Title: German through English eyes : a history of language teaching and learning in Britain, 1500-2000 /
Authors: McLelland, Nicola, 1970-
Year: 2015
Subjects: German language Study and teaching Great Britain History.; German language Study and teaching English speakers History.; German language Textbooks for foreign speakers English.; German language Great Britain History.; Language laboratories Great Britain History.
Abstract: McLelland's pioneering study charts the history of foreign language learning and teaching in the UK over five centuries (1500-2000), taking German as her case study. From the first grammar of German for English speakers, published in 1680, McLelland traces the growth in interest in German for travel and trade, and its rapid increase in prestige in the eighteenth century as a language of literary merit, before German became established in schools and universities from the second quarter of the nineteenth century onwards. Taking hundreds of textbooks as her primary sources, as well as the pronouncements of teachers, examiners and policy-makers, McLelland considers the changing reasons for teaching and learning German, and the consequent changes in teaching methods (including the influence of the Reform Movement around 1900, innovations such as language laboratories, and, more recently, the communicative approach). She analyses changes in how the German language was presented, including advances in how the sound system and word order were described. Finally, and crucially, she considers how German culture and history have been represented to English-speaking learners, particularly over the past hundred years, a century of troubled Anglo-German cultural relations. A chronological bibliography of several hundred textbooks for the period 1600-2000 will serve as a stimulus for further research. - From publisher's website.
Contents: Acknowledgements -- Image credits -- About the author -- Glossay to terms specific to the English/British education system -- Chapter 1: Writing a history of foreign language learning in the UK -- Chapter 2: The birth of a subject: the first hundred years of German as a foreign language in England (1615-1715) -- Chapter 3: Learning and teaching German in the 'long' nineteenth century -- Chapter 4: Teaching German in the twentieth century. What to teach and why? -- Chapter 5: Rules for the neighbours: the German language presented to English-speaking learners -- Chapter 6: Don't mention the war? German culture and history in the teaching of German, 1900-2000 -- Chapter 7: Outlook -- Chapter 8: Bibliography.