The Butt-Sniffing
Reflex of Dogs & Language Learning: A More Accurate Depiction of What
Really Happens in Language Learning and Teaching
Like most
EFL instructors who entered the field due to personal interest in learning
about other cultures and who found a way to pay one’s way, the authors are sick
and tired of pansy-ass theories that do not apply to what really happens in
foreign language learning and teaching.
(1) social learning theory: if they don’t give a shit why want to join a community or have a common goal as in activity theory. (maybe activity theory good?)
(2) motivation studies all look too generally.
(3) How can any study really tell about language learning when it’s all so personal? Post modernism … vs positivistic crap.
(4) Reality is everyone has own interlanguage … and based on personal experiences… sociocultural…
(1) social learning theory: if they don’t give a shit why want to join a community or have a common goal as in activity theory. (maybe activity theory good?)
(2) motivation studies all look too generally.
(3) How can any study really tell about language learning when it’s all so personal? Post modernism … vs positivistic crap.
(4) Reality is everyone has own interlanguage … and based on personal experiences… sociocultural…
Problems
with learning theories are that students care or are motivated when in reality
they are just trying to pass the class or get through the program to get to the
next stage of their lives.
… (CAN’T
type fast enough and arms will hurt too much …)
What is canine reflex of butt sniffing. That’s what language learners really do, is butt sniff their interlocutors to decide where they stand on the language learning totem pole and rate themselves and their opponents according to their judgment of how they stand related to the immediate language learners in their vicinity.
I’m interested in how the canine butt sniffing reflex happens/plays out in language learning and teaching … How do people decide which language they will speak to each other.
People living in plurilinguistic language learning
situations must determine which language code to use … and what the needs or
requirements of the immediate situation are and then think about what they want
and then they use their ability to manipulate target language (tone, body
language … to decide what and how they will use their interlanguage to use that
situation to their advantage or disadvantageWhat is canine reflex of butt sniffing. That’s what language learners really do, is butt sniff their interlocutors to decide where they stand on the language learning totem pole and rate themselves and their opponents according to their judgment of how they stand related to the immediate language learners in their vicinity.
I’m interested in how the canine butt sniffing reflex happens/plays out in language learning and teaching … How do people decide which language they will speak to each other.
Source Text: Research memo from a colleague.
Lefty Obradovich is a linguistics professor at a well-renowned university in the western part of the U.S. His favorite pastime is talking about absolutely nothing to the proprietors of shops in the Chinese part of town in the city in which he resides to improve his Cantonese.