2020

Dufva, Hannele

The paper introduces a fresh perspective on individual language skills, or, language proficiency. Based on dialogical thinking, theory of distributed language and cognition and sociolinguistics, it will be argued that ’mental grammar’ is an inappropriate metaphor for describing an individuals’ language skills. To present an alternative view, language is here understood as ’resources’ that will be appropriated by individuals for developing a ’personal repertoire’. Focusing here on the role of embodiment and materiality, the personal repertoire is seen an assemblage of embodied skilled action that helps the learners to act upon different types of affordances in different material environments.