chunks” rather than individually?
research. This would support the idea of dialog use (I won’t say memorization). I have seen exchange students (and I’ve done it myself) repeat phrases that they’ve picked up from other students, a text or the TV. Some kids will use a handy phrase until it becomes irritating! The point is, they learned a phrase–not a word or list of disjointed words. If a dialog is a good one and is well used, then it supplies these chunks of words that students would normally learn in a natural setting. This also makes me think of Homer. The poem is so formulaic and presents so many repeated elements because as an oral (at least originally and/or partially oral) poem these repeated elements aided the memory. Think of how formulaic our speech and our correspondence is. Americans are probably freer from this than many other cultures. Memorized segments of speech or written language are not only useful–they’re natural! Mike Watson ====================== 96/09 From-> “Jessica A. Roberts”
