The Micro-Language - an assault on natural languages?
The Micro-Language - an assault on natural languages?

Summary/Abstract: The present paper aims to examine the legitimacy of any didactic alteration of the natural language meant to devise certain input-materials, shaped on the levels of language proficiency stipulated by The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Taking into consideration the fact that the latest didactic theories encourage the students’ early contact with authentic languages, thus discouraging the contrastive teaching methods, the specialistsin teaching Romanian as a foreign language (RFL) are bound to seek the most appropriate methodological solution to a paradoxical situation. On the one hand, the early use of the target-language, from the very first levels, obliges them to elaborate samples of “micro-language” (ML) adapted to the students’ linguistic levels; on the other hand, the authenticity principle imposes the use of natural language and restricts, to a very large extent, the possibility of interveningupon it. Beyond such methodological dilemmas, there are certain practical constraints: the need for textbooks, tests and certificates of language proficiency on the CEFR levels, applied to RFL, as well. However, the achievement of such a requirement seems impossible in the absence of progression in RFL teaching, or the acquisition of ML specific to each level by the specialists themselves, who should overlook, from time to time, their being native speakers and, therefore,should consciously ‘maltreat’ their own language, yet with a didactic and ethical purpose. In order to provide an accurate profile for the ML of each level, the present study proposes certain textual samples elaborated in accordance withthe particularity of such levels of Romanian language progressive acquisition.

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