Evening star., 1924-08-03
TEACHING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN

When the American student takes
up a modern language at high school
or college or in a special class, how
| much can he reasonably expect to
learn?
Is 1t possible that an American
after one, two or three years of
study, should speak, read and writ e
a foreign language readily? Or is il
the duty of a teacher to use his lin
tied time TO stress reading knowl-
edge and to give pupils a glimpse
into the literature and spirit of the
home of the language rather than to
struggle with the difficulties of
| teaching conversation?
And are Americans linguists, any
way?
In spite of the fact that the United
States is more or less isolated from
countries where different tongues
are spoken, there is a great deal of in
terest In language study here, and ques
tions like these have been asked by
almost every individual whoever tried
to teach or to learn a foreign language.
But satisfactory answers have never
been ready. Almost every teacher and
student has an individual opinion.
Now, however, survey of mod
ern language teaching in this coun-
try is about to search out the facts
regarding the aims and methods of
teaching languages and the value of
studying them. The Carnegie Founda-
tion has set aside $4,000 a year
for three years to finance the work.
Soon questionnaires will be sent out
to educators and prominent laymen,
and experiments will be started to
compare methods of teaching.
Questionnaires sent to large num-
Der of students in language classes
will furnish definite statistics show
ing the percentage of Americans that
| take up language study and their
| reasons for studying the different
tongues. Such statistics are impor-
tant. because one of the chief diff
cultieS of the teacher has been to
decide what kind of a course to give
in order to satisfy the greatest num-
| Der Of students.
In almost every class there are
pupils who are anxious to speak a
foreign language because they hope
to visit the country where it is used,
or because they plain to 90 into a
business which requires contact with
foreigners. Other pupils are going
to specialize in a science and need
| a reading ability in order to study
| the works of foreign scientists. 9th
eTS expect To SluoS literature anu
they want to emphasize the litera-
ture Of the language. And some have
no definite motive at all. These last,
far from being the easiest to please.
are most apt to become disconnected
and discouraged, because they
vaguely expect to read and converse
in a short time. and they lack a
definite incentive to work.
+ X X
1t seems not unlikely that language
courses. in colleges at least. will
sooner or later be regularly separated
into conversational or practical
courses and cultural or reading cour-
ses-unless a really remarkable short
cut method of teaching can be
evolved.
The troubles of the modern Ian
guage teacher who is trying to please
everybody can be imagined from the
/ following explanation. which has
been made by more than one teacher.
BY the usual classroom method of
teaching languages year of con-
veYsation in class Is equal to about
ten days experience in the country
where the language is spoken. Fix
ing the time value of years class
room conversation at only ten days
ers say. Suppose student goes to
French class five days a week for an
hour. He hears French spoken dur
ing about 40 minutes of that hour
and he speaks 1t himself for about
2 minutes, on an y average. Two
minutes a day Is 10 minutes week,
and In 40 weeks he has . total OF