ABSTRACT

Just think for a minute of all the speaking tasks that you have carried out in the last 24 hours. Here is a selective list of some of the things I achieved through language yesterday. I:

• called a friend and reminded him about a dinner party I was having last night;

• took part in a meeting at the office; • ordered a coffee in the faculty lounge; • called my travel agent to see if I was still wait-listed on an upcoming flight

from Sao Paulo to Miami (I was!); • wished my daughter good luck for her school drama audition; • over a coffee, asked a colleague about the plot of a movie she had seen the

evening before; • booked my car in for a service; • ordered flowers for a colleague who is leaving; • had a Cantonese lesson (some of which was conducted in English); • discussed a research proposal with a graduate student.