The Teaching Of Modern Foreign Languages And The Training Of Teachers PDF Download

The present work is a part of an investigation into the teaching of the modern foreign languages which was begun in 1924 by a Committee organized under the sponsorship of the American Council on Education and working with funds supplied by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. From the first the Committee on Investigation recognized the fundamental importance which the training of secondary school teachers has for the present and future position of modern language studies in this country and took steps to sound out the situation as thoroughly as possible. The following pages contain the results of this inquiry. Even a hasty examination of Professor Purin's report will show that the foreign language teachers in this country, as a class, are poorly equipped both in the fundamentals of their subject and in the theory of teaching and the technique provided by practice under supervision. AU of these defects, as well as a lack of professional feeling, . teachers of the modern languages share with colleagues in other curriculum subjects, and all are to be explained in great measure by the recent history of our secondary school system. The deficiencies in the training of modern language teachers, resulting in a lack of fundamental skills and capacities, appear in glaring relief to every classroom visitor and are written plainly in the statistics contained in this report. Less than twenty-five per cent of the modern language teachers in the public secondary schools of the country have enjoyed opportunities beyond the college years, except such as were furnished by summer sessions. Only a little over thirty per cent of these teachers have ever visited a country where the language which they teach is spoken. Equally significant is the fact that one-third of them have not yet had three years of teaching experience and that thirty-six states in the Union still issue "blanket" certificates authorizing the holders to give instruction in any subject on the secondary school curriculum.