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Neurological Bimodality and Theories of Language Teaching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Marcel Danesi
Affiliation:
University of Toronto

Extract

The failure of the method notion in second language teaching has been attributed to a series of valid pedagogical and socioeducational factors. The concept of neurological bimodality, which posits that effective language learning in a classroom environment requires the utilization of the perceptual modalities associated with each cerebral hemisphere, offers a more fundamental, neurologically related diagnosis of this failure. This paper looks at the historiography of language teaching theories from the perspective of bimodality, and then concludes with specific suggestions vis-à-vis the kinds of research directions that might empirically substantiate the usefulness of this concept for second language acquisition in a classroom environment.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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