A History of English Language Teaching

(A.P.R. Howatt / H.G. Widdowson)

Oxford University Press, 2004

PART 0NE / 1400 – 1800Section 1 - Practical Language

Teaching

3) Towards “the great and common world”

4) Guy Miege and the second Huguenot

exile

5) The spread of English language

teaching in Europe

3) Towards “the great and common

world” Throughout the 17th century: refugees like Holyband run schools in which classical (e.g. Latin) and vernecular languages (i.e. mother tongue) were taught; however the teaching of modern languages remained in small-scale enterprise with a private tutor and in small classes.

Grammar schools: Teaching Latin and Greek Young children (8 years old) were forced with

Latin grammar rules and definitions / rote-learn (i.e. a memorization technique based on repetition) the text.

School violence: at risk of beating

3) Towards “the great and common

world” Text rather than precept or rule

William Lily (1468-1522): the best-selling language teaching book – A Short Introduction of Grammar (Lily’s Grammar – Royal Grammar)

Two parts:

Short Introduction to Parts of Speech (written in English)

Brevissima Institutio (a description of Latin syntax)

It is against rote-learning and the custom of writing sample sentences.

3) Towards “the great and common

world” Two schools of thought on the role and function of language studies in late 16th and early 17th centuries

Humanist Tradition: Erasmus, Vives, and Roger Ascham (The Schoolmaster, 1570)

Puritanical Philosophy: Francis Bacon (Advancement of Learning, 1605), and Comenius

Humanist Tradition: The Schoolmaster (1570), AshamTwo parts – 1.The Bringing Up of Children: discussing the general aims and purposes of an education for the offspring of a noble family. 2. The Ready Way to the Latin Tongue: the pedagogical plan for achieving pedagogical intentions of Part 1.

3) Towards “the great and common world”

Teaching procedures and techniques: should start as soon as the child has mastered the basic parts of speech.

Translatio (Double-translation): This method is intended to make the learner equally conscious of the structure and resources of his language as of the language being studied.

Imitatio: The learner had to create Latin and Greek texts of his own on the model of the great authors (concentration on the stylistic and rhetorical devices used by the model writers).

Paraphrasis (Reformulation) Epitome (Summarizing) Metaphrasis (Transforming a text from poetry to prose) Declamatio (Public eloquence)

3) Towards “the great and common world”

Anti-grammar strand of language teaching methodology: Ascham – inductive grammar: had made the learning of grammar subservient to the study of original texts

Joseph Webbe (1560-1633) – no grammar: dispensed with grammar altogether

Webbe’s use of the term “habit” (textbook: Children’s Talk): languages should never be taught by learning grammar rules but by use and custom.

The proper starting point for language learning was the exercise of communication skills. Once the grammar has been unconsciously assimilated, it is time to investigate variations of style.

3) Towards “the great and common world”

Auditory memory: Webbe was proposing a form of “direct method” of language teaching, without the use of reference grammars, which would depend heavily on spoken interaction (dialogical and common spoken Latin), and aimed to develop an internalized knowledge of the language through the exercise of communicative activities (reading, writing and speaking).

Translation equivalence existed at the level of the clause, not the level of the word.

Reject: foreign language texts should be translated word-by-word in order to emphasize the importance of accuracy and the correct choice of words.

3) Towards “the great and common

world” Puritanical Philosophy: Bacon and the Puritan

movement disapproved of the “delicate” literary interests of humanists like Ascham with their stress on rhetoric, style, and eloquence (i.e. expressiveness).

Learning should be directed outwards towards the perceptible world of the senses and experience, not inwards towards words and their logical and stylistic properties.

Comenius (1592-1670): wanted to lead his pupils in their exploration of nature through the senses.

Language (i.e. the right naming of Things) was the means whereby these perceptions would be transformed into knowledge and an understanding of the Unity of God and nature in universal love and wisdom.

3) Towards “the great and common

world” Great Didactic (Comenius): a universal system of education – by which teachers may teach less, but learners may learn more, by which schools may be the scene of less noise, aversion and useless labor, but more of leisure, enjoyment and solid progress.

The four-stage progress of languages learning The Vestibulum should contain a few hundred words,

sufficient for simple conversation on everyday things with an accompanying word list.

The Janua was to be the basic school textbook and should aim at teaching about 8000 words in a series of graded texts of intrinsic interest and educational value. There should also be a small dictionary. The Palatium was to concentrate on style and the proper use of language while the advanced Thesaurus stage would be principally concerned with translation and the comparison of languages.

3) Towards “the great and common

world” Orbis lesson (Orbis Sensualium Pictus-The World of the Senses in Pictures): a picture with numbered objects which refer to words in the accompanying text.

Not to illustrate the meanings of the words but to represent the real world, the world of the senses from which, in Comenius’ philosophy, all knowledge originates.

The teacher should begin by talking about the picture, and if possible, bringing the real objects into the classroom.

The children should talk about their ideas and feelings, and think deeply about the objects in the picture before moving on to the text.

Comenius suggested that they should try and draw the objects for themselves, or at least colour in the picture in the book.

Only when the experience was thoroughly absorbed should it be associated with the language.

4. Guy Miege and the second

Huguenot exile The second half of the 17th century: a richly

productive period in the history of theoretical and practical linguistics in England, but it was also a reactionary period so far as education was concerned.

Innovatory ideas were frustrated by the reassertion of the traditional grammar school and university system controlled through the established Anglican church.

Huguenots: French Protestants inspired by the writings of John Calvin.

Among the French teachers who contributed most to helping the new refugees with learning English were Paul Festeau and Guy Miege (1644-1718).

4. Guy Miege and the second Huguenot exile

Festeau: published a double-grammar Nouvelle Double-Grammaire Françoise-Angloise et Agloise-Françoise (1693).

One of the principal sources of English for French speakers in the early 18th century.

Guy Miege: published Nouvelle Methode (The English Grammar, 1685) and is a landmark in the development of English language teaching.

It is a substantial work, over 270 pages long, and brings together a grammar, a compact dictionary and a dialogue manual.

4. Guy Miege and the second

Huguenot exile Miege was able to benefit from the considerable advances made in the understanding of English grammar and pronunciation since the 16th century.

His own grammar section (119 pages) consists of a description of English orthography and pronunciation as well as detailed study of the basic paradigms and word forms in the language.

Like most of his contemporaries, he considered English an easy language to learn once the students had mastered the complexities of the sound and spelling systems.

In his view, there were three main difficulties: a small set of troublesome letters (th, ch etc.), vowel and diphthong system, and the difficulty of knowing where to place the stress in individual words.

4. Guy Miege and the second

Huguenot exile Miege’s teaching methods are evident from the

layout of his book. He believed in a thorough grounding in the basics of pronunciation, spelling, and grammar followed by practice and language study using the dialogues and phrases.

He disapproved of learning a language without grammar rules, referring to it as properly building in the air.

The teaching of English as a foreign language came of age with Miege. Earlier books had been short and their linguistic information was incomplete.

5) The spread of English language teaching in

Europe The teaching of English outside Britain had begun in the

Netherlands. France was the only other European country besides

Netherlands with a history of English language teaching before 1600.

Many learners of English acquired the language through the medium of French. It was the language of the Enlightenment, spoken by the largest and most powerful nation on the continent.

In France, some people studying English philosophy and literature attempted to learn the language so that they could read it at the first hand.

The real breakthrough for the English language came towards the end of the 17th century in Germany where an interest, almost an obsession, grew up round the dramatic works of English literature, and particularly Shakespeare.

5) The spread of English language teaching in

Europe Denmark, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Scandinavia

showed interest in English, and textbooks continued to appear during these countries.

E.g. The English and Low-Dutch Instructor (Rotterdam, 1664)

Elements of English Language (Peyton, 1761) Double-Grammar for Germans to Learn English and for

Englishmen to Learn the German Tongue (Offelen, 1687)

Summary of English Grammar (Arnold, 1718) New and Easy English Course (Barker, 1766) Essay on a Methodical English Grammar for the

Swedes (

5) The spread of English language teaching in

Europe Russia: The principal role of English was in naval

affairs and the earlier books for teaching the language were written for the cadets at the Naval Academy for Young Noblemen in St. Petersburg.

Practical English Grammar (Permskii, 1766)

Angliska Grammatika (Zhdanov, 1772)

New Guide to the English Tongue (Dilworth, 1751)

Handbook of English Grammar (1791)

English Grammar (1795)

India: The Tutor (John Miller, 1797): the earliest example of a book written to teach English in what later be called the Third World.