In teaching language skills to newcomers to Canada for well over thirty years, I have mainly focused on academic preparation and perfecting abilities in speaking and writing. At the same time, my learners practiced all the four skills, plus supporting summarization tasks, and virtually all of them were successful on the TOEFL and IELTS tests. As a linguist, I profess my interest in the generative aspects of language. How is it that we are so good at knitting structures together, and what forces can bring our thoughts to the surface with so much precision? The answer may lie at the nexus of our genetic potential and our social adaptability. What is your perspective on this matter? And what are your experiences in using or learning a language?