Re: conlanging during class (Re: Grammatical Summary of Kemata)

Dan Sulani scripsit:

>     OTOH, I fail to see how just asking questions can benefit someone who
> has no prior knowledge of something and no way to experiment in order
> to find out. For example, there are a whole lot of natlangs that, AFAIK,
> I am totally ignorant of. Suppose I wanted to learn one of them.
> How would only asking me questions, using only one of the langs I do speak,
> enable me to "break down the conceptual blocks in the student's
> mind that prevent him from realizing what he knows" and enable me to leave
> the teaching situation with a full competence in that lang?
Oh, of course.  Learning languages is more a matter of learning-how, and
anyway Frye (whatever may be the case for Plato's fictional character) is
not proposing that teachers *only* ask questions, merely pointing out an
explanation for why teachers, in fact, ask so many questions.

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan

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