This article examines the attitudes of the colonial and metropolitan governments towards the promotion of English-language education on Hong Kong Island between 1842 and 1860. The study, which draws on a range of unpublished primary sources, was conducted in response to Whitehead's recent call for detailed case studies of colonial education…

The book opens with the names of twelve objects, which the teacher must have before him. These names have been selected with a view to embracing the whole alphabet, so that when the pupil has learned to write them, he has also learned to form all the letters in use. The teacher then directs the pupil, in writing, to touch one of these objects,…

Achievement approaching mastery in the use of at least one modern foreign language on the part of a large portion of tomorrow's citizens is an objective which is new in American education. Language programs in the high school are therefore undergoing basic modifications in order to establish learning conditions that can develop communication…

This monograph presents data and conclusions derived from one phase of an investigation of objectives and methods in the teaching of modern foreign languages in high schools and colleges. A committee of specialists operating under the auspices of the American Council of Education and with financial assistance received from the Carnegie Corporation…

This paper discusses the history of language laboratories. It was Edison's invention of the tin foil phonograph in 1877 that made the first language laboratories possible. It was used for a foreign language class for the first time in 1891. At first, records were mainly used to preserve rare languages, but in the late 1800s and early 1900s,…

In this textbook, the parts of speech are arranged in the usual order, and each part is discussed under a separate section. Each rule is followed by a familiar exercise, which the master may use in the place of a dialogue. The advantages resulting from the scholars learning and then repeating their own translations by heart, must, in the opinion…

Origins and problems of classroom-centered research on language learning and teaching are surveyed, tracing the development of both the concerns and the research tools used. The development of a productive controversy over objective versus subjective methods is described. (MSE)

Discusses the English Reform Movement of the 1880s and 1890s that attempted to revolutionize methods of modern language instruction by teaching them as living languages. Presents precedents of the Reform Movement, its principles and proponents, reactions to Reform methods, and the impact of the Reform Movement on schools. (DSK)

The growing practice of beginning instruction in a modern foreign language in the elementary school has created a need for many classroom teachers to become oriented to a whole new field of foreign-language teaching methodology and materials. Since teachers tend to think of language instruction in terms of the English-language arts, the language…

In 1989, the Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT) celebrated its silver anniversary at a conference designed to provide participants with an opportunity both to reflect on the past and to look at the future of foreign language teaching and of SCOLT in the light of a quarter century of experience. Seven of the papers in this volume were…

The Office of Education, in cooperation with the Modern Language Association of America, conducted a survey of language laboratories in secondary schools and institutions of higher education during the school year 1957-58. The procedure was to send a short questionnaire to all the schools and colleges known to have a language laboratory and…

Title III of the National Defense Education Act of 1958 authorized a program of financial assistance of State educational agencies for projects of local educational agencies for the acquisition of laboratory or other special equipment needed in the teaching of modern foreign languages and for minor remodeling of laboratory or other space to be…

Language testing historians have tended to ignore a significant period in the evolution of language tests, the years 1883-1929. In the earliest years, testing focused on knowledge about, not of, the language and reflected the teaching of Latin and Greek more than that of living languages. Grammatical formalism and translation were emphasized, and…

This paper considers how to more effectively teach English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in China by incorporating lessons from the 20th century experience of English language learning. The main purpose is to learn more about how English was taught during different periods of time. This information might inform current and future practices by…

In November l982, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) published the ACTFL Provisional Proficiency Guidelines, a series of descriptions of proficiency levels for speaking, listening, reading, writing, and culture in a foreign language. The history, origins, objectives, and implications for language teaching of those…