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Dear Mohsen (and Everyone on the list) I'm grateful for your questions since they stimulate my reflection about the how and why of words Question: How can language educators allow learners to find language as a way of being and not just as a means for communication? Reflection: I am interested by your choice of word 'allow' - please could you explain this a little? Do language teachers give or ethically have the right to give permission for language to be a way of being? I think 'communication' is a rich concept because it doesn't mean (to me) a choice of terms as a tool - it is a whole body-mind expression. In this sense, it carries with it the ontology and epistemology not only of the person communicating but of all the individuals who have used the term before. Bodies like the 'Academie Francaise' try to impose a structure on language and restrict words they see as undesirable. The fact remains they have a very limited influence and argot (street-wise slang) communicates and, some say, nurtures socio-cultural communication. Question: How can language educators allow learners to reflectively language their immediate consciousness and experience the creativity of their thought? I would use 'enable' rather than 'allow' here. Do you agree? So much depends on whether we are talking about language as (just) words. Language is communicated (I don't mean not just spoken) through all of our senses, through colour and texture. Have you seen the latest issue of Scientific American? There's a section on how the senses work. There is a fascinating article on phantom sensations where the mind 'fills in' sensations about what it thinks it should be interacting with - for example tinnitus is the brain creating sound because there should be a signal from the ear. I suggest that this is language though it's not in words but it's certainly a form of communication. So - to answer your question as best I can ... I believe language educators can assist learners to language reflectively by modelling and crucially by understanding, by being able to communicate their understanding (by example as well as by spoken utterance) that reflection can be beneficial. Your question resonates with Rieko Iwahama's when she asks How can we help teachers to reflect? Do take a look at her wonderful PowerPoint from BERA 2005 on http://www.TeacherResearch.net I love your question because it is timely for me to reflect on my response. Thank you! Yesterday, I was with a group of students (in a school) who were presenting their research to teaching staff. It seemed to me that the kernel of their presetation was communication that educators are learners and (to use Robyn Pound's marvellous concept of 'alongsidedness') teachers and students should be 'alongside' as learners. Language is organic. Its beauty resides in it capacity to embody more than word value. It shimmers with meaning! Educators can be alongside in creative momentum with other learners, playing with language, experimenting with it, seeking out new expressions, combining it with other forms of communication that invlove so much more than spoken words. My answer to your quetion? By holding back and creating space for reflection, by pausing and not just delivering a predetermined message or a ritualised phraseology, by listening and valuing and co-enquiring with excitement and a sense of wonder (just lik small children 'play' with language? ) Question: How can language and languaging help the learners explore oneself and shape their lives? When it is understood as much more than just symbols and where the symmetry of the symbols is valued too. When it is used empathetically to draw out and share meaning (and not as a weapon). Thank you SO much for the opportunity to respond to all your stimulating and exciting questons, Sarah