举例来说:
Preface pfc
‘One of my students has been doing amazingly well in Norwegian. Would you like to talk with her? o n(o) m stdt ha b di amazl w l(i) nwg ,w d(y) l(k) t tk w t(h)?
Maybe you can find out how she does it,’ a colleague said to me one day. mb y c f d(o) s d s(i) ,a clg s t m o d
‘Fine,’ I replied. ‘How about Tuesday between ten and eleven? Maybe we can tape it.’ f, i rdpld, h w(a) b tsd bt t n(a) wlc ,mb w c tp t
That conversation led me to a series of interviews with seven outstanding adult t cvst l d(m) t o(a) sr s(o) f(i)tvs wt sv n(o)ttd n(a) dt
language learners. The accounts given here are based on hour-long recorded lagg lns. t act gv n(h) r(a) bs d(o) ou l rcdd lg is.
conversations I had with them. Later I conducted similar interviews with a number of other learners about whose overall ability I knew nothing. cvstss(i) hd w t(a) nb r(o) f(o)t ln s(a) b ws(o) vr l(a) blit i n nt.
Readers are invited to become acquainted with all these people, and in this way to test and develop their own understanding of how second languages are learned. Names and a few
unimportant details have been changed, but the interviewees are not fictional, rd s(a) itvt t bcm(a) cqtd wt(a) ts pp ,a d(i) ts w t ts t(a) dvlp t o n(u)dstd n(o) h scd lgg s(a) lnd.
and they are not composites. They are real individuals. a t y(a) n cpsts, t(a) rl l(i)svds.
When I began the interviews. I was hoping to find out what the succes**ul learners did alike. If we could teach their secrets to our students, I thought, then everyone else could become as succes**ul as the people I had talked with. It soon became apparent, however, that learners are even more different from one another than I had expected. Success with foreign languages, I found, does not come by one simple formula. Although this fact was negative, it was useful.
w n(i) bg t itvs, i ws hp t f d(o) w t scsst lns dd(a) lk, if(w) c tc t sct t o stdt, i tt,t n(e) vo n(e)s c bcm(a) scc** l(a)s t pp l(i) h tks wt, it s bcm(a) prt, hwv, t n(e)v m df f m(o) n(a)nt t n(i) hd(e) xpctt. sccss wt fr n(i) lggs, i fs, ds nt cm b o sp fml. ar ts fct ws ngtv, it(w)s u**.
But as I listened to those good learners, I also found something very positive: bt(a) s(i) lst t ts g lns, i as f d(s)mf vr pstv
many of the things they were describing fitted well with one or another abstract, mn t ts t w dscb ftd w wt o n(o) r(a)nt abstct
theoretical concept in the field. trtc ccp t(i) t fd
Yet they do not provide unambiguous vindication for any one model of second language acquisition. y t d n pv d(u) nmbgs vdvt f n o md l(o) scd lgg acqst.
Each model will find in these interviews some confirmation, but also some challenge. ec md w f d(i) ts itv sm cfmt, b t(a) sm clg.
In the first seven chapters, i t fs sv cpts.
I will first let you hear what the learners themselves actually said. i w fst l t(y) h w t lns tmsv s(a)ctl sd.
Then I will provide a few comments on some of the principles illustrated, t n(i) w pvd(a) f cm t(o)m t pcp s(i)lsttd,
and suggest how you may work critically with the ideas, a d(u) gst h y m wk ctcl w t ides,
in the company of one or two friends or colleagues. i t cpn f(o) n(o) t fd(o) clgs.
There are also step-by-step descriptions of some specific techniques.
The book ends with a summary of what I thought I saw these learners doing, t bk(e)d wt(a) smr wt(i) s ts lns di.
a sketch of how I myself would probably approach a new language, a skt(o) h w(i) m** w pbbl y(a)prc(a) n lgg,
and a brief statement of what these interviews have meant to me as a teacher. a d(a) bf sttmt(o) w t t s(i)tvs hv m t m e(a) s(a) tc(o) h w(i) m** t(o) w t s(i)tvs hv m t m e(a) s(a) tt.