tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830497.post6645772622736782562..comments2024-02-28T05:25:12.859-05:00Comments on English, Jack: Input-output gapBretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870575277556244419noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830497.post-46420668733993937162008-08-21T14:22:00.000-05:002008-08-21T14:22:00.000-05:00Most adults seem to keep all their non-native lang...Most adults seem to keep all their non-native languages in a different filing cabinet (so to speak) in their brain than their native language is in. So when groping for a word in L3, it's L2 that you find it in, not L1. I observe this constantly with government employees who have been cross-trained into multiple languages.The Ridger, FCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01538111197270563075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31830497.post-8124597639817719512008-08-14T01:09:00.000-05:002008-08-14T01:09:00.000-05:00This post reminds me of a similar experience. One ...This post reminds me of a similar experience. One time when I was back home in Toronto for a visit I went to dinner with my father and I noticed that the waiter had a Quebecois accent. I foolishly decided to practise a bit of French. I asked him, "Est ce que vous habitez en Quebec desu ka?" Now, lets forget the stupidity of the question and focus on the "desu ka", which as you know is Japanese. Since then I've noticed that Japanese almost always interferes when I attempt to speak French.<BR/>I once had a student that was Japanese Brazilian. She spoke Portuguese, Japanese and English. Portuguese was her mother tongue. I told her the story I've just related and asked her if she'd ever experienced anything similar. She said she had. She added that the interference goes away once your proficiency evens out. Makes sense to me, the stronger language dominates.<BR/>I've also noticed that my Chinese and Korean students switch to Japanese, not their mother tongue, when they code switch in our English lessons, even if the lesson is one-to-one. <BR/>Anyway, thanks for another interesting post.Michael Stouthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17357822437408420316noreply@blogger.com