Contradiction in L2 instruction

As far as language development is concerned, second or foreign language development is viewed as a metalinguistic process, not unlike the development of scientific concepts—which is sustained on the development of everyday concepts—, since the semantic system of the native language mediates the acquisition of concepts in the second language. What needs to be internalised is the psychological structure of the target language, that is, as Gal’perin (1992d) asserts, the ‘circumstances of speech’ (pp. 82-83). Thus, second or foreign language instruction presents a fundamental contradiction. On the one hand, it relies on the acquirer’s native language (and presumably on highly coded methods of instruction) but, on the other hand, in order to bring the psychological structure of the utterance in the foreign language as close as possible to that which operates in the native language, acquirers are required to create links between linguistic functions in the mother and target language within recognisable communicative contexts. Those contexts, for the most part, are socio-communicative and rely, for their transmission, upon naturalistic instructional methods. Instruction in those context demands the communication readiness observed in operationalised functions. In consequence, instruction has to provide for pedagogical moves that go from meaning to sense within a contextual naturalistic platform set from sense to meaning. The weak and strong versions in communicative language teaching (CLT) reflect this dialectical contradiction.

Faith and reason again, hermeneutics and faith

The hermeneutic of the Holy Scriptures, because of its polysemous nature, constitutes a labyrinth, an ocean or flow of divine discourse. The only way out, the only north in this ocean is faith. Faith is ultimately what gives final sense to any interpretation. But faith is a sense, an spontaneous feeling that does not emerge from the act of knowing something empirically opposed to the theoretical. Faith is experience, but an experience that emerges spontaneously, not subject to the taming of abstract concepts that can only be understood as part of a network of theoretical concepts. In fact, a sure way to eventually kill a feeling is by rationalising it through words (psychoanalysis is used to kill a phobia).

As Eco points out:

"...the moral sense can be understood only through the mediation of the allegorical one, and is attainable only by the faithful ones...which can be summarized through the line of Nicholas of Lyra: Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralia quid agas, quo tendas anagogia". (Eco, 1984, p. 149)

In a similar way, in the Zen tradition, it is only the experience through practical means what gives the correct interpretation of the scriptures. The understanding of the scriptures is done through practical action. The scriptures serve to inform the formal aspects of the practice but they are not "principles" from which practice can be deduced, as it is the case with western law and western ethics. In other words, it is not possible to understand the koan from a pure rational stance. As master Dogen said, "awakening awakens awakening" or, akawening is only awakened by the force of awakening" or "Buddha alone knows Buddha".

'Gaze' and specialised knowledge

I believe 'gaze' was first introduced by Foucault in 'The Birth of the Clinic' (1973) where it referred to the 'medical gaze' which transformed the body into a positivists object. That specialised knowledge selected and constructed a particular object, on the basis of recognition and realisation procedures internal to the specialisation of that knowledge.

Bernstein, 2000, p. 172.

Abstraction and speech

Whilst the existence of inner, non-linguistic categories that enable concept formation is not denied, according to Gal’perin (1969), ‘abstractions are achieved only as a result of speech and are retained only in speech’ (p. 262)

The neurons that shaped civilization

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it.

Technocratic speech and technocratic consciousness

We do not speak in a spontaneous, everyday speech but in a speech that has gone through the matrix of formal education. In the past, our speech was modelled by the primary and secondary schooling (mathematics, geometry, physics, chemistry, literature, including poetry and drama). Nowadays, however, that knowledge is topped by other academic disciplines. I am thinking about science (including environmental sciences, medicine, evolutionary science), technology, the social sciences in general (especially politics), history and, since Freud, psychology.

A year ago I read 'Saturday' by Ian McEwan. The novel tells the story of two days in the life of Henry Perone, an English neurosurgeon whose life is dramatically changed in the aftermath of 9/11. I was very impressed by its narrative, although for me, a Latin American, the exercise seemed too cold at times. Aesthetically, the novel presents a world in blue, like inside a bubble that can only be constructed by an English mind, the same collective mind that created the individual mind of Charles Darwin, the mind of the collector who realises a novel truth after putting the pieces of the puzzle together. It was extraordinarily precise, but at the same time absolutely contemporary.

The narrator created Perone with an evolutionary consciousness. It obviously reflects the fact that McEwan is completely sold to Darwin and evolutionary theory. The key here is that it would be impossible for a pre-Darwinian person to truly understand that novel. You simply do not understand it in its complexity if you don't get to know the basics of Darwinian thought. Moreover, the narrator appropriates the speech of brain surgeons with no compromises. One really believes Perone is what the narrator says he is. Life and death depend upon Perone's scientific knowledge and neurosurgery skills, as every human life on this planet depends upon the mastery of language and technology, from small or large-scale ways to co-ordinate work and provide food and shelter, to systems of representations that shape our identities and motivate the way we behave.

But at the end, the novel leaves you in a moody state. Blue. Longing for another more primitive world where gods exist.

What kind of identities are being shaped by our speech? Technocratic identities where the old languages of philosophy and religion are dead? Who are we nowadays? Who can understand us apart from ourselves?

Moonwalking, imitating Michael Jackson

It's quite remarkable the role of pantomime in the developing of medieval literature noticed by Bakhtin in 'The dialogic imagination'.

I am not sure how to put it but there are many converging lines to explain the emergence and development of higher (and not so higher) psychological functions in history: the role of pantomime and theatre, for once. Or pantomime as the most primitive form of drama.

I cannot but see a connection between Shakespeare and the issue of his works citing stories and other works up to the point where we believe the Bard is a bodily representation of a collective author. The fact that his English is a sort of word salad that emerged in an England open to trade, people, products and languages from all over the world (a re-run of the Roman empire in steroids), without a fixed centre (soon they will even reject the 'Vulgata latina' and the canonical normative it imposed on vernacular languages).

How could we think of politics without theatre. Does politics imitate theatre or theatre imitates politics? And when national languages were fixed in their modern version, literature then imitated literature (starting by Cervantes). In its contemporary forms, people imitate life styles depicted in films, TV series and comedy. A former Chinese student of mine learned most of her English by watching 'Friends'. Of course she wants to imitate not only the way Rachel speaks but the way she lives and I think she eventually will manage to copycut her lifestyle: live in an apartment in New York and be a successful businessperson.

I remember some political observers noticing the Soviet Union fell not only as a consequence of the struggle between economic and political forces but because Russians were watching the American series 'Dallas' and were fascinated by America's way of living (not sure about this information though).

On an even more simplistic key, one can start to see a complete shift in American society when white kids tried to moonwalk like Michael Jackson. Perhaps without that cultural change fostered by the television industry (MTV), the rise of Obama to power would have not been possible in the US.