off the WAL

News and Information from the oldest nonprofit language school in Seattle, WA!

Silence

September 8th, 2008 · 1 Comment

The Force of Silence
Originally uploaded by amaroak – quite a life
Our mission at WAL is to facilitate cross-cultural communication. But is all communication achieved through speech? No, people communicate through silence as well as spoken language. It is a way to express oneself non-verbally and it can be very powerful.
Different cultures understand silence in [...]

[Read more]

Tags: language · middle east

The Rules of Second Language Acquisition

September 1st, 2008 · No Comments

Close up of The Thinker
Originally uploaded by marttj
What have I learned about second language acquisition?
1. That it is systematic, rule-governed and yet it is a creative process of discovery.
2. It involves acting on received language input by trying to make responses and by making plenty of mistakes in the new language.
3. It involves interacting with [...]

[Read more]

Tags: Uncategorized