions, linguistic and psychological, of the dialogue, and concludes that a course writer attempting to produce useful pedagogic dialogues cannot avoid the issue of form even if his dialogues are primarily intended to demonstrate use: the form‐use dichotomy is a specious one. An appendix illustrates the argument.