Interpretation / 165
- linguistic items introduced in a lesson are not likely to be
immediately available for use to the learner.
In conclusion, Dialogue Texts present Culturallyadequate settings but
pragmatically inadequate contexts for communicative activities: they can
be suitable for controlled oral practices aiming at accuracy, but not for
communicative activities aimed at fluency.
5.6.2 The Interlanguage perspective
Alterations could be made to the texts or to the methodology suggested to
teachers in the use of Dialogue Texts: for example, if a learner language
or Interlanguage perspective was adopted, more emphasis would be put on
'what learners can do and what they know while learning (Davies,1984:
xii). In consequence, the use of a variety of communicative strategies
would be allowed, including the Ll and non-verbal means when necessary,
clarification exchanges would also be permitted, and the accepted
communication in L2 would be in terms of progressive approximation to
the target language and not in terms of accurate Imitation. The L2 would
rather be considered a lingua franca that enables communication beyond
one's LI, not instead or in spite of it. It has already been pointed out
that minor alterations would be enough to modify the setting and
contexts of Dialogue Texts for the characters realistically to use
Portuguese as lingua franca (pages 136 and 141), as in fact is the case
in many language encounters in the world outside school.
The cognitive strategies that learners use In their Ll are also taken
into account in an Interlanguage perspective. Prediction and Inference
strategies are particularly Important in comprehension (see page 151),
and they may be triggered by patterns of discourse already established in
the LI. For example, a child may expect a clarification request as a
signal to elaborate on his utterance, or would ask one himself at a
certain point of the Interaction, according to his models of discourse.