Reply to: RE>>Emergent Learning LO1977
To Jack Hirschfeld and Bernard Girard, concerning learning without
explicit instruction.
Another apocryphal story about language learning I thought you'd enjoy.
Into the "greater" Berlitz family decades ago was born a child. It was
decided by the family that each would speak a different language so that
the young one would learn many. All expected linguistic expression to be
delayed somewhat as is sometimes the case in polyglot families. And such
was the case.
But, when having accommodated to the family polyphony the child began to
speak, no one could understand the child. It seems she had developed a
language on her own, because she realized that all the important others
around her had tongues of their own! So would she.
-- Barry Mallis bmallis@markem.com