Chapter VIII: Foreign Languages

Abstract

THE Classical Investigation (503), and the more recent Modern Foreign Language Study, which completed its work in 1928, and published its results in seventeen volumes with an eighteenth summary volume by Fife (507), the chairman of the American and Canadian Committees, gave great impetus to the investigation of problems in all phases of foreign language teaching. The failure to publish Part II of the Classical Investigation has probably made the Classical Investigation less provocative of experimentation and discussion than the Modern Foreign Language Study. In any case the past three years have seen the publication of many researches continuing the work of the study and submitting its findings and recommendations to critical analysis. The important volume by Coleman (506), embodying the recommendations of the study, was the storm center for wordy wars by Mercier and others (512, 513). The contribution of the period since 1924 (the beginning of the study) to modern language teaching is inestimable, and the benefits for educational practice will in the long run be very great.Van Home (519) summarized the methodological progress of the past ten years under four headings: tests and examinations, word and idiom counts, prognosis and individual differences, and the problem of objectives. Yet these had been suggested in previous contributions. Palmer (517, 518) had advocated frequency counts to determine the most valuable words; West (608) had put them to practical use in important studies; and Handschin (510) had presented the problem of individual differences and more objective examinations. The Report of the Committee of Twelve (514) had stated that for the two-year course the reading objective should be stressed and grammar and oral drill subordinated to this aim. Recent books on methods, notably Cole (505) and Baker (504), have treated teaching problems in the light of current research and reflect clearly the influence of the Modern Foreign Language Study.The specific task of the present review, however, is to examine the more strictly psychological contributions of the past three years, especially factual and experimental material, and for this purpose the field has been subdivided into seven divisions: (a) tests and examinations, (b) word and idiom counts, (c) the teaching of vocabulary, (d) prognosis, (e) adaptation to individual differences, (f) psychology of learning as it applies to language acquisition, and (g) transfer and the indirect value of foreign language study. As space is limited, the general conclusions on a given topic will be given more attention than will be possible to individual studies.