Marcel Danesi

This paper examines the progenitors of the semiotic concepts in currentSecond Language Acquisition (SLA) theory as well as some concepts that couldfurther inform recent trends in SLA theory and practice. Through the connections between recent ecology models of language learning (e.g., Kramsch 2002, 2006,2010) or an “ecological-semiotic perspective” (e.g., van Lier 2002, 2004) and fundamental concepts in semiotic theory such as the signifying order  (Danesi), multi-modality, (Kress), modeling systems theory (Sebeok), and Umwelt theory (vonUexküll), this paper also considers a recent dra of an ACTFL position statement on the Use of the Target Language in the Classroom.

Researching and editing Birgitta of Sweden, Julian of Norwich and Umiltà of Faenza and Florence I chose to enter an Anglican convent (based on medieval contemplation) to experience their 'right brain' holistic mode as well as the 'left brain' analytical one of the academy and found, doing so, I could understand far more concerning their manuscript data that I researched in major libraries in the Vatican, Uppsala, Paris, Oxford, London, Princeton, and in convents in Bavaria and England. Currently I am working on the juxtaposed liturgical and secular music of Dante's Commedia, in performance with musicologists, including the figure of Piccarda. As docent to these Italian performers I am explaining recent neuroscientific findings as the justification for the performance of Dante's text, basing these perceptions on Julian Jaynes, Jill Bolte Taylor, Jane Chance. My paper would explore these aspects in further depth, arguing for the need of both neurological modes, seeing the academic world as even violently rejecting and excluding image, colour, sound, liturgical/musical circularity, and its contemplative inclusiveness with the cosmos, for the limiting and constraining black and white of print, linearity, one-dimensional logic, and centring on the self, to its detriment.