I am glad to see a lot of people with some helpful commnents for Karin,
whose questions seem to cut to the heart of a lot of issues of language
as tool, mediation, as well as bilingualism.
One phenomenon I have noticed is that when asked to do numerical
calculations, even highly adept l2 users rever to L1. This might be
activity-specific, and not a general issue, as Phil suggests. There are
some topics I can actually REFLECT about better in Russian, not a whole
lot, but some.
A also wonder about the exent to which high levels of mastery of a tool,
any tool, render that tool "invisible" a la Bateson's stick, so that the
mind, when using the tool, extends beyond it to provide additional
cognitive power.
Really interesting questions.
mike
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