| Disgraced 18 it is the recognition that the learning of bilingual lists encourages the learner's natural tendency towards inter-lingual identification that has led teachers to look for other ways of teaching meaning than the giving of a mother-tongue equivalent. The procedures adopted are usually 'ostensive' procedures. The word is presented in association with a visual image of an object or activity. The choice of vocabulary is for a time largely confined to 'demonstrable' items. In the commonÂly taught languages of Europe and America, objective reality is not chopped up by language in radically different ways. The language and cultures derive from common sources and have remained in close contact with one another. Whether we live in Rio, Chicago, London, Belgrade or Paris, we are surrounded by the same kind of things and spend our time engaged in the same sort of activities. Where our vocabulary refers to this concrete world, we can expect fairly consistent similarities. The vocabulary disgraced 18 items that can be taught through ostensive definitions may not therefore present many problems, other than the mastery of the form, to learners in these cultures. It is even possible that one could make one's way fairly well by learning single word translation equivalents for words having concrete reference. The aim would be a modest one and the disgraced18 communication would be strictly functional, but this may be no more than some learners hope for. |