Language mastery is not merely a matter of having a set of bare behavioral dispositions.
If that's the case, though, language mastery can be no simple matter.
What does the existence of a sensitive period for language mastery tell us about the innateness of language?
In his famous review of Skinner's book, Chomsky (1959) effectively demolishes Skinner's theories of both language mastery and language learning.
Such an observation might suggest that the most decisive factor is not so much language mastery but parental capacity to secure a supportive family environment.
The interviewers offered the opportunity to choose between an interview in Dutch or in the mother tongue of the respondents depending on the language mastery and preference.
In his book The Audacity of Hope, Obama recalls that he once wrote an article for Time Magazine in which he said: "In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat – in all this, he reminded me just... of my own struggles".
"In Lincoln's rise from poverty", Mr Obama wrote in Time in 2005, "his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat in all this, he reminded me…of my own struggles," prompting Peggy Noonan, a conservative commentator, to quip that Mr Obama is "like Abraham Lincoln, only sort of better".
Mastery of a language entails mastery of its grammar but not vice versa.
"The ultimate test of mastery of a scientific discipline is if you can digest the phenomena and explain it to an untrained mind.
Table 5 The correlation coefficients among demotivators, perceptions, language achievement, mastery, and burnout 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1.
