压码鉴赏与评析外语教学法系列《七个外语成功者》为你解惑

Chapter Three
An Informal Learner
Carla learning Portuguese and German
Carla was a young woman who had held responsible secretarial positions in a large
organization in Brazil and West Germany. In each country she picked up the local
language with extraordinary success, mostly outside the classroom. After her return
to the United States, she took oral interview tests in Portuguese and German. Not
surprisingly, the tests showed that she made certain grammatical errors, and that
there were some subjects on which she could not talk at all. She was, however, able
to communicate fully and comfortably on matters related to everyday life. What was
even more impressive, the people who tested her reported that they felt almost as if
they were talking to a member of their own culture.
Because she was planning to return to Germany, Carla was placed in a class with
five people whose overall proficiency level was about the same as hers. Unlike her,
however, the other students had learned their German during the training program.
Also unlike Carla, they were officers or executives, or their wives.

Chapter Three  第三章
An Informal Learner  一个非正常的学习者
Carla learning Portuguese and German  卡拉习得葡萄牙语和德语的故事
Carla was a young woman who had held responsible secretarial positions in a large organization in Brazil and West Germany. In each country she picked up the local language with extraordinary success, mostly outside the classroom. After her return to the United States, she took oral interview tests in Portuguese and German. Not surprisingly, the tests showed that she made certain grammatical errors, and that there were some subjects on which she could not talk at all. She was, however, able to communicate fully and comfortably on matters related to everyday life. What was even more impressive, the people who tested her reported that they felt almost as if they were talking to a member of their own culture. Because she was planning to return to Germany, Carla was placed in a class with five people whose overall proficiency level was about the same as hers. Unlike her, however, the other students had learned their German during the training program. Also unlike Carla, they were officers or executives, or their wives.  卡拉是一个年轻女子，她已经掌管着负责的秘书职位，在一个大型的公司里，在巴西和西德。在每个国家，她挑选出来本地语言，并且伴随着极大的成功，大多数是在教室外面。当她回到美国以后，她进行口语访谈的测试，用葡萄牙语和德语。不奇怪的是，这个测试显示：她弄出来一些语法错误，并且一些科目内容还根本不会交谈。但是她是能够充分地交流，并且特别是在每天生活有关的事物上很舒服的交谈。影响最为深刻的是什么呢？这个人们测试它的报告：他们感觉似乎是，作为他们是在告诉他们自己的文化。因为她是计划回到德国，卡拉是位于与五人一起，他们完全的能力水平是大约和她一样。不同于她的是，但是，这其他学生已经学习了他们的德语，在这个培训课程期间。也与卡拉不同的是，他们是官员或者经理，或者他们的妻子等。

3.1 Sources of encouragement
As I had expected on the basis of her high tested proficiency in both German and
Portuguese, Carla had many things going for her.
3.1.1 Openness and risk-taking: two qualities of a successful
informal learner
n Two qualities of a good ‘acquirer.’
w The classroom as a ‘frightening’ place.
Carla began by talking about her general approach to language. ‘It seems like I
40
An Informal Learner: Carla
simply say what seems right - what comes out according to the circumstances,’
said.
41
she
‘You don’t translate, you don’t mentally take two words that are related in
meaning and compare them, or that kind of thing.’
‘Oh, no.’
‘Just the idea of having to know about the accusative case or the genitive case, or
about all the various endings on the articles . . .’
Carla laughed. ‘Oh, no, I have no idea about that!’ she said.
‘And yet you’ve dealt with the language successfully.’
‘As far as I know,’ she replied. ‘I felt I spoke much better than I evidently do
speak right now. I really don’t know much about understanding and memorizing
rules of grammar and such. But if I just throw myself into a country, I don’t know
why, but I just go off and speak. I don’t compare things; I don’t think about
language. ’
‘The idea of having to go at this thing on an intellectual basis - of having to learn
the rules and the paradigms and so forth . . .’
‘I’ve never done that, either in Portuguese or in German, and it’s . . . it’s
frightening to be in this class.’
‘It’s frightening because of the point-by-point kind of thing, which is so different
from how you actually learned Portuguese and German.’
‘Exactly!’
Comments
Carla says she ‘just throws herself into’ the country where she is living. By this she
apparently means that she spends her time with local people and participates in
whatever activities they are engaged in. These are, of course, the conditions that
small children find themselves in. We will not be surprised, then, to find that Carla’s
command of German is much more the ‘acquired’ kind than the ‘learned’ kind (see
1.1.2). Many theorists these days have been exploring the possibilities for acquisition
by adults. They have also emphasized its great value for anyone who is approaching
a new language. (In my comment at the end of this segment, I was using ‘learned’ in
the more general, everyday sense to mean ‘gained control of.‘)
Carla, from all reports, has been exceedingly good at ‘acquiring’ two different
languages in this way. In order to succeed at this, an adult must have certain
qualities that we have already seen in Ann. Such a person must make free and
uncritical use of intuition. She or he must also have a certain kind of fearlessness
about making errors. This second quality is implied by what Carla says about ‘just
throwing herself in.’
I was therefore surprised to hear her use a word like ‘frightening’ to describe her
classroom experience. She confirmed my guess that what was frightening was not the
language, but some aspect of the task of ‘learning’ in the narrow sense (see 1.1.2).
We will hear more about this in the remaining segments of Carla’s interview.
42 Success with Foreign Languages
Working with the ideas
1. Do you find Carla’s description of her approach to German and Portuguese
congenial, or do you have misgivings about it? Explain your answer.
2. What might Carla find ‘frightening’ in her German course? Verify your guess
or guesses as you read the remaining segments of the interview.


3.1 Sources of encouragement  激励源
As I had expected on the basis of her high tested proficiency in both German and Portuguese, Carla had many things going for her. 作为我已经所期望的她的高水平的基本测试，在德语和葡萄牙语两种语言，卡拉有她很多的真货想显示出来。
3.1.1 Openness and risk-taking: two qualities of a successful informal learner  开放性和冒险性：两种成功非正式习得的学习品质。
内容体验：
  1、Two qualities of a good ‘acquirer.’  两种好的“获得”的品质
  2、The classroom as a ‘frightening’ place. 教室是一个可怕的地方
Carla began by talking about her general approach to language. ‘It seems like I An Informal Learner: Carla simply say what seems right - what comes out according to the circumstances,’
said. she ‘You don’t translate, you don’t mentally take two words that are related in meaning and compare them, or that kind of thing.’ ‘Oh, no.’ ‘Just the idea of having to know about the accusative case or the genitive case, or about all the various endings on the articles . . .’  卡拉开始告诉我们关于他普遍使用的语言学习方法。这似乎是一个非正式的学习。卡拉简单地说，什么好像是正确的-什么出来根据这个情景。她说，你不能翻译，你不能想当然地采用两个单词，那是将外语单词和母语单词两个有联系的，并且简单地比较它们，或者那样的事情。奥，不。就是必须知道这样的想法，那个关于谁的情况的宾格或者关于真人指代关系的所有格，或者关于所有这些多样化的结局在文章的结束时。
Carla laughed. ‘Oh, no, I have no idea about that!’ she said. ‘And yet you’ve dealt with the language successfully.’ ‘As far as I know,’ she replied. ‘I felt I spoke much better than I evidently do
speak right now. I really don’t know much about understanding and memorizing rules of grammar and such. But if I just throw myself into a country, I don’t know  why, but I just go off and speak. I don’t compare things; I don’t think about language. ’  卡拉笑道，奥，不，我没有关于这方面的想法。她说。但是你不是也处理这些语言很成功地吗？
‘The idea of having to go at this thing on an intellectual basis - of having to learn the rules and the paradigms and so forth . . .’ ‘I’ve never done that, either in Portuguese or in German, and it’s . . . it’s frightening to be in this class.’  这个想法是，必须在做这些事情的时候，有一个基本的智慧，包括不得不去学习一些规则和有一些范例等等。我从来都不那样做，不论是葡萄言语还是德语，它是可怕的在教室里面。
‘It’s frightening because of the point-by-point kind of thing, which is so different from how you actually learned Portuguese and German.’ ‘Exactly!’  说他是可怕的，这好似因为单词点对点之类的事情，那是很不同的，从你怎样实际地学习的葡萄言语和德语。太棒了！
Comments 评论
Carla says she ‘just throws herself into’ the country where she is living. By this she apparently means that she spends her time with local people and participates in whatever activities they are engaged in. These are, of course, the conditions that small children find themselves in. We will not be surprised, then, to find that Carla’s command of German is much more the ‘acquired’ kind than the ‘learned’ kind (see 1.1.2). Many theorists these days have been exploring the possibilities for acquisition by adults. They have also emphasized its great value for anyone who is approaching a new language. (In my comment at the end of this segment, I was using ‘learned’ in the more general, everyday sense to mean ‘gained control of.‘) 卡拉说，她只要丢下自己进入这个国家，在那里他就能生活下去。通过所有这些说法，她显然是想表达这样的意思，在那里她花费了一些时间，与本地人一起并参与所从事的不论什么活动。这些事，当然，这种条件是小孩发现自己进入状况。我们不会惊奇，然后，发现卡拉的普遍的德语是获得的类型远远多于习得（见1.1.2）。许多理论家在这些天都是在解释这种可能性-对于成年人的获得。他们也强调这是具有重大价值的一个发现，对于任何人学习一种新的语言的方法来说。（在我评论在结束的这一段落里，我是使用习得在平时更普遍，每天就能感觉到“获得控制的”意思。）
Carla, from all reports, has been exceedingly good at ‘acquiring’ two different languages in this way. In order to succeed at this, an adult must have certain qualities that we have already seen in Ann. Such a person must make free and uncritical use of intuition. She or he must also have a certain kind of fearlessness about making errors. This second quality is implied by what Carla says about ‘just throwing herself in.’ 卡拉，从所有的报道来说，已经是令人激动和鼓舞的善于用这种方法获得两种语言的好榜样。在这些为了成功，一个成年人必须拥有某种品质，我们已经在安的什么看到过，比如一个人必须是弄得自由自在，并且没有批评的态度。他或者她也必须拥有弄出很多错误而无所畏惧精神的某种类型。这第二个品质是暗示，通过卡拉说的关于只是丢下自己进入可以看到。  
I was therefore surprised to hear her use a word like ‘frightening’ to describe her classroom experience. She confirmed my guess that what was frightening was not the language, but some aspect of the task of ‘learning’ in the narrow sense (see 1.1.2). We will hear more about this in the remaining segments of Carla’s interview.  因此，我是很震惊地听到她使用的一个单词比如可怕的，去描述形容她在教室里面的经历。她确认我的猜测，那个可怕的是什么呢，他不是指的语言，而是在一个狭义的学习任务来说的很多方面。（见1.1.2）。我们将要通道关于这方面的内容，在剩下的卡拉访谈节目的生于段落。
Success with Foreign Languages
Working with the ideas   工作与思考
1. Do you find Carla’s description of her approach to German and Portuguese congenial, or do you have misgivings about it? Explain your answer.  你发现卡拉她的德语和葡萄牙语的方法的表述符合事实真相的是什么，或者你拥有关于这方面的怀疑吗？解释你的回答。
2. What might Carla find ‘frightening’ in her German course? Verify your guess or guesses as you read the remaining segments of the interview.  可能卡拉发现在他的德育课程里可怕的是什么？运用你的猜测或者你阅读在这访谈节目最后剩余段落的猜想。

3.1.2 Looking good in the eyes of one‘s teachers
n Conflicts between what had been ‘learned’ and what
had been ‘acquired’.
n Differential reactions of native speakers to various
aspects of learners’ speech.
The supervisor of Carla’s course, who was listening to the conversation, seemed
surprised. ‘That isn’t the way it seems to the teachers,’ he said. ‘They all say you’re
doing marvellously. And you do remember,’ he added, ‘that I warned you the first
week or two might be a little uncomfortable.’
‘Yes,’ Carla replied, ‘but I’m groping. And all the other students know exactly
which endings to put on the words, and I have no idea. If I am to pursue this course,
I need to be given the ground rules: why do this and why not do that, so that when I
get into class. . .’
‘Even though the teachers say you’re doing beautifully, still there’s something
almost terrifying about this. . .’ I observed.
‘Oh, yes!’ Carla replied. ‘Me, I’ve never memorized things. For example, the
dialog we’re working on now. There are certain words that the other students now
know, and they can say those words, But I have other words or phrases that I would
ordinarily use to say the same things. There are so many differences of this kind that
I find it really difficult to memorize that particular dialog, and to repeat it.’
‘I’m getting a picture of a bird that can naturally fly, that is suddenly brought in
and is put into an experimental psychologist’s machine, and told to peck here to get
this, and peck there to get that,’ I suggested.
‘No, I don’t feel that way,’ Carla explained, ‘because I know I speak incorrectly,
and there’s got to be a way of changing my way of speaking. Maybe what I need is a
chance to go back and study the basic grammar, and all those charts with the m’s
and the n’s and the other endings on the words.’ She paused. ‘Well,’ she said
resolutely, ‘if I’m going to go through the rest of this course, I think I really need a
basis. Because I don’t know why I do the things I do.’
An Informal Learner: Carla 43
Comments
At the end of this segment of the interview, I said something about Carla ‘learning’
Portuguese and German. I was of course using the word in its everyday, general
sense, rather than in the narrower technical sense of 1.1.2.
When Carla talks about ‘the m’s and n’s,’ she is referring to the fact that the
German counterpart for English the consists of a list of six forms including dem and
den. Speakers of German use one or another of these forms depending on the
grammatical circumstances.
Carla’s view of her German, and of how she was doing, was quite different from
her teachers’ view. They were responding to her overall good pronunciation, accent
and body language, and to her use of lots of little words and phrases that hold
sentences and conversations together. All this, together with her knowledge of what
to say, and of when, how and why to say it, are components of a general interactive
competence in the language. This is to be distinguished from mere linguistic
competence: the ability to produce correct sentences. Carla’s teachers must have
found Carla’s interactive competence in German refreshing. Carla’s type of control
was a typical result of ‘acquisition.’ She contrasted sharply with the students that the
teachers were accustomed to. Their students would come to those features of
German very late, if ever, because they were ‘learning’ - concentrating on one word
or one point of grammar at a time.
Carla’s impressive achievements in Portuguese and German would have been
impossible without her remarkable approach to language. My suggestion about the
caged bird implied that she felt good about that approach even though she was not
now in a position to use it. She, however, rejected my metaphor. Clearly the
approach itself had felt good while she was using it. But apparently she did not feel
good about having used it.
Working with the ideas
1. I was trying to reflect back Carla’s feelings toward her German instruction.
Pick out the places in what Carla had said that prompted me to use the word
‘terrifying.’
2. How useful have you found grammatical charts in your own study of other
languages?
3. Should Carla be allowed to say things in her own words, as long as she says
them correctly? Why, or why not?


3.1.2 Looking good in the eyes of one‘s teachers   在一个老师的眼里看起来很好
内容提要：
1  Conflicts between what had been ‘learned’ and what had been ‘acquired’.  什么是“习得”与什么是“获得”之间的争议
  2  Differential reactions of native speakers to various aspects of learners’ speech.  母语学习者到学习说话的的多样性方面的不同的因素

The supervisor of Carla’s course, who was listening to the conversation, seemed surprised. ‘That isn’t the way it seems to the teachers,’ he said. ‘They all say you’re doing marvellously. And you do remember,’ he added, ‘that I warned you the first week or two might be a little uncomfortable.’  卡拉的课程的奇怪之处是，她是去听这个对话，那好像不是老师教的方法。他说，他们所有的人都说，你是做的非常杰出的，那你这样做就能记住。他又补充说，我警告你，第一星期和第二星期可能会有一些不舒服。
‘Yes,’ Carla replied, ‘but I’m groping. And all the other students know exactly which endings to put on the words, and I have no idea. If I am to pursue this course, I need to be given the ground rules: why do this and why not do that, so that when I get into class. . .’  是的，卡拉回答道，“但是我在摸索。而其他的学生知道这是非常棒的，哪一个结局放上什么单词，而我没有这种想法。如果我跟随这样的课程的引导，我需要给一个基本遵循的规则：为什么这样做，为什么不是那样，所以当我进入教师的时候。。。”
‘Even though the teachers say you’re doing beautifully, still there’s something almost terrifying about this. . .’ I observed. 尽管老实说你做的很精美，知道这些事情以后，你视乎感到这样做是可怕的。我观察道。
‘Oh, yes!’ Carla replied. ‘Me, I’ve never memorized things. For example, the dialog we’re working on now. There are certain words that the other students now know, and they can say those words, But I have other words or phrases that I would ordinarily use to say the same things. There are so many differences of this kind that I find it really difficult to memorize that particular dialog, and to repeat it.’ 奥，是的！卡拉回答道。我，我从来没有记住东西，例如，现在我的对话工作。这里是某单词，其他学生现在知道，他们可以说那些单词，但是我用其他单词火短语，那个我想原意地使用去说。那里是多么不同的类型，那个我发现真的是困难的记忆那些具体的单词，并且重复它。 
‘I’m getting a picture of a bird that can naturally fly, that is suddenly brought in and is put into an experimental psychologist’s machine, and told to peck here to get this, and peck there to get that,’ I suggested.我得到一个鸟的图片，那个实际上可能是在飞，那个突然地带入一个实验室学家的机器里，告诉它啄这里给它这个，啄那里给它那个，我建议道。
‘No, I don’t feel that way,’ Carla explained, ‘because I know I speak incorrectly, and there’s got to be a way of changing my way of speaking. Maybe what I need is a chance to go back and study the basic grammar, and all those charts with the m’s and the n’s and the other endings on the words.’ She paused. ‘Well,’ she said resolutely, ‘if I’m going to go through the rest of this course, I think I really need a basis. Because I don’t know why I do the things I do.’  不，我没有那样方法的感觉，卡拉解释道，因为我知道我说话不准确，并且这里的得到改变我的方法的一个方法，可能我需要改变什么，回头并学习基本的语法，和所有这些插图，用m's和n's以及其他结尾的单词。他停了一下，哇哦，他总结着说，如果我想通过这些课程休息一下，我想，我真的需要一个基本的。因为我不知道我做的事情为什么我会这么做。

An Informal Learner: Carla 43  一个非正式学习，卡拉43
Comments     评论
    At the end of this segment of the interview, I said something about Carla ‘learning’  Portuguese and German. I was of course using the word in its everyday, general sense, rather than in the narrower technical sense of 1.1.2.  在访谈的这些段落的结束，我说过关于卡拉学习葡萄牙语和德语的一些事情，当然，我是在每天都用这些单词，普通的感受，而不是在狭义的技术1,。1.2
    When Carla talks about ‘the m’s and n’s,’ she is referring to the fact that the German counterpart for English the consists of a list of six forms including dem and den. Speakers of German use one or another of these forms depending on the grammatical circumstances.   当卡拉告诉这m's和n's的时候，她是指的这个事实，那个德语对于英语的由六个模式的列表组成，包括dem和den。德语说话者使用一个或者这些其他的模式，依靠在语法的情景上。
    Carla’s view of her German, and of how she was doing, was quite different from her teachers’ view. They were responding to her overall good pronunciation, accent and body language, and to her use of lots of little words and phrases that hold sentences and conversations together. All this, together with her knowledge of what to say, and of when, how and why to say it, are components of a general interactive competence in the language. This is to be distinguished from mere linguistic competence: the ability to produce correct sentences. Carla’s teachers must have found Carla’s interactive competence in German refreshing. Carla’s type of control was a typical result of ‘acquisition.’ She contrasted sharply with the students that the teachers were accustomed to. Their students would come to those features of German very late, if ever, because they were ‘learning’ - concentrating on one word or one point of grammar at a time. 卡拉的德语的观点，她会怎样做，是与他的老师的观点非常不同的。他们是回响到她完整的好的声音，口音和身体语言，并且给她使用大量的小词、短语，以便支持句子和一起对话交流。所有这些，与她的知识在一起，说什么，什么时候，怎样和为什么这样说？是组成了一个普通的语言交互能力的组成部分。这是来自单纯的语言的卓越的能力：这个能够产生正确的句子。卡拉的老师必须返现卡拉的交互能力，在德语耳目一新的语言方面，卡拉的控制类型是是一个典型的“获得”型，她她与这些学时是针锋相对的，这些学生是从老师哪里学习后养成的的习惯。他们的学生将要得到这些德语的特性会晚一些，如果是这样，因为他们是“习得型”-集中在一个单词或者一个语法点在一次练习中。
    Carla’s impressive achievements in Portuguese and German would have been impossible without her remarkable approach to language. My suggestion about the caged bird implied that she felt good about that approach even though she was not now in a position to use it. She, however, rejected my metaphor. Clearly the approach itself had felt good while she was using it. But apparently she did not feel good about having used it.  卡拉的令人留下深刻印象的成就，在葡萄牙语和德语方面，将不能没有她的标志性的方法去探讨语言。我的建议是关于笼中鸟的暗示，那个她感觉这是一个好的方法，尽管她目前还没有处于使用它的位置，但是，她拒绝了我的暗示隐含的意思，显然地，这个方法本身已经感觉很好，当她使用它的时候，但是这个方法她并没有感觉很好地使用它。

Working with the ideas   工作与思考
1. I was trying to reflect back Carla’s feelings toward her German instruction. Pick out the places in what Carla had said that prompted me to use the word ‘terrifying.’   我试图反应回到卡拉的感觉，向着她的德语发出指令，挑选出这个地方，在卡拉说的什么，关于那个允许我使用这个单词“可怕的”。
2. How useful have you found grammatical charts in your own study of other languages? 有怎样的帮助，你发现语法视图在你自己的其他语言学习中？
3. Should Carla be allowed to say things in her own words, as long as she says them correctly? Why, or why not?  卡拉应该允许用她自己的单词去说，只有她说的它们是正确的吗？为什么，或者为什么不是？

3.1.3 Success with self-directed learning
n Memorization of texts: deliberate vs spontaneous.
n Challenges are not the same as requirements.
44 Success with Foreign Languages
Carla had mentioned her difficulty with memorizing the dialogs in the German
textbook. It turned out, however, that she did not have any difficulty with
memorizing in general.
‘I remember when I got out of high school,’ she recalled, ‘I was working at a
company, and there was a Japanese man there, and I used to ask him to teach me
Japanese, and he used to put Japanese on the board phonetically, and within a
period of time, I had a long, legal-sized sheet of Japanese that I had memorized.’
‘Memorized in the sense that you could recite it verbatim down the page?’
‘Oh, no, not that.’
‘But at least you could say the sentences . , .’
‘Yes, things like “Would you like a cup of tea?” “The sun is shining today.”
Really basic things.’
‘Nevertheless, you did memorize them. . .’
‘He would write it in roman letters, and then we would do it, and we would learn
about twenty or forty sentences.’
‘So for you memorizing is fine. Even memorizing sentences that have simply been
put up on the blackboard arbitrarily because you happened to think they might be
nice sentences. Isolated sentences, that didn’t come out of a boring conversation.
That’s fine as far as you are concerned.’
‘No, memorizing is fun. I remember it was fun. But this . . . memorizing these
dialogs is not fun. Maybe it has something to do with challenge: “Let’s see how
much I can learn of this person’s language!“’
‘You’re saying that the memorizing of the Japanese sentences . . .’
. . . was challenging and fun!’
‘Whereas in German. . .’
‘It’s not fun. Maybe because I’m feeling pressures in the classroom situation. Or
maybe because I have so many other words to express the same meaning, rather
than using the particular words that are in the book.’
‘Having to memorize the book’s version is confining.’
‘Yes. Plus, there are all those endings, and little tiny connecting words, and that
bothers me too.’
Comments
My grandson at age 3% was able to declaim verbatim the entire contents of his book
about The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Such an accomplishment is not rare with small
children acquiring their first language. But he had not set out to memorize it. I
suspect that if anyone had asked him to go on and memorize The Three Bears, he
would have refused. If he had tried, he would probably have failed. Deliberate
memorization of arbitrarily selected sentences is found in ‘learning,’ not in
‘acquisition.’
Carla is telling us of two experiences that required her to memorize sentences.
One, with Japanese, had been ‘fun.’ The present one, with German, was ‘not fun.’
Three points may be significant here:
An Informal Learner: Carla 45
n In Japanese, Carla had helped to select the sentences. In German, they were
an inflexible requirement of the course.
n In Japanese, Carla had been responding to ‘challenges’ that she had set for
herself. In German, she was trying to meet demands that she felt were imposed
by teachers and classmates.
B In Japanese, Carla had no other way to say ‘The sun is shining’ except the one
her tutor had given her. In German, alternatives that were easily available in
her head had to be suppressed. Both her teachers and she herself were
implicitly denying any value to what she had already done - and enjoyed doing
- in the language.
Working with the ideas
1. The commentary suggests three reasons to account for why Carla found
memorizing fun in Japanese but not in German. Can you add any others?
Which of these reasons do you think is most important for Carla? Which would
be most important for you?
2. Have you ever found that you could repeat sentences or longer texts word-forword
(slogans, lyrics to songs, proverbs, often-repeated phrases, etc.) without
ever having tried to memorize them?
How can you draw on these experiences in learning or acquiring a new
language?

3.1.3 Success with self-directed learning成功与自己导向学习
  1  Memorization of texts: deliberate vs spontaneous.文本记忆：自发与故意的对比
   2 Challenges are not the same as requirements.  挑战作为不是一样的

44 Success with Foreign Languages
    Carla had mentioned her difficulty with memorizing the dialogs in the German textbook. It turned out, however, that she did not have any difficulty with memorizing in general.  卡拉提到过，她在德育文本的对话记忆是困难的。她回忆，但是，在平时记忆不是困难的。
    ‘I remember when I got out of high school,’ she recalled, ‘I was working at a company, and there was a Japanese man there, and I used to ask him to teach me Japanese, and he used to put Japanese on the board phonetically, and within a period of time, I had a long, legal-sized sheet of Japanese that I had memorized.’ 我记得，当我离开高中的时候，她回答道，我在一个企业工作，这里有一位日本人，额经常问他请教我的日语学习，他经常放语音版的日语，进入练习的期间，我已经很长时间，符合规定大量地说日语，那个我已经记忆。
  ‘Memorized in the sense that you could recite it verbatim down the page?’ ‘Oh, no, not that.’ ‘But at least you could say the sentences . , .’ ‘Yes, things like “Would you like a cup of tea?” “The sun is shining today.” Really basic things.’ ‘Nevertheless, you did memorize them. . .’ ‘He would write it in roman letters, and then we would do it, and we would learn about twenty or forty sentences.’   记住的印象，你可以逐字记下一页吗？奥，不，不是那样。但是至少你可以说这个句子。。。是的，这些东西就像你想喝茶吗？今天的阳光出来了。真的是基本的东西。还是，你记住他们？你想用罗马字写下它，然后我就可以做它了，我们将要学习大约20或者四十个句子。
‘  So for you memorizing is fine. Even memorizing sentences that have simply been put up on the blackboard arbitrarily because you happened to think they might be nice sentences. Isolated sentences, that didn’t come out of a boring conversation. That’s fine as far as you are concerned.’ ‘No, memorizing is fun. I remember it was fun. But this . . . memorizing these dialogs is not fun. Maybe it has something to do with challenge: “Let’s see how much I can learn of this person’s language!“’ ‘You’re saying that the memorizing of the Japanese sentences . . .’. . . was challenging and fun!’ ‘Whereas in German. . .’  所以对于你的记忆来说是很有趣的。曾经记忆句子，那是简单地放在任意的黑板上，因为认为他是很好的句子，鼓励的句子，那个没有带来对话。那是有趋势因为你关心它，但是这个。。。记忆这些对话并没有兴趣。可能它是做一些事情的一个挑战。让我们看看我能学会多少人们的语言！你说记忆这些日语的句子。。。作为一种挑战并且很有兴趣！这里是在德育。。。
   ‘It’s not fun. Maybe because I’m feeling pressures in the classroom situation. Or maybe because I have so many other words to express the same meaning, rather than using the particular words that are in the book.’ ‘Having to memorize the book’s version is confining.’ ‘Yes. Plus, there are all those endings, and little tiny connecting words, and that bothers me too.’  它没有兴趣。
Comments  评论
My grandson at age 3% was able to declaim verbatim the entire contents of his book about The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Such an accomplishment is not rare with small children acquiring their first language. But he had not set out to memorize it. I suspect that if anyone had asked him to go on and memorize The Three Bears, he would have refused. If he had tried, he would probably have failed. Deliberate memorization of arbitrarily selected sentences is found in ‘learning,’ not in  ‘acquisition.’我的孙子在三岁时候可以逐字朗诵三比利山羊格鲁夫的书的全部内容，这个成绩不是罕见的，与一个小孩获得他们的第一语言。但是他没有列出来记住它。我猜想，如果任何人要他继续记住的三只熊，他可能会拒绝，如果他试着去做，他可能会失败。任意选定的句子，故意记住的句子发现是“习得”，而不是“获得”。
Carla is telling us of two experiences that required her to memorize sentences. One, with Japanese, had been ‘fun.’ The present one, with German, was ‘not fun.’ Three points may be significant here: 卡拉告诉我们两个经验，需要他记住句子。一个是日语，已经是有趣，现在的一个是德语没有兴趣。这三点可能在这里是重要的：
1  In Japanese, Carla had helped to select the sentences. In German, they were an inflexible requirement of the course. 在日语，卡拉已经帮助选择这个句子，在德语，他们是这个课程刻板的需求。
2  In Japanese, Carla had been responding to ‘challenges’ that she had set for herself. In German, she was trying to meet demands that she felt were imposed by teachers and classmates. 在日语，卡拉已经回应挑战，那是他自己定下的计划。在德语，他试图满足需要，他感觉是通过老师和同学们来实施的。
3  In Japanese, Carla had no other way to say ‘The sun is shining’ except the one her tutor had given her. In German, alternatives that were easily available in her head had to be suppresse。 Both her teachers and she herself were implicitly denying any value to what she had already done - and enjoyed doing - in the language.  在日语，卡拉没有其他方法去说“这个太阳的光辉”，除非这一个人，她的导师已经给了她。在德语，替代品是很容易可利用在她的头上，必须违禁。她的老师和她自己是被含蓄地否认任何价值，她已经做了什么，她喜欢什么，在语言方面。
Working with the ideas   工作和思考
1. The commentary suggests three reasons to account for why Carla found memorizing fun in Japanese but not in German. Can you add any others? Which of these reasons do you think is most important for Carla? Which would be most important for you?  这评论建议三个理由，去研究为什么卡拉发现记忆的兴趣在日语。你能增加任何其他的吗？哪一个这些原因你认为是卡拉最重要的？哪一个将是对于你最重要的？
2. Have you ever found that you could repeat sentences or longer texts word-for-word (slogans, lyrics to songs, proverbs, often-repeated phrases, etc.) without ever having tried to memorize them? How can you draw on these experiences in learning or acquiring a new language?  你曾经发现你可以重复句子或者长文章从单词到单词（口号、诗歌、谚语，经常重复的短语等），而不必试图记住他们呢？你能怎样利用这些经验去习得或者获得一个新的语言？

3.1.4 A TECHNIQUE: Originating one’s own texts
A technique from Carla
If you have access to a cooperative speaker of the language you are studying, decide
on five or six things you would like to be able to say in the language. Then ask the
speaker how to say them. He or she may also help you to write them down, and to
pronounce them in an acceptable way.
This technique is simple but powerful. I was once working with a small French
class that spent most of its time in memorizing dialogs and doing grammar drills.
After we began letting students select their own sentences for a short time every
day, there was a noticeable improvement in the students’ fluency, and also in their
attitude toward speaking the language as opposed to merely ‘reciting it.

3.1.4 A TECHNIQUE: Originating one’s own texts  一个技术：起源于一个人自己的文本
     A technique from Carla 从卡拉学到的一个技术
    If you have access to a cooperative speaker of the language you are studying, decide on five or six things you would like to be able to say in the language. Then ask the speaker how to say them. He or she may also help you to write them down, and to pronounce them in an acceptable way. 如果你有访问到一个语言的学习伙伴的说话者，你正在学习，决定在五个或者六个事情，你将要喜欢去有能力说这个语言，然后问这个说话者怎样说他们？他或者她也许能帮助你写下它们，并发音宣布它们，用一个适当的方法。
    This technique is simple but powerful. I was once working with a small French class that spent most of its time in memorizing dialogs and doing grammar drills. After we began letting students select their own sentences for a short time every day, there was a noticeable improvement in the students’ fluency, and also in their attitude toward speaking the language as opposed to merely ‘reciting it. 这个技术是简单的，但是却是有力的。我曾经与一个小的法语班一起工作，那个花了大多数的时间用在记忆对话和做语法训练上。以后，我们开始让学生选择他们自己的句子，对于每天来说只用很短的时间，这里是一个引人注目的提高和改善，在学生的流利程度方面，并且也是的他们的态度面向说这种语言的对话，而不只是单纯的“念书”接受它们。

3.1.5 Success in socially mediated learning
n ‘Thinking about’ learning.
n Comparison of mental images.
H Gabelentz: ‘Talkative people with a limited range of
ideas.’
46 Success with Foreign Languages
Carla then went back to talking about what had worked so well for her.
‘Sometimes,’ she said, ‘I’ve had people say, “My, you remember that really
quickly!” or “You grasped the language so well !” But I didn’t feel that way. After
all, I had a boyfriend there for two years, and I knew his parents, and I had other
friends, and I know they used to speak to me in simple language. If my boyfriend
saw there was something I didn’t understand, he’d repeat it in easier language. I
think other people would intentionally speak to me with simpler vocabulary, too.’
‘Simpler, but still correct. So what you picked up was what they were giving you,
which was genuine, but still simpler.’
‘Simplified. Right! Exactly! On the other hand, there were five Germans that I
toured Moscow with, and none of them spoke English, and it was really hard work
for me, They thought because I could speak as well as I did. . .’
‘They were deceived by your fluency, by the accuracy of what you did say,’ I
interrupted. ‘They didn’t know that you needed to have things restated in other
ways?’
Carla agreed. ‘I don’t think it was the grammatical form, or the sentence structure
that threw me off with them,’ she said. ‘It was the vocabulary. It was the words I
didn’t know. Because, as I said, I never paid attention to the grammatical endings
anyway. When people speak to me, what they say just enters in. Even if there’s a
word I don’t understand, of course I understand what they mean. It was the same
way in Portuguese.’
‘It just comes in directly, without a lot of analysis.’
‘No, I don’t think at all,’ Carla emphasized. ‘If you say something to me in
German, it comes in like English. It comes in and goes out, without me ever
thinking about it. In fact, I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever thought until
I got into this course. Except in the beginning, when I used to sit with a dictionary.’
‘But as soon as you found out you didn’t have to sit with a dictionary - as soon as
you got into contact with live Germans .’
‘That’s right. I didn’t do any more thinking about the language.’
Comments
Carla was fortunate in finding someone who was both willing and able to rephrase
things in German that was simpler, but still authentic. Some native speakers seem to
have this knack naturally, while others do not. The latter quickly become
discouraged and break off contact, or switch to the learner’s native language if they
know it, The former are a language learner’s greatest asset. As Gabelentz, a
nineteenth century German, put it, ‘The best teachers for beginners are talkative
people with a limited range of ideas’.’ These people seem to instinctively enjoy the
challenge of helping a willing foreigner to understand them.
When people saw that Carla had a surprising amount of fluency or accuracy or
both, they assumed she knew more than she did. As a result, they spoke to her in
language she could not follow. This is a common experience of people who are
learning a foreign language. One frequent reaction under these circumstances is to
feel discouraged at not being able to fulfill people’s expectations. A more helpful
An Informal Learner: Carla 47
reaction is to feel encouraged at what their expectations imply about one’s progress
so far. The latter seems to have been the reaction of both Ann and Carla.
We cannot be entirely sure of what Carla means by ‘thinking about’ language.
One
H
rudimentary kind of ‘thinking about’ includes the following process:
Encounter the need to produce some grammatical feature such as a definite
article (see 3.1.2).
Notice which form ‘comes naturally’ (e.g., dem).
Recall rules or paradigms that one has already learned.
Arrive at a form of the definite article based on that information (e.g., dem).
Compare the two forms to see if they are identical.
If the two forms are not identical, decide which to use.
For some people, this whole process takes place in a split second. For others, it
requires more time and effort. For a few, like Carla, the last four steps in the
sequence are either impossible or prohibitively difficult.
Working with the ideas
1.
2.
Suppose you were trying to convey the ideas in the last paragraph, above, to
someone whose English was very weak. Orally or in writing, try to rephrase
the paragraph so such a person would find it easier to understand.
Should Carla have paid attention to the grammatical endings while she was
interacting with people? Some people can do this sort of thing to a certain
extent. Do you think you could have?


3.1.5 Success in socially mediated learning  社会中介媒体的成功习得
内容提要：
  1  ‘Thinking about’ learning. 思考习得
    2  Comparison of mental images. 心里图像的比较
    3  Gabelentz: ‘Talkative people with a limited range of ideas.’加贝伦茨：健谈的人用一个有限范围内的思想
46 Success with Foreign Languages
       Carla then went back to talking about what had worked so well for her. ‘Sometimes,’ she said, ‘I’ve had people say, “My, you remember that really quickly!” or “You grasped the language so well !” But I didn’t feel that way. After all, I had a boyfriend there for two years, and I knew his parents, and I had other friends, and I know they used to speak to me in simple language. If my boyfriend saw there was something I didn’t understand, he’d repeat it in easier language. I think other people would intentionally speak to me with simpler vocabulary, too.’  卡拉然后想回去告诉，什么已经拥有的工作多他来说事多吗好。有时，她说，我有一个人说。我的，你记得真快！或者，你掌握的语言多棒！我没有这样的感觉。毕竟，我有一个男朋友在这里两年时间，我知道他的父母，我还有其他的朋友，我知道他们经常说给我简单的语言，如果我的男朋友看到这里的一些事情我不明白，他就用更简单、更容易的语言重复它，我认为其他的人也会故意对我说话用简单的词汇。
   ‘Simpler, but still correct. So what you picked up was what they were giving you, which was genuine, but still simpler.’ ‘Simplified. Right! Exactly! On the other hand, there were five Germans that I toured Moscow with, and none of them spoke English, and it was really hard work for me, They thought because I could speak as well as I did. . .’ ‘They were deceived by your fluency, by the accuracy of what you did say,’ I interrupted. ‘They didn’t know that you needed to have things restated in other ways?’ 简单的，但是仍然是正确的。所以，你捡起什么来，就是他们给你了什么，那个是真诚的，但是仍然是简单的。，简单化，对，太棒了！另一方面，这里有五个德国人，我和他们一起去莫斯科，他们没有人会说英语，真的是很辛苦地工作，对我来说，他们认为，我说真的就像我做的一样好。他们被我的流利性所欺骗，通过你说的什么是准确的。我打断他们的谈话，他们不知道，你们需要有的东西，用其他的方法重新叙述一下如何？
   Carla agreed. ‘I don’t think it was the grammatical form, or the sentence structure that threw me off with them,’ she said. ‘It was the vocabulary. It was the words I didn’t know. Because, as I said, I never paid attention to the grammatical endings anyway. When people speak to me, what they say just enters in. Even if there’s a word I don’t understand, of course I understand what they mean. It was the same way in Portuguese.’    卡拉同意了。我不想它是语法形式，或者句子结构，将它们丢给我，他说道，它是词汇，它是单词，我不知道。因为，就像正如我说过的，我从来没有关注这种语法结尾的任何方法，当人们对我说话的时候，他们说什么只是加入了，即使这里的一个单词我不明白，当然我也理解它们是什么意思，它是和葡萄牙语用了同样的方法。
   ‘It just comes in directly, without a lot of analysis.’  ‘No, I don’t think at all,’ Carla emphasized. ‘If you say something to me in German, it comes in like English. It comes in and goes out, without me ever thinking about it. In fact, I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever thought until I got into this course. Except in the beginning, when I used to sit with a dictionary.’ ‘But as soon as you found out you didn’t have to sit with a dictionary - as soon as you got into contact with live Germans .’ ‘That’s right. I didn’t do any more thinking about the language.’它只是直接地进来，没有很多的分析。不，我根本就不这么认为，卡拉强调，如果你所一些事情给我用德语，它进来就像英语，它进来又出去，我没有曾经思考过它，实际上，我能真诚地说，那个我不想我曾经思考过，知道我得到进入这些课程。除非在者开始的时候，当我常常使用安装一个字典。但是很快你会发现，你不必安装这个字典，很快你得到进入接触到德国人的生活。那是对的，我没有任何更多的思考这语言。
Comments评论
Carla was fortunate in finding someone who was both willing and able to rephrase things in German that was simpler, but still authentic. Some native speakers seem to have this knack naturally, while others do not. The latter quickly become discouraged and break off contact, or switch to the learner’s native language if they know it, The former are a language learner’s greatest asset. As Gabelentz, a nineteenth century German, put it, ‘The best teachers for beginners are talkative people with a limited range of ideas’.’ These people seem to instinctively enjoy the challenge of helping a willing foreigner to understand them.  卡拉是幸运的，她发现了一些人，他们愿意并且能够用另外的方式重新说事情，并且是采用简单的语言，但是仍然是很纯正正确的语言。一些母语说话者好像有这些诀窍做的很自然，而其他的人却不能做到。这后来很快就泄气了，并且阻碍了他们的接触，或者去看这个母语，如果那样可以理解明白的话。这种形式，是一个语言学习者来说有很大的帮助。比如加贝伦茨，是一个19世纪的德国人，他指出，这最好的老师对于开始来说，是一位非常健谈的人们，用一个有限氛围内的想法。这些人好像是本能地喜欢挑战，属于那种帮助一个愿意学习外语的外国人去理解它们。
When people saw that Carla had a surprising amount of fluency or accuracy or both, they assumed she knew more than she did. As a result, they spoke to her in language she could not follow. This is a common experience of people who are learning a foreign language. One frequent reaction under these circumstances is to feel discouraged at not being able to fulfill people’s expectations. A more helpful   reaction is to feel encouraged at what their expectations imply about one’s progress so far. The latter seems to have been the reaction of both Ann and Carla. 当人们看到卡拉已经是非常地震惊，同时具备了大量地流畅性和准确性，他们猜测，她知道的要远远多于她所做的。作为一个结果，他们对她说语言的时候，她可能不能跟随，卡拉不会压码法。这是人们学习外语的时候普遍的一个期望，就是压码跟随。一个最频繁的反应是，在这种情况下，感觉就会非常沮丧而泄气，不能完美的实现人们的期望。更多的有帮助的反应是，感到受到了鼓励，在他们的期望方面，提供了一个大量地、很多、很深的课程。这后面的好像就有安和卡拉的两人的反应。
We cannot be entirely sure of what Carla means by ‘thinking about’ language. One rudimentary kind of ‘thinking about’ includes the following process:我们不能完全地确信，卡拉是什么意思，对于“思考”语言方面。一个粗略的“思考”类型起码包括下面的过程：
1 Encounter the need to produce some grammatical feature such as a definite article (see 3.1.2). 遇到这样的需求，需要产生一些语法性能，比如在一个确定的文章里面。（见3.1.2）
2 Notice which form ‘comes naturally’ (e.g., dem). 注意哪一个来自于自然表格形式。
3 Recall rules or paradigms that one has already learned.记住规则和范例，那是一个已经学习过的。（例如 dem）
4 Arrive at a form of the definite article based on that information (e.g., dem). 接受了一个“定冠词”的形式，基于那个信息的根据。（例如 dem）
5 Compare the two forms to see if they are identical.比较两种形式看到如果是同样的。
  6 If the two forms are not identical, decide which to use.  如果两种形式不一样，决定使用哪一种。
  For some people, this whole process takes place in a split second. For others, it requires more time and effort. For a few, like Carla, the last four steps in the sequence are either impossible or prohibitively difficult.   对于一些人来说，这些完整的过程，将一个地方分成了两半，都是一分为二的。对于另一些人来说，他们需要花费更多的时间和效率。对于少数人来说，比如就像卡拉，在最后的四个步骤，在这个序列里面，是既不可能，也不习惯，望而却步，实现起来很困难的。

Working with the ideas 工作与思考
1. Suppose you were trying to convey the ideas in the last paragraph, above, to someone whose English was very weak. Orally or in writing, try to rephrase the paragraph so such a person would find it easier to understand.  假设你试图传达这个想法，在这最后段落，上面的，到一些人，他们的英语是很微弱的，口语和写作，你试图用另外的一些简单的方式重新说给他听，在这个段落，这样，比如一个人想要发现比较容易理解的语言的话。

2. Should Carla have paid attention to the grammatical endings while she was interacting with people? Some people can do this sort of thing to a certain extent. Do you think you could have?卡拉是不是应该花费一些注意力，用在语法结局上，当她与人们的相互影响的时候？一些人能做到这样的事情，在一定程度上。你是否认为你能拥有这样的能力？
convey
knack
frequent
fulfill
rudimentary
Encounter
identical
split
sequence
prohibitively
rephrase
extent
interacting

3.1.6 CHUCK: Alternation between formal and informal exposure
n Comprehensible input from mass media.
n Comprehensible input from informal contacts.
Chuck had served as an agricultural attache in Scandinavia, and while there, had
gained quite good control of Danish. He told me about what seemed to have helped
him most.
‘My teacher was using some ordinary textbook,’ he began. ‘You know, the kind
where you go through a series of dialogs. But after a certain point, I began to rely
more just on television and reading the newspapers, and just going out and forcing
myself to talk with people.’
‘In your line of work,’ I observed, ‘you probably met a lot of people who didn’t
speak any English.’
48 Success with Foreign Languages
‘That’s right.’
‘So you just went out and put yourself into contact with the language, and . . .’
‘Yep. Pretty soon it started to come. It was a combination of going through the
book with the teacher, and then going out and using the stuff.’
‘Just conversing with people.’
‘Well, yes, but one thing that I found especially useful was just sitting down in
front of the TV and just listening, being determined to understand what the guy was
saying on the news.’
‘That really worked for you!’
‘Yeah. Of course there were times when I was ready to just pack the whole thing
in and quit and go home and pack bags in the supermarket. I mean, it got dreadful,
because Danish is a pretty ghastly language in terms of the noises they make. The
Danes say they don’t have a language, they have a throat disease!’
‘It sounds like quite a challenge,’ I said.
‘Yes, sometimes I sat there watching this guy babbling, and 1 said to myself, “I’m
never going to learn this language.!” But it’s remarkable. After six months, it was
“All systems go”!’
‘This is beginning to sound like what you told me you did with French and
Italian,’ I commented. ‘In all three, you deliberately put yourself into a position
where you were hearing not just language, but language where you understood a lot
of the content. You didn’t necessarily understand every word.’
‘That’s right.’
‘But you knew enough of the language so that from what you did get of it, you
were able to kind of extrapolate, and get more of it.’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘And this meant that you were being exposed to Danish, which consisted partly of
things that you’d already mastered, and partly of things you had not mastered.’
‘Yes, that’s a fair summary. Sometimes you had to guess, and sometimes you
guessed wrong and had to be corrected, but that was basically it. It can be a rather
horrifying experience sometimes, but other times,’ he chuckled, ‘it can be fun!’
Comments
Like Carla, Chuck succeeded by meeting language that was hard enough for him,
but not too hard. This is, of course, the way all children acquire their native
language, and some theorists believe that it can be sufficient for adults also.
One must not generalize on the basis of two brief narrative accounts.
Nevertheless, I can see three suggestive differences between Carla’s experience with
German and Chuck’s with Danish:
n Danish is in some ways a more difficult language than German.
n Chuck’s tested proficiency in Danish was a whole level higher than Carla’s in
German.
n Chuck alternated between formal instruction and informal exposure. Carla did
no formal study after the very beginning of her work with German.
Working with the ideas
An Informal Learner: Carla 49
1. What other differences do you see between Chuck and Carla?
2. In what ways is Chuck’s experience reminiscent of Ann’s or Bert’s?

3.1.6 CHUCK: Alternation between formal and informal exposure  查克：在正式与非正式的暴露接触之间交替进行
内容提要：
1  Comprehensible input from mass media.  可理解输入从大量的媒体
  2  Comprehensible input from informal contacts.  可理解输入从非正式接触
Chuck had served as an agricultural attache in Scandinavia, and while there, had gained quite good control of Danish. He told me about what seemed to have helped him most.
‘My teacher was using some ordinary textbook,’ he began. ‘You know, the kind where you go through a series of dialogs. But after a certain point, I began to rely more just on television and reading the newspapers, and just going out and forcing myself to talk with people.’ ‘In your line of work,’ I observed, ‘you probably met a lot of people who didn’t speak any English.’ 查克服务于一个农业武官在斯堪迪尼亚，当他来到这里的时候，已经获得了对丹麦语很好的控制，他告诉我，好像帮助了他很多。
48 Success with Foreign Languages
‘That’s right.’ ‘So you just went out and put yourself into contact with the language, and . . .’ ‘Yep. Pretty soon it started to come. It was a combination of going through the book with the teacher, and then going out and using the stuff.’ ‘Just conversing with people.’  ‘Well, yes, but one thing that I found especially useful was just sitting down in front of the TV and just listening, being determined to understand what the guy was saying on the news.’ ‘That really worked for you!’  那是对的。所以，你只是想去并且只有你自己一人接触这个语言，并且。。。
‘Yeah. Of course there were times when I was ready to just pack the whole thing in and quit and go home and pack bags in the supermarket. I mean, it got dreadful, because Danish is a pretty ghastly language in terms of the noises they make.  是的，当然，这需要一些时间，当你准备只是挑选所有的事情，离开回家，他拿着包进入超市。我想，他是很可怕的。因为丹麦语是一种非常怪异的语言，在注意到他们弄的这个语言小组里。
The Danes say they don’t have a language, they have a throat disease!’ ‘It sounds like quite a challenge,’ I said. ‘Yes, sometimes I sat there watching this guy babbling, and 1 said to myself, “I’m never going to learn this language.!” But it’s remarkable. After six months, it was “All systems go”!’ 这丹麦人说，他们根本就不是语言，他们患有喉咙并。这好像很有挑战。我说，是的，有时我坐着这里看这些人的习惯，并且我说给自己，我从没想去学习这些语言！但是他却是显著地。在六个月以后，我已经系统地得到了！
‘This is beginning to sound like what you told me you did with French and Italian,’ I commented. ‘In all three, you deliberately put yourself into a position where you were hearing not just language, but language where you understood a lot of the content. You didn’t necessarily understand every word.’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘But you knew enough of the language so that from what you did get of it, you were able to kind of extrapolate, and get more of it.’ 这里开始的声音听起来就像你告诉我法语和意大利语。我指出，在所有这三种语言里，我故意让自己进入一种位置，在那里你听到的不只是语言，但是语言这里你能理解很多的内容，你不需要理解所有的单词。这是对的，但是你知道了足够的语言，所以，从你得到他你做的什么。 
‘Yes, yes.’ ‘And this meant that you were being exposed to Danish, which consisted partly of things that you’d already mastered, and partly of things you had not mastered.’ ‘Yes, that’s a fair summary. Sometimes you had to guess, and sometimes you guessed wrong and had to be corrected, but that was basically it. It can be a rather horrifying experience sometimes, but other times,’ he chuckled, ‘it can be fun!’  是的，是的。这个意味着，你是波露在丹麦语中。那一个一些组成部分你已经掌握，一些部分的事情你好没有掌握。是的，他是公正的总结。有时你去猜测，有时你猜测的是错误的，并且已经纠正了。但是，这是最基础的东西。它可能是一个非常可怕的经验，再有时候。但是其他的时间，他接着说，他可能很有意思。
Comments  评论
Like Carla, Chuck succeeded by meeting language that was hard enough for him, but not too hard. This is, of course, the way all children acquire their native language, and some theorists believe that it can be sufficient for adults also. One must not generalize on the basis of two brief narrative accounts. Nevertheless, I can see three suggestive differences between Carla’s experience with German and Chuck’s with Danish:  就像卡拉，查克成功地通过看语言，多与他来说已经足够了，办事并不太努力刻苦，这些，当然，这种方法所有的孩子都是这样获得他们的母语，一些理论家相信，那些它可能对于成年人来说也有不同。第一，必须是真正地认识到，必须是基于在两个狭窄的会计基础的假设，另外，我可能看到三个建议是不同的，在卡拉的的与经验和查克的丹麦语之间。
1  Danish is in some ways a more difficult language than German.  丹麦语用的一些方法，是比德语更多的不同的语言
2  Chuck’s tested proficiency in Danish was a whole level higher than Carla’s in German.  查克的丹麦语测试成绩是完美的，所有水平都高于卡拉的德语。
3  Chuck alternated between formal instruction and informal exposure. Carla did no formal study after the very beginning of her work with German.  查克介于正式的指导和非正式的暴露。卡拉没有正式的学习，以后她就开始用德语工作。
Working with the ideas  工作与思考
An Informal Learner: Carla 49
1. What other differences do you see between Chuck and Carla?  你看到查克和卡拉有哪些不同？
2. In what ways is Chuck’s experience reminiscent of Ann’s or Bert’s?  什么的方法是查克的经验，保留着安的和伯特的经验。

3.2 Sources of conflict and discouragement
Almost from the beginning of our conversation, I had begun to realize that in spite
of her natural ability and her past achievements, not everything was going well in
Carla’s present study.
3.2.1 Thoughtful vs spontaneous use of language
l Etiquette and ethics of using native speakers for
conversation practice.
l Importance of the perceived attitudes of
conversation partners.
m Which should come first, formal or informal study?
‘Another thing,’ Carla went on, ‘I feel comfortable with Germans. Sometimes I’ve
been the only non-German in a whole group of Germans, and I don’t feel
intimidated. Of course,’ she said, ‘no one’s ever laughed at me, either - or in Brazil.
We’d just go ahead and do whatever we were doing. And in Sao Paulo we had
maids, and we used to talk, talk, talk all the time!’
‘At least they didn’t laugh unkindly.’
‘No, no! Of course everyone laughs when something’s funny, but you see, nobody
ever said, “Golly, you’re dumb!” or made fun. And that may have helped me.’
‘Even when someone did correct you, you never felt stopped in your tracks.’
‘Or threatened. No. No.’
‘There in Brazil. life was in Portuguese!’
‘Hm! I mean. it really was!’ she replied. ‘I still remember quite a bit after three
years. And if somebody had just sat down with me and said, “You’re doing so-andso
incorrectly. Do it this way” - if they had done that repetitiously - I’d be speaking
correctly today!’
Carla then began to talk about life in her present class. ‘I’m really finding it
difficult,’ she said, ‘because I’m in with people who got high scores on the aptitude
test. And then there’s this one fellow who knows so much English grammar! Most of
the English grammar I know, I’ve picked up in studying other languages! Oh, I did
have a little grammar from the Portuguese teacher I had for a while, but then I’d
50 Success with Foreign Languages
just come into class and close my book, and she’d start saying things to me, and I’d
just close my eyes, and try not to think, and just absorb what I was learning. Come
to think of it, that may be part of my problem now, having to sit down with a
book . . .’
‘It sounds as though the difficulty is that, instead of being able to close your eyes
and just swap sentences back and forth, you’re now being asked to deal with
grammatical concepts. You’re being asked to take things out of their natural
German setting, and pick them up, and look at them.’
‘Yes, and it doesn’t feel very natural to me, to do all this.’
‘Maybe the difficulty is that now you’re having to introduce thinking into what, up
to now, was a simple, natural process.’
Carla laughed. ‘Maybe that’s what it is!’ she mused. ‘Maybe I’ve started thinking!’
Comments
Which language should I use with speakers of the language I am learning? If the
people I’m talking with really need to improve their command of my language more
than I need to improve my command of theirs, then it would be self-indulgent for
me to insist on practicing theirs with them. If my version of their language is so full
of errors that they find it unpleasant to listen to or very difficult to follow, then
continuing to use them as language instructors would be rude. With her maids in
Brazil, Carla felt no such impediments. The maids had no pressing need to learn
English, and talking with her was probably a rest from their regular chores. They
were able to play the role of Gabelentz’, ‘talkative people with a limited range of
ideas,’ and Carla felt free to ‘talk, talk, talk’ with them.
Carla had already done a great deal of ‘acquiring’ of German before she began to
try to ‘learn’ it. She has two beliefs about this. One is that it would have been better
if she had done her ‘learning’ first: ‘If only somebody had just sat down with me
. . ! ’ The other is that she could have done her learning first if she had tried to. That
would have meant starting out like Bert, absorbing features of German outside of
their setting in German life. Was she in fact capable of doing that, I wondered? In
the next segment of her interview we will find reasons to doubt it.
Working with the ideas
1. In working with other languages, how much need have you felt for conscious
knowledge about the grammar of your native language?
2. Have you had any experiences in which you were uncertain which language to
use with someone? How did you make your choice?


3.2 Sources of conflict and discouragement 争议和挫折的来源
Almost from the beginning of our conversation, I had begun to realize that in spite of her natural ability and her past achievements, not everything was going well in Carla’s present study. 几乎在我们对话的开始，我已经开始认识到，尽管她的自然能力和她过去的成就，但是现在卡拉的学习不是任何事情做得都很好。
3.2.1 Thoughtful vs spontaneous use of language  善于思考与自发使用语言
内容体验：
1  Etiquette and ethics of using native speakers for conversation practice.  利益和道德 属于使用母语对话训练
   2  importance of the perceived attitudes of conversation partners.  会话伙伴的直觉、态度的重要性
  3  Which should come first, formal or informal study?   哪一个应该优先，正式或者非正式学习？
‘Another thing,’ Carla went on, ‘I feel comfortable with Germans. Sometimes I’ve been the only non-German in a whole group of Germans, and I don’t feel intimidated. Of course,’ she said, ‘no one’s ever laughed at me, either - or in Brazil.  We’d just go ahead and do whatever we were doing. And in Sao Paulo we had maids, and we used to talk, talk, talk all the time!’
其他的事情，卡拉继续说，我感觉到德语很舒服，有时我只有在全部德语小组中的唯一一位非德国人，并且我没有感到害怕，当然。她说，没有一人曾经笑过我，不论，还是在巴西。我只是继续做下去，无论什么是我想做的我都要做下去。在圣保罗我又有一个女佣，我们经常在这时说，说，说个不停。
‘At least they didn’t laugh unkindly.’ ‘No, no! Of course everyone laughs when something’s funny, but you see, nobody ever said, “Golly, you’re dumb!” or made fun. And that may have helped me.’   至少他们没有不友好地笑。不，不！当然，每个人在感到一些事情有趣的时候会笑，但是你所看到的，没有一人曾经说过，天哪，你是个哑巴！或者取笑。并且那是对我很有帮助的。
‘Even when someone did correct you, you never felt stopped in your tracks.’ ‘Or threatened. No. No.’ ‘There in Brazil. life was in Portuguese!’ ‘Hm! I mean. it really was!’ she replied. ‘I still remember quite a bit after three years. And if somebody had just sat down with me and said, “You’re doing so-and so incorrectly. Do it this way” - if they had done that repetitiously - I’d be speaking correctly today!’   当有人曾经纠正你，你才没有感觉停止你的脚步。或者威胁。不，没有。这里在巴西有，葡萄牙生活中没有！哼，我的意思是，真的是。他回答道，我仍然记得很少，在三年以后，并且如果如果一些人只是坐下来与我一起说，你做的这么不正确地，用这样的方法。如果他们已经作了反复地重复的样式-我会说今天已经做正确了。
Carla then began to talk about life in her present class. ‘I’m really finding it difficult,’ she said, ‘because I’m in with people who got high scores on the aptitude test. And then there’s this one fellow who knows so much English grammar! Most of the English grammar I know, I’ve picked up in studying other languages! Oh, I did have a little grammar from the Portuguese teacher I had for a while, but then I’d  （50 Success with Foreign Languages）just come into class and close my book, and she’d start saying things to me, and I’d just close my eyes, and try not to think, and just absorb what I was learning. Come to think of it, that may be part of my problem now, having to sit down with a book . . .’卡拉然后开始告诉现在的课程，我真的发现它很困难。她说，因为我进入到这些人们中间，他们都得到了一个很高的性能测试分数，然后还有这么一个家伙，他知道这么多的英语语法！多数的英语语法我知道，我挑选出来用在其他语言学习上！奥，我已经获得少量的语法，从葡萄牙语老师那里，我曾经在一段时间，但是然后我只是来到教室，并且合上书，她就开始和我说一些事情，我只是闭上我的眼睛，尽量试图不去思考，我只是适合我的学习了什么，来想想看，这可能就是我现在的问题的一部分，不得不做下来看书。。。
‘It sounds as though the difficulty is that, instead of being able to close your eyes and just swap sentences back and forth, you’re now being asked to deal with grammatical concepts. You’re being asked to take things out of their natural German setting, and pick them up, and look at them.’这听起来好像很困难，不能闭上你的眼睛，只是掌握句子来回等等，你现在被要求提问语法概念，你被要求提问做一些事情，在他们自然的外面设置了德语，并且挑选出来一些，看着他们。
‘Yes, and it doesn’t feel very natural to me, to do all this.’ ‘Maybe the difficulty is that now you’re having to introduce thinking into what, up to now, was a simple, natural process.’ Carla laughed. ‘Maybe that’s what it is!’ she mused. ‘Maybe I’ve started thinking!’是的，我并没有感觉到非常自然对于我来说，去做所有的事情。可能是困难的，你必须引导思想进入什么，直到现在，还是简单的，自然的过程。卡拉笑着说，可能就是它！她深思说，可能我已经开始了思考。
Comments评论
Which language should I use with speakers of the language I am learning? If the people I’m talking with really need to improve their command of my language more than I need to improve my command of theirs, then it would be self-indulgent for me to insist on practicing theirs with them. If my version of their lan guage is so full of errors that they find it unpleasant to listen to or very difficult to follow, then continuing to use them as language instructors would be rude..  我因该使用哪一种语言与这些语言的说话者一起学习呢？如果这些人们，我告诉一起正的需要我的语言的他们的指导，多于我需要改善我的他们的指示的话，然后，它对于我来说应该是自我放纵的，去坚持时间他们的是指导，如果我得到他们多样化的语言上充满错误的话，那样就会发现它不愉快的听，或者是非常困难的去跟随，然后继续使用它们的语言老师会很粗鲁的。
With her maids in Brazil, Carla felt no such impediments。The maids had no pressing need to learn English, and talking with her was probably a rest from their regular chores. They were able to play the role of Gabelentz’, ‘talkative people with a limited range of ideas,’ and Carla felt free to ‘talk, talk, talk’ with them. 与她的佣人在巴西，卡拉感觉没有这样的障碍，这个佣人没有学要学习英语的压力，与她谈话可能会是一种休息，从她们的日常琐事来说。
Carla had already done a great deal of ‘acquiring’ of German before she began to try to ‘learn’ it. She has two beliefs about this. One is that it would have been better if she had done her ‘learning’ first: ‘If only somebody had just sat down with me . . ! ’ The other is that she could have done her learning first if she had tried to. That would have meant starting out like Bert, absorbing features of German outside of their setting in German life. Was she in fact capable of doing that, I wondered? In the next segment of her interview we will find reasons to doubt it.  卡拉已经做完了一个伟大的处理德语的获得能力，在她开始学习它以前，她有两个信心，一个是，他将会做得很好，如果她首先学习的话，如果只有一些人已经坐在她的面前。另一个信念是，她可能已经做完她首先学习，如果她试图做的话。那将会意味着开始就像伯特指出的那样，适应德语外面的功能，来设计他们在德语的生活。其实是这样，她不知道她的能力？在采访她的下一节，我们将要找到怀疑他的原因。
Working with the ideas  工作与思考
1. In working with other languages, how much need have you felt for conscious knowledge about the grammar of your native language?  在于其他语言一起工作，你需要有多少感觉，来考虑你的母语的语法的知识？
2. Have you had any experiences in which you were uncertain which language to use with someone? How did you make your choice?  你有什么经验，在哪一个你不确定的语言使用人吗？你有什么选择？

3.2.2 Links between printed and spoken forms
I w Ease in reading a word does not follow automatically
from ease in understanding it in speech.
An Informal Learner: Carla 51
‘Taking things out of context and comparing - you have trouble with things like
that?’ I asked.
‘Really, I do!’ Carla replied. ‘And,’ she added, ‘I’ve never read, for example.
And now for me to sit down and read is quite uncomfortable. Well, I’m beginning to
feel a little more comfortable,’ she said. ‘But I don’t visualize. For example, I know
what pliitzlich is. We use it all the time. And yet 1 see the word spelled in the book,
and I have no connection between what I see on paper and the word I can
understand when it’s spoken. It was the same in Portuguese. I’d look at something
and not understand it, and I’d say “Would you please read it to me?“’
‘And if somebody read it aloud to you, you could understand it?’
‘Perfectly!’
‘But to get meaning off of the page, you almost had to read it aloud to yourself?’
Carla laughed. ‘Oh, I have a very difficult time reading words, syllable for
syllable, and I think to myself, “Why, I know that word!” But I have no visual
identification of any of them.’
‘Just looking at them on the page doesn’t . . ,’
‘The word doesn’t spring out at me, no. I have to dissect it. It’s a feeling like I
had never spoken German.’
‘You mean, “Whatever language this is on the page, I’ve never spoken it!??’
‘Right! And I have to go through and take my time with each word, and write
them down into syllables, and then finally I can say, “I knew that word!” Because of
course I knew the word. I use it all the time. But to see it on a piece of paper, I
don’t recognize it at all, until I phonetically break it down.’
‘A very frustrating, painful experience!’
‘Oh, it’s painful! It really is! It’s painful to feel stupid, it’s painful . . .’
‘ . . . to be cut off from German as you’ve known it?’
‘Exactly!’
Comments
Carla must have been able to read and write English reasonably well. After all, she
had been working as a secretary for several years. I was therefore surprised to hear
how hard it was for her to interpret printed words in Portuguese and German.
One can hardly say that Carla ‘read’ foreign words. It was more as though she
pried them off the page. This kind of herculean effort was unnecessary in chatting
with Brazilian housemaids or in socializing with German friends, It would be
required, however, in most language courses that concentrate heavily on academic
‘learning’ without much ‘acquisition.’ Bert could have done it without difficulty, but
not Carla. Perhaps that accounted for much of her present frustration, and her
feeling of being cut off from all that was comfortable in her past associations with
German and Germans.
Working with the ideas
1. On what in Carla’s description was I basing my word ‘painful?’
2. When you remember words in your native language, do you remember them
52 Success with Foreign Languages
primarily as sound, or primarily in written or printed form? Is your answer the
same for words in other languages?
3. What is the most frustrating or painful part of a new language as far as you are
concerned?


3.2.2 Links between printed and spoken forms 打印的书面形式和口语形式之间的联系
内容提要：
    Ease in reading a word does not follow automatically from ease in understanding it in speech. 容易阅读一个单词，并不自动地跟随，从容易理解口语

An Informal Learner: Carla 51 非正常学习者,卡拉51
‘Taking things out of context and comparing - you have trouble with things like that?’ I asked. 告诉事情脱离内容去断章取义进行比较，你有这些事情的麻烦就像那个吗？我问道。
‘Really, I do!’ Carla replied. ‘And,’ she added, ‘I’ve never read, for example. And now for me to sit down and read is quite uncomfortable. Well, I’m beginning to feel a little more comfortable,’ she said. ‘But I don’t visualize. For example, I know what pliitzlich is. We use it all the time. And yet I see the word spelled in the book, and I have no connection between what I see on paper and the word I can understand when it’s spoken. It was the same in Portuguese. I’d look at something and not understand it, and I’d say “Would you please read it to me?“
’ 真的，我就是这样做的！卡拉回答道，并且，她补充说，我从来没有阅读过，举例来说，现在对我来说，坐下来阅读是非常不舒服的。哇，我现在开始感觉有点更舒服些了。她说，但是我没有想象力。比如说，我知道plitzlich是什么，我每时每刻都在使用它，我还看这个单词在书上拼写，我没有建立起来什么联系，在我看到的纸上和这个我能理解的单词之间，当它发言的时候。它在葡萄牙语也是这样。我看到的事情，并不理解它。然后，我说：请你读给我听可以吗？
‘And if somebody read it aloud to you, you could understand it?’ ‘Perfectly!’ ‘But to get meaning off of the page, you almost had to read it aloud to yourself?’ Carla laughed. ‘Oh, I have a very difficult time reading words, syllable for syllable, and I think to myself, “Why, I know that word!” But I have no visual identification of any of them.’ ‘Just looking at them on the page doesn’t . . ,’ ‘The word doesn’t spring out at me, no. I have to dissect it. It’s a feeling like I had never spoken German.’ 如果有人大声朗读给你，你能理解吗？完美地理解！但是，如果合上页面后得到理解意思，你几乎不得不大声朗读给自己听吗？卡拉笑着说，奥，我有一次非常困难地阅读单词，一个音节对一个音节，并且自己想，为什么，我知道这个单词！但是我不能留下任何是绝对印象。只是看到它们在这个页面上，没有。。。这单词没有给我带来春天。不，我不得不期待着它，它是一个感觉，就像我说德语那样。

‘You mean, “Whatever language this is on the page, I’ve never spoken it!??’ ‘Right! And I have to go through and take my time with each word, and write them down into syllables, and then finally I can say, “I knew that word!” Because of course I knew the word. I use it all the time. But to see it on a piece of paper, I don’t recognize it at all, until I phonetically break it down.’
‘A very frustrating, painful experience!’  你的意思是说，无论任何的语言在书页上，我从来没与说过它的感觉吗？对。我不得不去想着进行解剖，并且每次一个单词，并且写下它们分解进入到音节里，直到最后我能够说为止。我知道这个单词！因为，当然我知道这个单词，我所有的时间都在使用这个单词，但是看到它在一页纸上的时候，我不能全部认识它，知道我将发音分解开。
‘Oh, it’s painful! It really is! It’s painful to feel stupid, it’s painful . . .’ ‘ . . . to be cut off from German as you’ve known it?’ ‘Exactly!’ 奥，它是痛苦的！它这的是这样！它是痛苦的，很愚蠢的感觉。。。去剪下德语你能够理解它吗？完全可以！

Comments 评论
Carla must have been able to read and write English reasonably well. After all, she had been working as a secretary for several years. I was therefore surprised to hear how hard it was for her to interpret printed words in Portuguese and German. 卡拉必然能够阅读和书写英语充分的理由是相当不错，毕竟，她已经在秘书工作了几年。我因此感到惊奇的竟然是听到了那么多的困难，对于她解释印刷在葡萄牙语和德语中的单词的时候。
One can hardly say that Carla ‘read’ foreign words. It was more as though she pried them off the page. This kind of herculean effort was unnecessary in chatting with Brazilian housemaids or in socializing with German friends, It would be required, however, in most language courses that concentrate heavily on academic ‘learning’ without much ‘acquisition.’ Bert could have done it without difficulty, but not Carla. Perhaps that accounted for much of her present frustration, and her feeling of being cut off from all that was comfortable in her past associations with German and Germans. 一个人可能很难说卡拉会阅读外来语，虽然更多是在她合上书的页面会用这些外来语。这种艰苦的努力是没有必要的，在她与巴西女佣或与德国朋友的社会交往中。她可能是需要的，但是在更多的语言课程中，这种集中沉浸于学术的习得上，并没有获得。伯特能够做到它，没有困难，但是卡拉没有。也许，对于她来说，目前挫折占据更多的成分，她感觉与过去的一切做个了断也许会舒服一些，对于过去那些帮助过她的德国和德国人来说。

Working with the ideas 工作与思考
1. On what in Carla’s description was I basing my word ‘painful?’ 卡拉的什么样的描述是我基于我的单词“痛苦”？
2. When you remember words in your native language, do you remember them primarily as sound, or primarily in written or printed form? Is your answer the same for words in other languages? 当你记住单词在你的母语的时候，你记住它们主要是声音，或者主要的是书写还是它们的印刷品？你的回答是相同的单词在其他的语言上吗？
3. What is the most frustrating or painful part of a new language as far as you are concerned? 什么是多数的一个新语言中最令人沮丧的挫折和痛苦的部分情况，请你尽可能深刻地进行思考一下。

3.2.3 The social side of formal study: lack of confidence
n Feelings about one’s own performance.
‘But as it is,’ Carla went on, ‘I feel restrained in the class. And on the other hand I
feel dumb. 1 feel restrained because the vocabulary is there in my head, and the
thought patterns are there, a little more complex than where the other students are
right now. But I also feel very dumb because I don’t know any of these endings! I
don’t know what I’m doing!’
‘Even when you get the endings right, you don’t really know them?’
‘I’m guessing! I’m guessing! Or else it’s a sentence that I’ve memorized straight
from the book! I’m not. . . very comfortable in the classes.’ Carla gave a little
laugh.
‘Pretty uncomfortable, in fact.’
‘Yeah,’ Carla replied quietly. ‘Part of it is all those people in there with their high
aptitude scores.’
‘That’s the threatening thing,’ I guessed, ‘the way you think the other students
must feel about you.’
‘Yeah! The teachers can correct me all day long if they want to. They’re fantastic,
and so patient! But you know, if I’m in class, and stumbling over words, and all the
rest of them - they know the stuff I’m trying to come out with, then that’s a pain for
them, to have to sit around because somebody else is dropping behind. I don’t want
to be the cause of that! And furthermore, I feel that I’m really deteriorating in my
speaking ability because of. . . not because of the students, but because I’m. . .
Well, I guess I’m tense. I’m losing my German. It doesn’t fly out any more!’
Carla paused, and then went on. ‘But that’s not important,’ she said. ‘What I’m
really here for is to improve my German. I wouldn’t mind if I went out of here after
another three hundred hours of class with the same overall proficiency score as when
I came in, if I were speaking. . . correctly.’
I had an idea that Carla’s grammar was not so bad as she thought. Hoping to
relieve her negative feelings, I said, ‘More correctly.’
‘Right! “More correctly!” My English grammar again,’ Carla responded with a
sheepish laugh.
An Informal learner: Carla 53
I was startled that Carla had apparently taken my words as criticism of her
language. Surely she, as a native speaker of English, knew that it is perfectly correct
to say ‘speaking correctly.’ Could it be, I asked myself, that her confidence, at least
within the area of grammatical correctness, had somehow been so badly shaken that
the effects spilled over even into her use of her own language? ‘No, I wasn’t
correcting English grammar,’ I said as gently as I could. ‘I simply . . .’ Then I found
myself remembering in a new light some of the words Carla had used earlier in our
conversation - words with negative emotional connotations: ‘frightening,’ and all the
rest. I didn’t finish my sentence.
Later in the conversation, Carla mentioned having studied German briefly before
she went to Germany. ‘In Brazil, when I learned I was going to Germany, I took
about a month at Goethe. It was in Sao Paulo, I think one or two sessions.’
‘Oh. at the Goethe Institute,’ I repeated by way of confirmation.
‘Oh, I’m sorry! Yeah!’ she responded. Again, hearing a correction where none
was intended, and even apologizing for her error.
Comments
In this segment, Carla tells us a great deal about the social side of her present
language study. She feels that the other students are holding her back, keeping her
from using what she knows that they don’t know. At the same time, however, she
feels ‘dumb’ because she can’t use what they know and she doesn’t know. She is sure
her slowness produces in them at least pain, and probably resentment. She is also
aware that they scored much higher than she did on the aptitude test (which was,
after all, an instrument designed to test various aspects of the ability to do academic
‘learning’). She is unwilling to blame the other students. Instead, she blames her
own inner tension. But that tension comes largely from the way she thinks they feel
about her.
Carla seems to have accepted at a very deep level the superiority of the ‘learning’
approach, and of its emphasis on accuracy rather than on fluency, and of people who
use it: ‘The fact that my ability to use German is deteriorating is not important.
What is important is that I improve it.’ She has also been corrected so much, or in
such a way, that she hears corrections even when they are not there, and submits to
them meekly.
Under these conditions, it is hardly surprising that Carla is speaking less German
than before. A number of experiments have shown that even in one’s native
language, one tends to hesitate more and to use smaller vocabularies when one feels
that one’s audience is unfriendly.2
Working with the ideas
1. The effect of one student on another in a language class may be positive or
negative. What have been your own observations on this subject?
2. Do you agree that it is better to concentrate on ‘learning’ before ‘acquisition,’
or should ‘acquisition’ come first? Or should they proceed hand-in-hand?
Support your position by reference to your own experiences.



3.2.3 The social side of formal study: lack of confidence 正式学习的社会方面：信心的缺失
内容提要：
1、 Feelings about one’s own performance. 关于一个人自己表演的情感
2、Feelings about other’s perceived feeling about one's performanse  感觉对方对自己表演的情感

‘But as it is,’ Carla went on, ‘I feel restrained in the class. And on the other hand I feel dumb. I feel restrained because the vocabulary is there in my head, and the thought patterns are there, a little more complex than where the other students are right now. But I also feel very dumb because I don’t know any of these endings! I don’t know what I’m doing!’ 但是它是，卡拉接着说，我感觉再教室里面很克制。而另一方面我感觉愚蠢，我感到受到抑制，因为单词词汇是在我的头脑里，思维模式是有的，现在比其他学生多一点的是更复杂一些。但是我也感觉到非常愚蠢，因为我不知道任何结局会是什么？我不知道我自己究竟在做什么？

‘Even when you get the endings right, you don’t really know them?’ ‘I’m guessing! I’m guessing! Or else it’s a sentence that I’ve memorized straight from the book! I’m not. . . very comfortable in the classes.’ Carla gave a little laugh. 甚至当你得到一个结果是正确的，你也不真的知道它们吗？我猜想。我猜想
‘Pretty uncomfortable, in fact.’ ‘Yeah,’ Carla replied quietly. ‘Part of it is all those people in there with their high aptitude scores.’ ‘That’s the threatening thing,’ I guessed, ‘the way you think the other students must feel about you.’ 很不舒服，实际上。是的。卡拉悄悄回答。部分原因是所有这些人们在这里有他们的高质量成绩，那是一件有威胁的东西。是猜想，这个方法你认为其他学生必然会感觉到你的所在。
‘Yeah! The teachers can correct me all day long if they want to. They’re fantastic, and so patient! But you know, if I’m in class, and stumbling over words, and all the rest of them - they know the stuff I’m trying to come out with, then that’s a pain for them, to have to sit around because somebody else is dropping behind. I don’t want to be the cause of that! And furthermore, I feel that I’m really deteriorating in my speaking ability because of. . . not because of the students, but because I’m. . 是啊。这个老师能每天用很长时间纠正我，如果他恶魔呢愿意的话。他们是很棒的，所以要有耐心等待！但是你知道，如果我在教室里，.甩开单词的绊脚石，和所有剩余的东西-他们知道这个东西是我力图想出来，然后对它们来说这是一种痛苦，不得不坐下来，因为有些人也是落在后面成绩下降。我不想导致那样！还有，我感觉我真的在口语能力方面有恶化的趋势，因为。。。不是因为这些学生，而是因为我。。。
Well, I guess I’m tense. I’m losing my German. It doesn’t fly out any more!’ Carla paused, and then went on. ‘But that’s not important,’ she said. ‘What I’m really here for is to improve my German. I wouldn’t mind if I went out of here after another three hundred hours of class with the same overall proficiency score as when I came in, if I were speaking. . . correctly.’ 哇，我猜想我感觉到。我丢下了我的德语。它没有任何更多的飞出去！卡拉停了一下，继续说，但是那些不是重要的，她说道，什么才真的是对于我的德语重要的呢，我不会介意，如果我想离开这里，在其他三百消失的教室用同样整体水平的课程，当我进入的时候，如果我说话。。。正确地。
I had an idea that Carla’s grammar was not so bad as she thought. Hoping to relieve her negative feelings, I said, ‘More correctly.’ ‘Right! “More correctly!” My English grammar again,’ Carla responded with a sheepish laugh. 我有一个想法，卡拉的语法不是那么糟糕，这是她的想法。希望减轻他的负面情绪，我说，更正确！对的，跟正确。我的英语语法再学一次。卡拉带着羞怯的微笑说。
 I was startled that Carla had apparently taken my words as criticism of her language. Surely she, as a native speaker of English, knew that it is perfectly correct to say ‘speaking correctly.’ Could it be, I asked myself, that her confidence, at least within the area of grammatical correctness, had somehow been so badly shaken that the effects spilled over even into her use of her own language? ‘No, I wasn’t correcting English grammar,’ I said as gently as I could. ‘I simply . . .’ Then I found myself remembering in a new light some of the words Carla had used earlier in our conversation - words with negative emotional connotations: ‘frightening,’ and all the rest. I didn’t finish my sentence. 我吃惊的是卡拉已经出现的采用了我的单词，作为她的语言的批评。确实，她作为一名英语为母语的说话人来说，知道那是完善地纠正这说，正确地说话。可能是。我问自己，她的情况，至少进入语法正确性的区域，在某些程度地被动摇，这一影响也波及到她对自己语言的使用吗？不，我没有纠正英语语法，我说的真的只是轻轻地尽我所能，我简单地。。。然后，我发现自己记忆在一个新的闪光点，一些单词卡拉已经使用，早在我们对话的时候-单词与负面情绪连接在一起：害怕，和所有的其余的话。我没有完成我的句子。
Later in the conversation, Carla mentioned having studied German briefly before she went to Germany. ‘In Brazil, when I learned I was going to Germany, I took about a month at Goethe. It was in Sao Paulo, I think one or two sessions.’ 在以后的谈话中，卡拉提到学习过简单地德语，在她去德国之前。我巴西，当我学习的时候，我将要去德国。我在歌德大约一个月，她是在圣保罗，我想是一个或者两个会议。
‘Oh. at the Goethe Institute,’ I repeated by way of confirmation. ‘Oh, I’m sorry! Yeah!’ she responded. Again, hearing a correction where none . was intended, and even apologizing for her error. 奥，在歌德学院，我重复确认的方式。奥，我对不起！是的。她回答道。再一次同样，哪里听力没有得到更正。这是自己的学习目的，并且甚至为她的错误而道歉。

Comments 评论
In this segment, Carla tells us a great deal about the social side of her present language study. She feels that the other students are holding her back, keeping her from using what she knows that they don’t know. At the same time, however, she feels ‘dumb’ because she can’t use what they know and she doesn’t know. She is sure her slowness produces in them at least pain, and probably resentment. She is also aware that they scored much higher than she did on the aptitude test (which was, after all, an instrument designed to test various aspects of the ability to do academic ‘learning’). She is unwilling to blame the other students. Instead, she blames her own inner tension. But that tension comes largely from the way she thinks they feel about her. 在这一段落，卡拉告诉我们一个大的处理方法，关于她的现在语言学习的社会方面的情况。她感觉其他学生支撑着她返回，保持她使用的她知道的什么，那个他们不知道的。同样，然而，她感觉愚蠢，因为她她不能使用他们知道而她不知道的。她确定她慢慢产生了它们至少是痛苦的，并且可能怨恨。她也清楚地认识到，他们的成绩比她高一些，在能力测试方面。（那是，毕竟，作为学术学习的一个方面的能力。）她是不愿意责怪其他学生，相反，她责怪自己内心的紧张，但是，这种紧张的大量来自于这个方法，她认为他们感觉到她。
Carla seems to have accepted at a very deep level the superiority of the ‘learning’ approach, and of its emphasis on accuracy rather than on fluency, and of people who use it: ‘The fact that my ability to use German is deteriorating is not important. 卡拉视乎接受了在一个很深的层次上学习方式的优越性，并且是强调准确性而不是流利性，并且人们使用它。实际上，我的能力去使用德语方面是在恶化，而不是提高。
What is important is that I improve it.’ She has also been corrected so much, or in such a way, that she hears corrections even when they are not there, and submits to them meekly.
Under these conditions, it is hardly surprising that Carla is speaking less German than before. A number of experiments have shown that even in one’s native language, one tends to hesitate more and to use smaller vocabularies when one feels that one’s audience is unfriendly.2 什么是重要的，是我提高它。她也已经纠正了这么多，或者在这样的一种方法。他听到改进，甚至当他们不在这里的时候，并提交给他们平稳地。在这些情况下，也难怪卡拉说德语比以前少了。一些列的实验数据表明，甚至在一个人的母语，一个人越来越多倾向于使用小词，当一个人感觉一个人的态度是不友好地。

Working with the ideas 工作与思考
1. The effect of one student on another in a language class may be positive or negative. What have been your own observations on this subject? 一个学生和其他学生之间是相互影响的，在语言教室可能是正面的或者是负面的，在这个对象上，什么是你自己所观察到的。
2. Do you agree that it is better to concentrate on ‘learning’ before ‘acquisition,’ or should ‘acquisition’ come first? Or should they proceed hand-in-hand? Support your position by reference to your own experiences. 你是否同意在获得之前集中学习比较好，或者应该获得优先？或者应该他们手把手教学的过程比较？支持你的位置，准备你自己的经验。

54 Success with Foreign Languages
3.2.4 How should Carla have started her language study?
a Systematic drills are sometimes useful, sometimes
inappropriate.
n Importance of recognizing and dealing with feelings
in language study.
B Gradual development of language: developmental
errors.
w CYNTHIA: A successful case of gradual
development.
‘You would give your eyeteeth to have the grammatical knowledge that these other
students have,’ Carla’s supervisor commented, ‘but they would give their eyeteeth to
have the fluency and ease with German usage that you have.’
‘I suppose so,’ Carla replied, ‘but now if I have to speak correctly, it’s like
undoing things that are already established.’
‘Like rebreaking and resetting a leg that has been set crooked?’, 1 wondered.
‘A little bit,’ she conceded.
‘Actually,’ her supervisor interrupted, ‘the places where you make most of your
mistakes are not places where you have formed wrong habits. They’re places where
you haven’t formed any habits at all yet. It isn’t that you say die Messer consistently
when you should say das Messer. It’s that you’re about equally likely to say der
Messer, die Messer or das Messer. So it’s not so much like having to rebreak a leg.
It’s more like cultivating a plant that’s not yet fully grown, and therefore isn’t
bearing a certain kind of fruit yet.’
‘That’s reassuring to hear,’ Carla replied, ‘but even being told that the teachers
see this quite differently doesn’t totally . . .’
‘Doesn’t totally relieve you of those feelings you described,’ I suggested.
‘No. Not at all. Not in the least,’ she answered. ‘Anyway, if I had it to do over,
I’d come here first and study the grammar.’
‘And then you’d go on to Germany and use your dependable natural ability to
learn to actually speak the language?’ I asked.
‘Yes. Yes.’
Comments
What Carla’s supervisor said to her here is consistent with the Natural Approach
outlined in 1.1.4. According to that view, the process of acquiring a new language is
a gradual one. In the early stages, one makes only the grossest distinctions with any
accuracy. Later on, one becomes able to make increasingly fine distinctions until
finally one talks like a mature native speaker. Cynthia’s experience with English
illustrates this principle beautifully:
An informal Learner: Carla 55
‘1 was a self-taught reader of my first language [Korean] at the age of 4½’ Cynthia told
me. ‘But I quickly discovered that the rules I applied in order to decode written Korean
did not work for many of the books I found on my dad’s bookshelves.
‘My initial efforts to break the secret code for non-Korean writing systems consisted of
just scribbling several lines of continuous waves with dots and bars over them or across
them on a piece of paper, and then to show that to my mom expecting her to read them as
if they had been readable English. I couldn’t understand why what I wrote wasn’t readable,
since they looked to me just like what I saw in those books. And when later I began to try
to say things in English. I did something similar: I just uttered sounds that sounded English
to my own ears. But then I came to the realization that being able to utter Englishsounding
sounds, or to scribble similar-looking scratches did not convey meaning to me or
to anybody else.’
(My seven-year-old son learned the guitar in an analogous way, and he actually
became rather good at it.)
If Carla’s supervisor was right, then perhaps the solution for her problem is less
difficult - less painful - than she supposed. Maybe if she had just gone on ‘acquiring’
German, those new differentiations and new habits would have developed in the
same way the existing ones had. Or maybe all she needed was some systematic
practice in the form of drills. The simplest and most traditional kind of drill for this
purpose consists of repeating lists of words together with the proper form of the
direct article. Other common drills require the student to choose different forms of
the article according to the position of the noun in the sentence:
Cue
Mann
Buch
Expected responses
Der Mann ist hier.
Ich sehe den Mann.
Das Buch ist hier.
Ich sehe das Buch.
Translations
The man is here.
I see the man.
The book is here.
I see the book.
etc.
Although drills of this kind are in disrepute among many theoreticians and
practitioners today. I made good use of them when I was studying German in 1942.
But Carla’s discomfort with language out of context, together with her difficulty in
getting printed words off the page, might have made it impossible for her to profit
from them.
Carla responds to her supervisor’s comments by saying, ‘That’s reassuring, but
. . . ' Language study is an undertaking that frequently generates strong feelings in
the student. Sometimes teachers and others will understand those feelings and
sometimes they will not. To be successful in this undertaking, one must be able to
recognize and deal with one’s own feelings without depending too much on
outsiders.
Working with the ideas
1. The above commentary provides an example of a simple kind of drill. Do you
think that sort of thing would be profitable in your own study of a new
language? Why, or why not?
2. How closely does Carla’s acquiring of Portuguese and German fit the approach
56 Success with Foreign Languages
outlined at the end of the comments on 1.1.4?
3. How closely would you guess Carla fits the description at the end of the
comments on 2.2.1, concerning personality type?
4. On the basis of the entire interview. what advice might you give to Carla?

3.2.4 How should Carla have started her language study?卡拉应该怎样开始她的语言学习？
 1、 Systematic drills are sometimes useful, sometimes inappropriate.  系统性练习有时是有用的，有时是不恰当的
  2、 Importance of recognizing and dealing with feelings in language study.认识与处理语言学习的感觉的重要性
  3、Gradual development of language: developmental errors.  逐渐发展的语言：发展错误
   4、CYNTHIA: A successful case of gradual development. 辛西娅：一个逐步反着的成功案例

‘You would give your eyeteeth to have the grammatical knowledge that these other students have,’ Carla’s supervisor commented, ‘but they would give their eyeteeth to have the fluency and ease with German usage that you have.’ 你想给你的眼界开阔语法知识，那些其他学生拥有的，卡拉的上司评论道：但是，他们将要给他们的眼光去拥有流利和容易你的简单使用德语的能力。
‘I suppose so,’ Carla replied, ‘but now if I have to speak correctly, it’s like undoing things that are already established.’  我猜想，卡拉回答道，但是现在如果我不得不正确地说话，它是就像删除一些东西，那时已经建立的。
‘Like rebreaking and resetting a leg that has been set crooked?’, I wondered. 比如打断和重建一条腿，那是安装的弯曲的腿。
‘A little bit,’ she conceded.  一点点，她思考着。
‘Actually,’ her supervisor interrupted, ‘the places where you make most of your mistakes are not places where you have formed wrong habits. They’re places where you haven’t formed any habits at all yet. It isn’t that you say die Messer consistently when you should say das Messer. It’s that you’re about equally likely to say der Messer, die Messer or das Messer. So it’s not so much like having to rebreak a leg.  实际上，她上司打断说，这个地方那里你弄了很多你的所悟，是没有地方那里你拥有错误的习惯。他们的地方那里你还没有任何的习惯，在根本上说。它不是你所得死梅森瑟组成的，当年你应该说达斯梅森瑟。它是你关于等于就像说德梅瑟，或者达斯梅瑟，德梅瑟或者达斯梅瑟。所以它不是这么想必须打断一条腿。
It’s more like cultivating a plant that’s not yet fully grown, and therefore isn’t bearing a certain kind of fruit yet.’  它是更像培养一个植物，那个植物还没有充分成长，因此，也不是附带一个某一类型的果实。
‘That’s reassuring to hear,’ Carla replied, ‘but even being told that the teachers see this quite differently doesn’t totally . . .’  那是令人放心的到这里。卡拉回答道，但是曾经告诉老师看见这些非常不同的事情，并不总是这样。
‘Doesn’t totally relieve you of those feelings you described,’ I suggested.  没有总是免除你描述的这些感觉，我猜想。
‘No. Not at all. Not in the least,’ she answered. ‘Anyway, if I had it to do over, I’d come here first and study the grammar.’  不，根本不是，至少不是，她回答道，不论如何，如果我做过了，我就要来到这里首先学习这些语法。
‘And then you’d go on to Germany and use your dependable natural ability to learn to actually speak the language?’ I asked. ‘Yes. Yes.’ 然后，你将要继续学习德语，并且使用你的可靠地自然能力奇学习实际的语言的口语说话吗？我问，是的，是的。

Comments  评论
What Carla’s supervisor said to her here is consistent with the Natural Approach outlined in 1.1.4. According to that view, the process of acquiring a new language is a gradual one. In the early stages, one makes only the grossest distinctions with any accuracy. Later on, one becomes able to make increasingly fine distinctions until finally one talks like a mature native speaker. Cynthia’s experience with English illustrates this principle beautifully: 卡拉的上司对她说这里包括自然的方法组成在1.1.4一致相的。根据这个观点，获得一种新的语言的过程。在这开始阶段，只有一个初步的细节与任何准确率方面，以后变成能够弄得越来越细腻的区别，知道最后告诉的就像一个问题自然地说话者，辛西娅的经验用英语寿命了这一原则的腈纶决顶的漂亮。

An informal Learner: Carla 55
‘I  was a self-taught reader of my first language [Korean] at the age of 4and1/2;’ Cynthia told me. ‘But I quickly discovered that the rules I applied in order to decode written Korean
did not work for many of the books I found on my dad’s bookshelves. 我是自学成才的读者，我的第一个语言是韩语，在四岁半。但是我很快发现那个规则我提供为了韩语书写解码没有工作为许多书本，我发现在我父亲的书架上。
‘My initial efforts to break the secret code for non-Korean writing systems consisted of just scribbling several lines of continuous waves with dots and bars over them or across them on a piece of paper, and then to show that to my mom expecting her to read them as if they had been readable English. I couldn’t understand why what I wrote wasn’t readable, since they looked to me just like what I saw in those books. And when later I began to try  to say things in English. I did something similar: I just uttered sounds that sounded English to my own ears. But then I came to the realization that being able to utter Englishsounding sounds, or to scribble similar-looking scratches did not convey meaning to me or to anybody else.’ 我最初努力打破这个密码为非韩语书写系统，包括只是描述几行连续波与涂鸦和酒馆以上他们的或者通过他们在一个纸张上，然后提演示我妈妈的期望她阅读他们，就如它们能够阅读的英语。我不能理解的方式写了什么不能读，自从他们看到我就想我看到的什么在这些书上。当我以后开始去试图用英语说事情的时候，我做的一起事情很类似，我只是用它的声音英语到我自己的耳朵。但是然后我来了这样的认识，那是能够采用它的英语声音的声音，或者描述类似的看到的划痕，不能传达意思到我，或者去任何其他人。

(My seven-year-old son learned the guitar in an analogous way, and he actually became rather good at it.) 我的七岁的儿子习得这个吉他在一个类似的方法，他实际上变的在他相当好。

If Carla’s supervisor was right, then perhaps the solution for her problem is less difficult - less painful - than she supposed. Maybe if she had just gone on ‘acquiring’ German, those new differentiations and new habits would have developed in the same way the existing ones had. Or maybe all she needed was some systematic practice in the form of drills. The simplest and most traditional kind of drill for this purpose consists of repeating lists of words together with the proper form of the direct article. Other common drills require the student to choose different forms of the article according to the position of the noun in the sentence: 如果卡拉的上司是对的，可能这个解决她的问题的，比她猜测的是少一些困难，少一些痛苦的。可能如果她已经拥有的只是到达在获得德语上，这些新的不同的方法的分化和新的习惯，将会有一个发展了现有的在这个相同的方法，这一个曾经拥有的存在。或者可能所有她只需要一些系统的实践，在这练习模式方面。这个最简单的和最传统类型的演练，可能为这些流行的一大堆单词，用适当的方法，直接在这些纸张的文章句子中重复列表组成，一其他常用的演练，要求学生选择不同文章的模式，根据这名词在句子中的不同位置。
Cue 名词                                      Expected responses   预期反映                             Translations 音译
 Mann   人（曼）                  Der Mann ist hier.    （这人是这儿）                           The man is here. （这人是这儿）
                                                Ich sehe den Mann. （我看这人）                               I see the man.  （我看这人）
 Buch  书（补课）               Das Buch ist hier    （这书是在这儿）                       The book is here.  （这书是在这儿）
                                            .  Ich sehe das Buch.  （我看这书）                               I see the book.  （我看这书）
                                                                                                                                          etc.  等

Although drills of this kind are in disrepute among many theoreticians and practitioners today. I made good use of them when I was studying German in 1942. But Carla’s discomfort with language out of context, together with her difficulty in getting printed words off the page, might have made it impossible for her to profit from them. 尽管这类的演习是在不被推荐而名声狼籍，在许多理论家和实践者面前的今天。我做了它们一个很好的使用，当我学习德语在1942年的时候。但是卡拉的不舒服与语言内容的脱离，一起与他的在得到离开页面的打印出来的单词的困难，可能这样做它不可能，对于她来说从这里获得多少好处。
Carla responds to her supervisor’s comments by saying, ‘That’s reassuring, but . . . ' Language study is an undertaking that frequently generates strong feelings in the student. Sometimes teachers and others will understand those feelings and sometimes they will not. To be successful in this undertaking, one must be able to recognize and deal with one’s own feelings without depending too much on outsiders. 卡拉回答到他的上司的品论说，那是理所当然令人欣慰的的，但是。。。，语言学习是不能理解的经常产生清冽的感情，在这些学生身上。有时老师和其他人都将会明白这种感情，有时它们将不会。要想在这方面取得成功，一个必须的能力是认识识别和处理一个自己感情，没有依赖太多的外面的东西。

Working with the ideas 工作于思考
1. The above commentary provides an example of a simple kind of drill. Do you think that sort of thing would be profitable in your own study of a new language? Why, or why not? 上述的评论提供了一个简单的演练范例。你想这种事情，会在自己的学习一门新的语言方面是否有利可图？为什么或者为什么不？

2. How closely does Carla’s acquiring of Portuguese and German fit the approach  outlined at the end of the comments on 1.1.4?如何紧密联系卡拉的葡萄牙语的获得和德语适合的方法，在1.1.4这个概述评论的结束的时候？
3. How closely would you guess Carla fits the description at the end of the comments on 2.2.1, concerning personality type? 如何密切合作将你猜测卡拉适合这个描述在这2.2.1的结束描述，关于性格类型。
4. On the basis of the entire interview. what advice might you give to Carla? 基于这个整个的面试，你有什么建议可以给卡拉？