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SCHOOL AND SOCIETY VOLUME 58 SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1943 WILLIAM C. BAGLEY Editor L. REMMY BEYER Assistant Editor NUMBER 1512 In This Issue Articles: ‘‘Learning Languages in a Hurry”— But not by Miracles: Henry Grattan D o y le ................ 465 Events: The State Department Appoints Dean Kefauver Educational Consultant: The Teach ing of Portuguese Spreads to the Secondary School; Co-operative Commission on Teacher Education Plans Meeting; Erpi Classroom Films, Inc., under New Ownership; A Report on the Recruitment of Student Nurses .............. 467 N otes a n d N ew s ..................................................................... 469 Shorter Papers: Destruction of Learning: Cloyd Heck Marvin. The Unique Services of the Women’s Colleges in Wartime: W . W . Boyd. School Geography and Our Foreign Policy: W . M. Gregory .......................................................................473 Books: Ideas as History: Irving E. G o rd on ........ 470 Reports: Freshman Forum at Wisconsin: Walter It. Agard. Progress in the Education of Teach ers in the Soviet Union: Eugene Medynsky . . . . 477 Recent Publications .................................... 479 “LEARNING LANGUAGES IN A HURRY”—BUT NOT BY MIRACLES C h a r l e s R u m po r d W a l k e r ’ s interesting ar ticle, “ Language Teaching Goes to W ar,” in S c h o o l a n d S o c ie t y (A pril 3, 1943) and its condensed version, “ Learning Languages in a Hurry,” in The Reader’s Digest (May, 1943) have stimulated widespread interest in the In tensive Language Program o f the American Council o f Learned Societies, the organization that is largely responsible fo r the progress de scribed by Dr. Walker, although it is mentioned only in passing in the original article and not at all in The Reader’s Digest condensation. But the praise Dr. Walker has given the intensive language approach has had its drawbacks. I refer particularly to the impression apparently created in the minds o f not-too-careful readers that through certain miraculous new methods we have almost completely if not completely eliminated the necessity for the investment o f time, effort, and good old-fashioned mental perpiration in order to master a foreign language. As chairman o f one o f the ACLS committees that sponsored this program and as director o f the Washington Inter-American Training Cen ter, to which Dr. Walker refers in his article, I have been literally deluged with requests for information about the “ miraculous new meth ods,” and I am sure that J. Milton Cowan, di- By HENRY GRATTAN D O YLE DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON INTER-AMER ICAN TRAINING CENTER rector o f the Intensive Language Program, has received even more inquiries. Many o f these inquirers have apparently overlooked these significant words in Dr. W alk er’s article: “ The success o f these new classes is the result o f hard work and keen interest harnessed to a rigorous, original method. . . The “ Report o f the First Year’s Operations o f the Intensive Language Program o f the Amer ican Council o f Learned Societies,” moreover, defines the course as follow s: “ By an intensive course the committees mean a course which occupies the full time o f the student, generally computed at about fifteen hours o f drill with native speakers, and from twenty to thirty hours o f individual preparation per week. Two or three six-week sessions o f this character, sepa rated by short intervals o f rest, seem to yield the best results in the shortest time.” Later on the report refers to the necessity fo r “ incessant drill-work.” All this is very far indeed from the idea that some linguistic miracle-worker has dis covered a “ quickie” method by means o f which all that is required is a linguistic expert, an educational hypodermic needle, and a willing “ subject.” One can imagine the picture as cur rently misconceived. The colonel calls in the Published weekly Jor T h e S o c ie t y f o r t h e A d v a n c e m e n t o f E d u c a t io n , I n c ., at T h e S c ie n c e P k e ss North Queen Street and McGovern Ave., Lancaster, Pa. Editorial Olfice: 525 West 120th St.. New York 27, N. Y. 15 cents a copy; $5.00 a year. Entered as second-class matter August 14, 1923, at the Post Office at Lancaster, Pa., U. S. A . under the Act of March 3, 1879' 466 “ language shark,” and says, “ Here, Lieutenant, inject some French (Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, Bulgarian, or what not) into this fellow — he’s got to go abroad in a w eek!” And in a week, presto! a fluent master o f French (Span ish, Italian, German, Polish, Bulgarian, or what not) appears in the colonel’s tent, fresh as a daisy, full o f French (Spanish, Italian, Ger man, Polish, Bulgarian, or what not), and “ rarin’ to go 1 Such seems to be the linguistic ” pipe-dream inspired, in some quarters at least, by “ Learning Languages in a Hurry.” The pity o f it is that we Americans seem to be so gullible in matters o f this kind— witness the vitamin-pill fad, or the various “ get-richquick” methods for learning to play the piano, to make yourself a social lion, or to influence people, or fo r acquiring the equivalent o f a college education in short order by reading just a few minutes every day. Foreign languages in particular have always suffered from the extravagant claims o f “ speak-easy” language schools and “ methods.” It is especially regrettable that the Intensive Language Program o f the American Council o f Learned Societies, the success o f whose program in the unusual languages has been primarily due to careful analysis o f the language, the use of native “ informants,” strict limitation o f objec tives, small classes, and insistence on hard, con centrated effort and practice, practice, practice, should have been misinterpreted as another educational “ quickie” or “ get-educated-quick” scheme. Certainly Dr. Walker cannot be blamed fo r the misinterpretation. I f blame is to be fixed, it belongs, if anywhere, on the ambiguous title chosen by the editors o f The Reader’ s Digest. I think a young man in one o f the Army’s Specialized Training Programs would be more likely to characterize the system as “ Learning Languages through Long Hours and Hard W ork.” Here is a typical weekly program in one o f the Army Specialized Training Program schools: Russian, 17 hours per week; Russian area studies, 10 hours per Aveek; military lec tures, 3 hours per Aveek; gymnasium and drill, 10 hours per Aveek; compulsory study-hours, 7 to 9 p . m . and all free periods during the day. This docs not sound like miracle-working; it does suggest hard, consistent work, “ incessant drill,” and concentration. V ol. 58, No. 1152 SCHOOL AND SOCIETY Here is another description, reproduced from Pearson’s account, in his “ Washington Merry-Go-Round” column, o f the Navy’s Japa nese School: DreAv Officer-candidate schools have a reputation for be ing tough, but the N aval Intelligence Japanese Lan guage School at Boulder (Colo.) sets a new record. Handpicked candidates from colleges and graduate schools pore over Japanese Kanji (word pictures) 16 hours a day, 6 days a Aveek, for 14 months. These 800 students are given intimate high-pres sure instruction in classes of only five men each. The faculty consists of former 150 Japanese-Americans, professional and business men, recruited from tlio East and W est Coast Japanese colonies. The course is intensive, and the students are given no job except the principal one of learning the diffi cult Japanese language. dates, they have no bivouacs. Unlike other officer candi guard duty, KP, or night Their job is to learn Japanese, learn it quickly, and learn it Avell. And a member o f the same school, writing in the Middlebury College News-Letter, says: Many teachers among the alumni would probably like to know about the teaching methods here— methods which succeed in doing the ‘ ‘ used impos sible” — teaching an Occidental the Japanese lan guage from the cradle to college level in less than a year. A s I said previously, memory by rote is the main stay of the system limited by time. Wo have eighteen class-hours a week, plus a weekly threehour exam on Saturday mornings. Most of us average at least six hours a day of outside prepara tion, more than twice the time I spent in Middle bury. Weekends are relatively free except for those who took a night off during the week. Classes are in five- or six-man schedule is divided into reading, sections. The dictation, and conversation classes and each section has six d if ferent teachers for the work, including one main reading teacher who covers the lessons in the text book. These books, a graded series, are supple mented by lists of idioms and materials for drill, as well as by daily written exercises on the work of the day. The oral method is followed mainly, but we are bombarded by teaching from angle. every First, the reading teacher goes over the lesson and we learn by ear, then recite. The fo l lowing day the dictation teacher will dictate to us at the board Avliere we are closely supervised. N ext hour, we speak the language in conversation class, each student drilled individually. You can see how individual the instruction is, with the result that throughout the year most stu- D ecember 18, 1943 SCHOOL AND SOCIETY dents average over 90 per cent in the weekly trans lation exams. Y e t there are great difficulties in ap plying this method or any part of it to the liighschool teaching of languages. However, as far as time and class-size will allow, it would profit those interested to apply a reading-dictation-conversation system, especially to increase use of the spoken lan guage in classrooms as an aid to beginners. Our texts are based on the child-learning theory: that the child first learns a language through the ear, then through the mouth, and much later, consci ously, through grammar forms. This, again, suggests not miracle-working, but well-planned, concentrated, hard work. Not that it is all drudgery by any means, fo r in structors in the “ area-studies” courses sometimes complain that the students put in even more time than is required on their language work, with corresponding neglect (relative only) o f their “ area-studies” preparation. But it is ob vious that no one goes through such a program without realizing that he is working— hard— as he never has worked before at any intellectual task. Emphasis upon hard work and concentration, however, by no means implies that the particu lar method followed in the Intensive Language 467 Program is not new and important, fo r it is. But we should not overlook the equally impor tant point that small classes, long hours, con sistent effort, rigorous preparation, even “ inces sant drill” and “ rote memory-work” (those bugbears o f some educationists) are crucial elements in the over-all method in this instance. The A CLS Intensive Language Program and the Army Specialized Training Program will doubtless make a definite contribution to the improvement o f foreign-language teaching at all levels. That contribution, however, will be along common-sense lines, such as use o f the psychological factors involved in the conversa tional approach, careful planning and strict limitation o f objectives and materials, small classes (perh aps!), concentration on the lan guage alone (perhaps!) fo r a year or a semester to the exclusion o f all other unrelated subjects, greater use o f phonograph aids and o f “ native” teachers where available, and doubtless in other aspects o f the language-learning problem— but without miracles. In the meantime, it would not hurt to keep our feet on the ground and our heads on our shoulders instead o f in the clouds, when we hear the magical phrase “ Learning Languages in a Hurry.” Events. . . T H E S T A T E D E P A R T M E N T A P P O IN T S DEAN K E F A U V E R E D U C A T IO N A L CONSU LTANT T h e Department o f State has appointed as its consultant on educational reconstruction in conquered countries Grayson N. Kefauver, dean, School o f Education, Stanford University. This appointment is apparently an outcome o f Dean Kefauver’s pioneer leadership in the study o f reconstruction problems, as evidenced particu larly in organizing and directing the discussions o f the International Education Assembly, which met at Harpers Ferry (W . V a .), September 1317, 1943, and repoi’ts o f which appeared in S c h o o l a n d S o c ie t y , September 25 and Novem ber 6. The New York Times (December 12) states that Dr. Kefauver will serve the Department of State on full time under a leave o f absence from Stanford University, and will continue as chair man o f the assembly. Alonzo F. Meyers, pro fessor o f education, New York University, and chairman, N E A Commission fo r the Defense of Democracy through Education, is quoted by the Times as follow s: I am happy to learn that our State Department is apparently planning to become active in this field. Evidently the appointment of Dean Kefauver does indicate that we may expect rather vigorous and constructive action in the matter of international co-operation on educational matters. T H E T E A C H IN G OF P O R T U G U E S E SPRE AD S T O T H E S E C O N D A R Y SC H O O L F o l l o w in g the formulation o f the Good Neighbor Policy, the colleges and universities of the United States increased their emphasis on the study o f Spanish and, in some cases, o f Portuguese. According to reports from several
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