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R E P O R T R E SUME SED 018 166 FL 000 747GERMAN--CONTEMPORARY METHODOLOGY, A SERIES OF INSERVICE STUDYGUIDES FOR MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS.BY- FELDMAN, DAVID M. KLINE, WALTER D.COLORADO STATE DEPT. OF EDUCATION, DENVER

PUB DATE SEP 67EDRS PRICE MF -$D.50 HC-$3.24 79P.

DESCRIPTORS- *APPLIED LINGUISTICS, *INSERVICE COURSES,*GERMAN, *STUDY GUIDES, *TEACHING TECHNIQUES, AUDIOLINGUALMETHODS, CULTURAL CONTEXT, LANGUAGE LABORATORIES, LANGUAGELEARNING LEVELS, PATTERN DRILLS (LANGUAGE), PRONUNCIATIONINSTRUCTION, READING INSTRUCTION, TESTING, VOCABULARYDEVELOPMENT, WRITING EXERCISES,. COLORADO, COLORADO DEPARTMENTOF EDUCATION,

THE NEED TO PROVIDE COLORADO MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHERSWITH A STATE INSERVICE PROGRAM TO HELP THEM RELATE LINGUISTICTHEORIES AND FINDINGS TO CLASSROOM TECHNIQUES RESULTED IN THEPUBLICATION OF THIS STUDY GUIDE FOR GERMAN TEACHERS BY THESTATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. DESIGNED FOR USE BYINDEPENDENT STUDY GROUPS, THE GUIDE STRESSES AN AUDIOLINGUALAPPROACH AND CONTAINS SECTIONS ON (1) THE MATURE OF LANGUAGE,(2) THE APPLICATION OF LINGUISTICS TO LANGUAGE TEACHING, (3)

TEACHING PROCEDURES, (4) DRILLS FOR TEACHING PRONUNCIATION,(5) SYNTACTIC DRILLS, (6) THE USE OF THE LANGUAGE LABORATORY,(7) READING AND WRITING INSTRUCTION, (8) TESTING, (9)

CULTURE, 110) TEXTBOOKS, (11) VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT, AND(12) PLANNING THE LEVELS OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE SEQUENCE.LISTS OF DISCUSSION TOPICS AND RECOMMENDED READINGS ACCOMPANYEACH SECTION AND THOSE SECTIONS DEALING WITH TECHNIQUESCONTAIN SAMPLE DRILLS. MIS DOCUMENT IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR$1.25 FROM TITLE III NDEA SECTION, COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF.EDUCATION, DENVER, COLORADO 80203. (AM)

CERMAN:_CONTEMPORARMETHODOLOGY

A SERIES OF INSERVICE STUDY GUIDESFOR MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS

coWritten byO

ca. David M. Feldman and Walter D. Kline

California State College at Fullerton

AO

O

under the direction of

Dorothy D. Duhon

Foreign Languages Consultant

Colorado Department of Education

(Adapted from Modern Teaching of Spanish written by David M. Feldman.This publication was prepared under the auspices of the U.S. Office

of Education and the University of Colorado Extension Division.)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE

OFFIrt OF EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE

PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT, POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS

STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION

POSITION OR POLICY.

COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

BYRON W. HANSFORDCOMMISSIONER

OFFICE OF INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES

Leo P. Black, Assistant Commissioner

Division of Elementary and Secondary Education

John F. Haberbosch, Director

Title III NDEA Section

Glyn H. Sharpe, Head

Denver, Colorado 80203

September 1967

FOREWORD

The "subject-matter" and "professional" programsof teacher preparation must be coordinated if themost recent advances in learning theory and teachingmethods are to be applied successfully in languageclassrooms. Gains made by National Defense Educa-tion Act language institutes in combining theory andpractice can be maintained if teacher preparationprograms are based on cooperation. However, manyof the teachers already in service have had littleopportunity to understand and apply the newer prac-tices in the teaching of modern foreign languages.Fewer than twenty-five percent of the Coloradoforeign language teachers have been trained inNDEA institutes.

These guides are published to meet the needs ofthe large majority of foreign language teachers. Thepurpose of the guidesone each for Spanish, French,and Germanis to relate the latest classroom tech-niques with the latest findings of linguistic science.Printed in pamphlet form to promote discussion, theguides are the core of a "package" which includesfilms on language teaching techniques. In addition,the Department's publication, Learning by Discuss-ing, will be used to introduce efficient techniques ofgroup discussion.

The inservice program, designed for independentgroup study, provides an orientation for an audio-lingual approach to language teaching and demon-strates how it may be applied in the classroom. Thisformat has been used successfully in the inservicecourse, "Mathematics for the Elementary School,"and should again prove to be a rewarding way toincrease competence in the teaching field.

Byron W. Hansford

Commissioner of Education

COLORADO STATEBOARD OF EDUCATION

Alva B. Adams, Chairman(Third Congressional District)

Pueblo

Anna C. Petteys, Vice-Chairman(Member-at-Large)

Brush

Jeanne W. Bender(Second Congressional District)

Thornton

Hugh E. Chastain(Fourth Congressional District)

Durango

Bernice S. Frieder(First Congressional District)

Denver

School district administrators interested inconducting this inservice course in their districtsshould write to the Title III NDEA Section, Colo-rado Department of Education, Denver, Colorado,80203.

Price: $1.25 (12 guides)

(Supply limited)

No charge to Colorado school districts.

TABLE OF CONTENTS StudyChapter Guide1Perspectives of Foreign Language Teaching 1

2Application of Linguistics to Language Teaching 2

3A "Linguistic" Teaching Procedure 3

4Significant Contrasts and the Teaching of Pronunciation 45Syntactic Drills 5

6The Language Laboratory 6

7Reading and Writing in the Audio-Lingual Approach 7

8Testing and Evaluation 8

9Selecting and Adapting Audio-Lingual Textbooks 9

10The Cultural Focus in the Audio-Lingual Approach 10

11Planning the Four- and Six-Year Sequences 11

12-- referring Meaning and Vocabulary Building 12

GERMAN: CONTEMPORARY 111METHODOLOGY

AN INSERVICE STUDY GUIDE FOR MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Division of Elementary and Secondary EducationCOLORADO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Byron W. Hansford, CommissionerDenver September, 1967

INTRODUCTIONThe "Declaration of Asilomar," adopted by the

Foreign Language Association of Northern Cali-fornia on November 14, 1959, is a succinct andpowerful statement of the basic philosophy under-lying modern foreign language teaching at itsbest. The declaration is as follows:

I. A modern language is mainly a spoken formof communication.

II. The best way to learn a foreign language is:A. As to place, the country where the

language is spoken.B. As to time, when the learner is a young

child.C. As to method, by understanding the

spoken language and speaking it beforereading and writing it.

III. The best way of teaching a foreign languageto those who are neither in the country inwhich the language is spoken nor youngchildren is:A. To recreate insofar as possible the lan-

guage learning environment of the for-eign country.

B. To train the learner to regain his child-hood faculty of learning by ear.

C. To train the learner to understand thespoken language and to speak it beforereading and writing it.

IV. In learning a foreign language outside theforeign country the most important singlefactor is the good teacher and not the foreignlanguage laboratory.

V. A good teacher of a foreign language speakslike a native of the foreign country andteaches by the audio-lingual method.

VI. The foreign language laboratory serves asan aid to the teacher by intensifying thesame instruction given directly by a goodteacher.

Although the years since 1959 have witnessedgreat improvements in the techniques and materi-als for achieving the goals stated in the Declaration

1

Written by

Prof. David M.FeldmanProf. Walter D. Kline


of Asilomar, we are still far from universal successin fulfilling them. Moreover. at the same time thatthe imperatives of the Declaration are for manyteachers new and "revolutionary," no single, uni-fied methodology has yet been devised to make ofeach and every interested and dedicated instructoran effective and efficient model of a modernlanguage teacher.

There has always been a wide variety of methodsof teaching foreign languages in the *United States.Yet at no time in the history of language teachinghas the profession been so besieged by so manynew concepts as it is today. Furthermore, publicinterest in foreign language education is now ata level unequaled in history. It is hardly surpris-ing, then, that the teacher new to the field findsthe task of teaching a foreign language immenselycomplicated and feels unable to function effi-ciently in the face of recent curriculum changes.

Precisely this feeling of "inadequacy" in prepa-tion on the part of many teachers, which is theresult of this deluge of materials, techniques, andmechanical aids, has been of positive value in thatlanguage teachers today are being trained morerigorously than ever and given opportunities forinservice training unheard of but ten years ago.But what of the language teacher who up to nowhas not had the linguistic training needed formastery of the newest techniques?

For this teacher, the principal objective of ourstudy is an orientation to the audio-lingual ap-proach,' first by considering what it implies, thenby applying ito concepts (and a heavy emphasisis placed on the term "application") in the teaching

1Donald D. Walsh has suggested the term FSM, theacronym for Fundamental Skills Method, as a prefer-able substitute for "audio-lingual". He says, "Weprefer it to 'audio-lingual' because this phrase can bemisinterpreted as an approach of restriction to two ofthe four skills (listening comprehension, speaking,reading and writing). It can also be confused withofficial approval of one set of teaching materials(Harcourt, Brace and World's A -LM series)." "TheMLA Foreign Language Program," Hispania XLVIII(1965) 895.

situation. An impressive objective, indeed; andfor such an inclusive goal our time is admittedlyinadequate. But we hope that our material willprovide each teacher with a basis for more

thorough study, either through inservice training,such as is available through the NDEA SummerLanguage Institute program, or in advanced grad-uate study.

CHAPTER 1

PERSPECTIVES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

Today's approach to language teaching, nomatter how revolutionary it may appear, has itsorigins in the 19th century. It was then, whenmodern science was approaching its first explosiveclimax, the doctrine of evolution, that the wholestudy of man, his culture and behavior, becamethe object of deep and searching study. The studyof language (man's first and most important inven-tion) as a set of cultural habits became central.What linguists and anthropologists set out to do,then, is the foundation of all modern linguisticinvestigation: to discover the nature of communi-cation in culture groups and to examine minutely,without puristic bias, the structure of languageas it was spoken, as it was used to communicate.This made it necessary first to transcend theliterary and historical aspects of language, whichhad previously been central to most philologicalinvestigation, and then to establish the study ona firm scientific basis. It was within the frame-work of this rapidly expanding study of humancommunication that linguists began to direct at-tention to the teaching of a given system of com-munication to people who used a different system;that is, the teaching of one language to speakersof another.

Basic to this new pedagogy was an idea whichhas, by incessant repetition in the last few years,become almost a platitude: human linguistic activ-ity is first of all, and basically, spoken, and onlysecondarily written. Nevertheless, no matter howmany times we repeat it, and even recognize itstruth from an abstract intellectual point of view,we still often find it difficult to apply in practice.

It is all too easy for us to gwe lip-service tothe oral nature of language and then to relapseinto essentially written-language approaches. Thisalmost universal confusion between speech andwriting is today the principal obstacle to a clearunderstanding of the nature and function of lan-guage. Languagethe spoken languageprecedeswriting. We must constantly remind ourselvesthat spoken language is as old as man himself.Writing, quite to the contrary, has a history of atmost a few thousand years. The distinction is acritical one. Speech is prior to writing in everysense, but the unhappy confusion between lan-guage and writing continues to be universal amongall literate societies, in which reading and writingare the basic attributes of the "educated man."Our concern throughout this course is teachingthe spoken language.

The history of foreign language teaching in theUnited States has been summarized elsewhere.2Major ethnic groups in the colonial and immediatepost-colonial periods provided sporadic instructionfor their own children in the languages of theirown national origins, such as the French Catholicmissionaries in what is now northern New Eng-land, the Spanish-speaking Catholic missionariesin what is now the American Southwest, and theGerman-speaking settlers in Pennsylvania. Frenchand German did not join the trio of "classical"languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, in theacademies and universities until the EighteenthCentury. Even though French and German weremodern spoken languages, the emphasis was asunremittingly literary as in the case of the "classi-cal" languages, focusing solely on the developmentof reading, writing, and translating abilities inthe students.

The "natural" and "direct" methods, importedfrom Europe, did succeed in introducing some oraltechniques in foreign language teaching as earlyas 1866, but neither approach was able to counter-balance the established weight of the "grammar-translation" tradition in American schools.

Thus, the first century-and-a-quarter of Ameri-can national educational life saw little basicchange either in the selection of languages taughtin schools and colleges or in the fundamentalapproach to teaching them.

Despite the massive exposure of Americans toEurope during World War I, language teachingin the period between the two wars continued to

2Edmond A. Meras, A Language Teacher's Guide, secondedition, New York: Harper and Bros., 1962, pp. 1-8;32-52.

Peter Hagboldt, The Teaching of Languages from theMiddle Ages to the Present, in The Teaching of Ger-man, Boston: Heath, 1940.

Edmond Maras, "A Brief History of Language Teachingin the United States," in A Language Teacher's Guide,2nd ed., New York: Harper and Row, 1962.

William G. Moulton, Linguistics and Language Teachingin the United States; 1940-1960, U. S. GovernmentPrinting Office, 1963.

Edwin H. Zeydel, The Teaching of German in the UnitedStates, MLA Materials Center, 1961.

Jefferson R. Spell, "Spanish Teaching in the UnitedStates," Hispania X (1927).

George B. Watts, "The Teaching of French in the UnitedStates," MLA Materials Center, 1961.

W. H. Bruford, "First Steps in German Fifty Years Ago,"MLA Materials Center, 1965.

limit its objectives to providing a "reading knowl-edge" of a foreign language. A two-year exposurewas generally considered sufficient. Little prog-ress had been made in expanding the number oflanguages taught: Latin, French, and Spanishpredominated in the schools; the same, plus Greekand German, in the colleges. Opportunities forstudying other languages did exist, of course, butthey were severely limited in number and fewstudents were able to take advantage of them.

The outbreak of World War II and the attackon Pearl Harbor in 1941 occasioned the creation ofnew methods of foreign language teaching. Itwas realized that very quickly large numbers ofAmerican soldiers would be sent to various partsof the world where they would have need forfluency in a great many languages. Moreover, theneed was for persons who would be able to speakand understand the languages, often under diffi-cult conditions. Since the schools and collegeshad produced a dearth of persons capable of com-municating orally in even the most familiarlanguages, the armed services determined to beginan intensive and extensive program of languagetraining different from any as yet known in theUnited States.

A model for this undertaking was provided bythe Intensive Language Program, established in1941 by the American Council of Learned Societies,in which the underlying principle was that a soundlinguistic analysis of each language should bemade, followed by the elaboration of learningmaterials based on that analysis.

In 1943 the first courses of the Army SpecializedTraining Program (ASTP) were begun, and withina few months 27 languages were being taught inspecial programs in 55 colleges and universities,utilizing a variety of new materials. The mostoutstanding of these were the manuals of the"Spoken Language" series.

William G. Moulton has listed five linguisticprinciples which formed the bases for these man-uals and have become the tenets of all audio-lingual materials:3

(1) "Language is speech, not writing." Sincelanguage learning had traditionally been asooci-ated with reading and writing, the average Ameri-can assumed that language learning and learningto read and write were two inseparable aspectsof the same process. The linguists resolved, how-ever, that the student should first learn to speakthe language; reading and writing pose widelydivergent problems and should be undertaken onlyafter the learner has acquired a reasonable oralproficiency. After all, the child is a relatively

'William G. Moulton, "Trends in American Linguistics:1930-1960," in Christine Mohrmann, Alf Sommerfelt,and Joshua Whatmough, eds,, Trends in Europeanand American Linguistics 1930-1960, Utrecht: Spec-trum, 1961.

3

fluent speaker of his own native language longbefore he encounters reading and writing instruc-tion in school. But since some kind of spellingsystem is a valuable adjunct for the adult literatelearner, a system of phonetic transcription wasdevised to give the student a better guide to thelanguage itself than the conventional orthographyof that language. However, the student was neverexpected to learn to write in this system.

(2) "A language is a set of habits." The ordinaryspeaker is unaware of the mechanisms of speechsyntax, phonology, etc. These are produced "outof awareness" of what he says and not how hesays it. Therefore, the language learner mustdevelop his skill in the new language "out ofawareness." Syntactic elements, sounds, etc., mustbecome matters of habit, and these habits may beacquired only by imitation, repetition, drill andmemorization. Thus the process became knownas "mimicry-memorization."

(3) "Teach the language, not about language."Traditional methods of teaching foreign languageshad required the student to learn not only thelanguage itself, but also its grammar, so that hecould talk about the language. The linguists con-sidered this a waste of valuable time, since gram-mar should never be more than a means to anend. Contrary to some misconceptions, the newmaterials contained a great deal of structuralgrammar, but as soon as it had served to establishthe forms as matters of habit in the learner, itwas no longer considered necessary.

(4) "A language is what its native speakers say,not what someone thinks they ought to say." Thisnew concept no longer allowed books (on pronun-ciation, grammar, etc.) to be considered as primarysources of information about a language, butrather insisted that the only true source was thenative speaker and established the informant asthe model whom the students should imitate.

(5) "Languages are different." With this state-ment the linguists expressed their firm belief thattraditional grammatical categories of Latin andGreek cannot be applied, without distortion, to alllanguages. Each language should be analyzedin terms of its own grammatical structure. Thisideal likewise dealt a death blow to the role oftranslation, in either direction, in language instruc-tion. Realizing the impossibility of word-to-wordequivalents in two languages, it was deemed morevalid merely to present to the student a familiarsituation which he should elaborate in the foreignlanguage, without the obstacle of puzzle-solvinginvolved in direct translation.

With these concepts, the linguists designed asystem which successfully produced a practicalspeaking knowledge in as short a time as possible.It was never claimed that there are not otheraspects of language learning (structure of the

language, composition, literature) which rightfullyconstitute a part of a liberal education. But theidea, established in these wartime courses, thatgrammar is only a means to an end, to be learnedthoroughly until it can be manipulated "out ofawareness," is certainly a proper goal for any typeof language instruction.

Since the war, large numbers of our colleagueshave been at work, here and abroad, preparingmaterials for the American classroom. Amongthem, as among ourselves, there is substantialagreement on the basic point that the initial stagesof learning a foreign language must focus onaural-oral, or what we shall call from now onaudio-lingual, practice. The reason this kind ofpractice is important, beyond the fact alreadyestablished that language is spoken, is that lan-guage is a set of habits. The ability to use andunderstand a language depends on the instantand accurate habitual comprehension and produc-tion of sounds, sentence-patterns, and vocabulary.

In conversation the words follow one anotherso rapidly that there is no time to recall and applyrules to what is being said. The student mustrespond at once. The native speaker of a languagehas, of course, acquired his habits in childhood,through long practice, correction, more practiceand more correction. By the time he is ten oreleven all the complicated processes which ourstudents must learn are second nature to him. Heis not even aware of them. But the learning of aforeign language cannot duplicate the slow, nat-ural pace of a child learning to speak his nativetongue. Even though the order of the formationof language habits is the same, it must be accom-plished in hours instead of years of daily exercise.Only a well-informed teacher and intelligentlydesigned materials can succeed.

Inherent in the design of such materials is therecognition of certain facts of language learning.In simplest terms, these are as follows:

First step: The learner hears a new utterance.We use the term utterance to refer to any spokensequence, sentence, word, or phrase.

Second step: He recognizes a part of the mean-ing. He manages this is one of three ways: (1) hehas already encountered some of its components;(2) he guesses from the context; (3) someone tellshim.

Third step: He grasps the meaning of the wholeutterance by associating the parts with the struc-ture that is being studied. (If he fails in this, theteacher immediately prompts him.)

Fourth step: He imitates meaningfully, after themodel. Continued imitation reinforces the assur-ance with which he utters something whose mean-ing is known to him. Now he must form a habit;that is, he must learn to use the newly acquiredform without error. Habit calls for repetitionnow guided by his own memory rather than as

an echo of an outside model. Whenever his repeti-tion, his memory, is imperfect, he must revertto direct imitation of the outside model beforerepeating further.

Fifth step: As soon as repetition has made thehabit secure, variation drills are introduced. Suchdrills vary one component or another of the modelutterance to produce other expressions. Suchvariations explore the patterns of similarity anddifference tolerated by the language.

Once a reliable habit has been formed in thisway, the learner will understand the model formand related utterances automatically and rapidly.The process is in no way limited to single wordsor idiomatic expressions, however. It is just asvalid, if not more so, for the meaningful use ofall grammatical forms.

Again it is the work of the linguistic analystswhich has made us aware of the incredible amountand kind of practice needed to make these recog-nitions, variations, and selections truly automaticand habitual, and therefore usable. Indeed, a greatpart of the strategy behind the intelligently de-signed materials we have been discussing is tomake them so efficient that there will be time inclass to ensure the necessary repetitions of theessential patterns.

As we become aware of these facts of languagelearning, we cannot but conclude that oral practiceis the one vehicle for the early stages of languagelearning. And simply from the practical point ofview of time, a model utterance can be imitatedand repeated far more often orally than in writing,to say nothing of its variation and correction fororal accuracy. An entire class can repeat a modelmany times under the immediate supervision ofthe teacher. Mistakes are caught on the spot andthe correct form is supplied and drilled at once.The dual advantage of greater 'intensity in guidedpractice, and immediate correction, makes oralpractice the logical classroom procedure.

Many teachers hesitate to try the oral approach,for any number of reasons. Perhaps the teacherhas been unable to go abroad and feels that he isnot fluent enough, or that his pronunciation isfaulty. Perhaps he was not trained specificallyas a language teacher and feels insecure in hispractical control of the grammar. Perhaps he isused to a more "traditional" approach and feelsunprepared to meet the needs of an orally con-ducted class. But there is no need to assume thatthe qualifications needed for good beginning-language teaching can be acquired only throughcomplete retraining. The function of the teacherin a beginning language class is to help the pupilsacquire reliable, correct, firmly practiced habitsin the language. It would be impossible, anyway,for the teacher to chat with the students at lengthin the foreign language about general topics beforethe students have learned the fundamentals of

the language itself. To establish these habits, theteacher must lead the students, through intensivedrill, to a control of a limited part of the foreignlanguage as a foundation for their later progress.

What, then, are the indispensable qualificationsof a competent teacher at this beginning level?

First, he serves as an oral model for his pupils'imitation. For this, he must know how to pro-nounce the material his students will be using andto control the structures in which they are con-tained. Part of every teacher's professional ad-vancement depends on constantly improving thatcontrol and keeping well ahead of what is beingtaught in class; but no one not already a nativespeaker can ever achieve complete mastery of alanguage, and this need not be a cause of dis-couragement, for the teacher who keeps learningis the one who best understands the problemsof his students.

If the teacher's own pronunciation is faulty, hemust rely upon prepared tapes or discs to serve

as models for his students. Although there is noreal substitute for a well-trained teacher, suchaudio aids can always be used successfully.

Second, the teacher is the judge of his students'accuracy. He must be able to detect mistakes. Hisknowledge of the points of conflict of the pupils'native language habits and the structure of theforeign language (an important part of Chapter 2)will help him to foresee and understand the pupils'difficulty, as well as to determine the appropriatekind and intensity of remedial practice.

Third, and finally, the teacher is a drillmaster.The textbook may provide the raw material, butconducting a vigorous drill is an art. To make surethat all participate, that individuals are singledout when they need to be, that the delicate balancebetween too much and too little is maintained, areall a part of the work of a successful drillmaster.

One important part of our work will be toexamine in detail what makes for success in eachof the three areas we have just mentioned.

TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

Discuss each of the following assertions in thelight of the material presented in this chapter, yourown experience, and the practical requirement ofmodern foreign language teaching in the publicschools.1. How do the facts of language learning men-

tioned thus far support the view that the oralapproach is the most successful vehicle for be-ginning language studies?

2. In what ways is the line of separation betweenthe principal factors inherent to all intensiveaudio-lingual methods and the traditional meth-ods clearly defined?

3. Which conditions existing in the traditionallanguage program today prevent the average

student from acquiring adequate audio-lingualskills in the regular four-semester high schoollanguage course? Refer whenever possible tothe program in which you teach.

4. Should a phonemic transcription of the targetlanguage be avoided in the beginning text sinceit might be more confusing to the languagelearner than a phonetic transcription or tradi-tional orthography would be? Which alternatesolutions exist?

5. To what extent do problems inherent to theteaching of reading and writing skills makeit advisable to postpone them until after thelearner has acquired a reasonable oral profi-ciency in the language?

ADDITIONAL READINGS

Edward M. Stack, "Advances in Language Teaching inthe United States," Advances in the Teaching ofModern Languages, vol. I, London: Pergamon Press,1964.

Nelson Brooks, Language and Language Learning, sec-

5

and edition, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World,1964, pp. 60-81.

Edmond A. Meras, A Language Teacher's Guide, secondedition, New York: Harper and Brothers, 1962, pp. 1-8,32-52.

GERMAN: CONTEMPORARYMETHODOLOGY


2



Written by



Chapter 2

APPLICATION OF LINGUISTICS TO LANGUAGE TEACHING

The audio-lingual approach which we have beendiscussing is largely the product of the findings ofmodern linguistic analysis. For some years nowit has been held that these findings should bebetter known by teachers of foreign languages,and that these techniques should be applied moreeffectively in textbooks and in the classroom. Tofacilitate understanding of these techniques it willbe worthwhile to analyze further the nature oflanguage learning, to restate and expand some ofthe ideas suggested in the preceding chapter inorder to explain the basis upon which the linguistwas able to construct the analyses from which thenew approach of teaching evolved.

It is essential that we accept as paramount thepremise that language is speaking, that it is some-thing which we do, and not something we thinkor talk about. It is a skill, and like any skill, it isbest learned by practice. For years our teaching,except in rare instances, has kept the studentlocked away from understanding by ear and fromresponding by tongue. We have learned a secondlanguage first as something to read, then as some-thing to write, and if time permitted, as somethingto speak.

Of course, if language is communication, thenthe total communicative experience requires simul-taneous use of all the language skills. We com-municate by understanding, which comes fromhearing; and by responding, which comes fromspeech. However, for language to be fully knownand enjoyed, the printed word is vital; it providesthe knowledge of the structure and backgroundof a language and its culture.

One of the most interesting descriptions of thelanguage learning process, and a program whichreflects it, is that elaborated by Nelson Brooks,who suggests that any discussion of what is in-volved in a good program of language learningfor communication (one which emphasizes theprogressive development of the four language

skillscomprehension, speaking, reading and writ-ingin that order) may be made clearer andbriefer by first listing what it does not include.'

Language learning is not the matching of anisolated word in one language with a word inanother, for this is the job of the maker of diction-aries. It is not the learning of lists of names ofpersons and places memorized out of context, foranyone who knows geography can name places,just as anyone who knows music can name com-posers. But the converse of these statements isnot necessarily true. Nor is language learningthe memorization of X number of isolated words,since words and idiomatic expressions are trulylearned only in context. It is therefore the student'sfirst task to learn the structure of a languagerather than its vocabulary. Only after a knowledgeof sounds, word order and forms has been achievedis an increase in vocabulary an important objec-tive.

Modern approaches to language learning donot permit the student to use the mother tonguewhenever he wishes; neither do they allow thestudent to have recourse to a printed script at alltimes, for separate functions of the ear and eyein language learning must be recognized.

The theory that language learning improvesas the number of senses involved increasesdoes not hold true in the early stages ofsound language learning.

The study of a language is not the exhaustiveexploration of rules of grammar, for while suchrules may be of some help to some students inunderstanding how the new language works, theycan easily inhibit advance in the use of the newlanguage by focusing the student's attention onthe rule itself. Nor is the repetition of paradigms(verb conjugations) of any real value, since lark.

'Nelson Brooks, Language and Language Learning (2nded.), New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964.

guage in use does not contain paradigms any morethan arithmetic problems contain numbers inseries.

No amount of talk about the,. language canreplace talk in the language, just as 'no amount ofdiscussion about the piano will enable the learnerto play the instrument. The skill of the pianistis acquired only by touching the' keys; the skillof the language learner comes only from the useof his tongue.

Language learning is not an attempt to decddea foreign language into English, for the foreignlanguage is a system fully adequate for communi-cation in its own right and should not be studiedas something from which it is to be extracted. Agood program does not include insistence upon talkin complete sentences, for such practice violatesnormal communication. The unit of speech is theutterance (a thought), while a" sentence is acreation of the printed page and not the unitutilized by word of mouth. It is not the prolongedseries of questions and answers, for oral communi-cation takes places only to a limited degree in thisform. The most common form of communicationis that of an utterance and a rejoinder (reply):"What a beautiful day." "It certainly is."

Effective language teaching and learning is nota solo performance by the teacher. It is importantthat the teacher model the 'earnings expected ofthe student, but he must establish student-teacherand student-student communication, and the ulti-mate objective has not been reached until theteacher can withdraw from the process and ob-serve.

And finally, language learning is not the transferof the teacher's entire knowledge to the student.The old idea of the master and his disciple is out ofplace, for the student comes to the language classto learn to communicate in the new language athis own level of proficiency; he does not come,for the time being at least, with the idea ofbecoming a language teacher, a linguist, nor anexpert on the culture of the countries associatedwith the language under study.

By the listing we have made of all the thingswhich the program of language learning for com-Munication is not, we may arrive at a rather briefstatement of what it is. It is based on broadprofessional agreement about objective, methods,materials, and tests.

The major objective is to learn to understandand speak the language as it is used in its culture.In these terms, the roles of English, translation,grammar rules and the textbook itself are reducedto very modest proportions. The cultural objectiveshould remain, and the literary objective is re-tained, for the development of language compe-tence cannot fail to strengthen the study ofliterature. Selected samples of good literature,in suitable amounts, are important in language

study from the beginningin order to acquaintthe learner with them and with the characteristicswhich lift them above language to the level offine arts.

It is with these fundamental principles that thelinguist's contribution to language teaching beginsand from which the audio-lingual approach hasevolved. It behooves the present-day teacher offoreign languages to be familiar with these prin-ciples, but many teachers who have conscientiouslytried to understand them, have been hindered intheir attempts by the specialized nature of mostlinguistic studies; the unfamiliar themes andtechnical terminology make them hard to under-stand. It remains for us here to take a nev; lookat linguistics and to try to bring its concepts towhere they may be incorporated into our work.We shall find that there is no need to be uneasyabout lingui-,tic science, once we have discoveredthat it is not so austere nor so inaccessible as ithas frequently been made to seem.

"Linguistics is simply the objective, systematicanalysis of the facts of language, as in is habituallyused by human beings in their relationships withone another. . . . The linguistic analyst is con-cerned, above all, with observing what people dowhen they interact by means of language. . . .

The linguistic analyst's task is to discover, inwhatever language he is studying, as much systemas there is in it and to describe that system aseffectively as he can.'2

The linguist's attempts to analyze the targetlanguage systematically have led him to a numberof conclusions which are of immense help to theteacher of foreign :languages in preparing materialsand in presenting and drilling them in tie class-room and laboratory, The first and most importantconclusion has to do with significant contrasts:significant contrasts within the language beingtaught (the target language), and significant con-trasts between the target language and the nativelanguage of those who are learning it (the sourcelanguage) .3 Significant contrasts are the differ-ences in the way people speak which cause theirhearers to perceive different meanings. An ex-ample of a significant contrast within Garmanwould be the difference between heiss and webs;the contrast between the sound represented by hand: that represented by w causes the hearer orreader to perceive a difference in meaning. ',in dis-covering significant contrasts, the linguists: ana-lyst breaks down his material (on all levels oflanguage structuresounds, forms, and combina-tion; of forrris) into minimum meaningful units.

s "Linguistics and Language Teaching," in Reports ofthe Working Committees, 1962 Northeast Conferenceon the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

:Robert A. Hall, Jr., Linguistics and Your Language,New York: Doubleday Anchor Books (A-201), 1960,pp. 89-92.

To designate these units, he uses the suffix -eme,added to various Greek roots:

phon"sound"morph"form"tagm"arrangement"graph"writing"

significant unit ofphoneme "sound"

morpheme "form"tagiffiftne "arrangement"

grapheme ,!'visual orwritten shape."

He then couches his description of any givenlanguage in terms of the phonemes, morphemes,and tagmemes which it contains, and its writingsystem in terms of the graphemes which are usedto represent the language.

The same technique, of course, can be appliedto both the target and the source languages and,by contrasting the significant units (the "-ernes")of the target language with those of the sourcelanguage, the linguistic analyst will be able toisolate clearly and sharply the points at whichthe two languages differ. In this way, the Germanteacher whose pupils are native speakers of Eng-lish will be able to make use of.the results of sucha contrastive study of German and English, in or-der to concentrate his attention on those pointswhere the pupil will be more likely to transfer hisEnglish habits into German.

This kind of systematic analysis is of inestim-able value in language teaching. Although wemust recognize that linguistics itself is not a wayof learning languages, nor a method of teachingthem, we must also recognize that linguisticsis a valuable technique which can furnish themost accurate and the most efficiently formulateddata upon which the teaching and learning oflanguages can be built. By comparing the pointsof contrast of the target language with those ofthe source language, we highlight and predict themajor difficulties for the learner. We are thusable to construct, quite systematically, teachingand testing materials which will give emphasis tothe points of real difficulty. Furthermore, lin-guistic analysis enables us to describe the languageto be learned more simply and economically thanis done in conventional grammars. Finally, sincelinguistic analysis is concerned first with thespoken language, systematic analysis and drillon pronunciation problems from the beginning(not just the pronunciation of target languagesounds, but intonation and phrase rhythm as well)lead students to an early and broad mastery ofthe spoken forms.

The language teacher and the learner gain agreat number of collateral advantages through theapplication of linguistic principles. First, we havean answer to the old problem of "what Germanshall we teach." The specific dialect of Germanwe teach is unimportant, so long as the teachercontrols it well and the student learns it con-sistently. Naturally, we aim at dialects and levelsof speech recognized as appropriate to educatedspeakers of the target language, while remaining

free from regional and local biases. As we men-tioned in Chapter I., linguistics, in studying thetotality of Alan's ;language behavior, has broughtus to realize ,that his ordinary, everyday speech isfundamental and, that his more pretentious "best:.behavior" speech, is really . based on his everydayspeech. A

Although the study Of stylistics is fascinating, itis properly the concern of the third and fourthyears of the high school course and does not reallybelong in elementary and intermediate work,What we must attempt to do is to introduce thebeginning student to the ordinary usage of normalpeoPle in real-life situations. Our goal must be;for the initial stages, a good command of normal,everyday variety of the language as it is spokenby ordinary, educated people.

Another collateral realization that has come tothe aid of the language teacher* through linguisticsis that language is not just a series of words,individual words which one first acquires andthen learns how to put together in sentences. Byemphasizing the conversational nature of language,linguistics has shown that when humans speak,it is normally in sentence and dialogue form. Psy-chologists have shown, incidentally, that evenwhen we "think to ourselves" it is more often thanwe realize in dialogue form, either in conversationwith ourselves or with an imaginary interlocutor.Thus, the most economical and realistic way inwhich we can present new material to our studentsis in dialogue form, with sentences carefully con-structed to reflect, as realistically as possibleconsidering, of course, graded grammar and vocab-ularythe kind of conversation that might beheard among native speakers of the language.Exercise in formal expository prose, poetry, songs,and the like, admittedly have their place, butnormally not in the very beginning stages.

Up to now we have been discussing the advan-tages to the teacher. Linguistic principles can beuseful directly to the student. Any person of highschool age is mentally mature enough to make hisown inferences, but unless properly guided hasan alarming tendency to reach wrong conclusions.This imposes two conditions on the teacher andthe textbook writers: (1) to encourage correctgeneralization (or induction) by making certainthat the examples of any given construction illus-trate it adequately but do not overreach iti.e.,that the "rule" will almost shine through of itself;and (2) to leave nothing to chance, but after thestudent has tentatively framed his own gen-eralization to give him the right one, succinctlyand accurately stated.

But aren't these "generalizations" really thesame as the grammar explanations we have al-ways used? In the sense that they are presenta-tions of the facts of language, yes. The problemis that .many grammatical "rules" do not accord

9

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with the facts of the language as it is spoken today.Many are based on precepts of oratorical or stagepronunciation, for example, and are not reflectedin the daily, unguarded speech of educated na-tives. Such a case is the infinitive ending -en,which is most often realized as a vocalic nasalconsonant, homorganically conditioned by the pre-ceding consonant, e.g., / habn / for haben /for singen, etc.4

Furthermore, the very term "grammar" hasmeant so many different things in the last twocenturies that it really needs to be abandoned orvery carefully redefined. For some, "grammar"has meant an obedience to a priori rules, especiallythose based on Latin. For others, it has meanteither an insistence on correct spelling, or drillson paradigmatic foLns. For yet others, it hasmeant an avoidance of supposedly socially dis-favored terms, such as ain't.

Mostly, these meanings of "grammar" have beenpicked up not in foreign language classrooms butin English classesthat is, in classes where thestudent is being taught to "improve" his ownspeech and writing, to adopt a more elevateddialect of his own language. (We say this as nodisparagement of the poor English teachershehas her hands fullwho, unhappily, has too oftenbeen guided by texts that teach the sins to avoid,rather than the virtues to pursue.) To the linguist,and to the foreign language teacher, "grammar"means something different: it is simply the struc-ture of the language, and, far from throwing itout of the window (as might be appropriate,sometimes, with grammar in the other sense), weought to teach it with a vengeance, evenorespeciallyin the audio-lingual approach in whichthe student will be unable to learn without know-ing the structural facts and how to manipulatethem. Call the explanation of these facts grammar,structural analysis, generalizations, or anythingelse; what matters is that we not be misled bythe traditional misconceptions of what a gram-matical explanation should be.

To list here the many facts of the languagewhich are apparent in the spoken system, butmasked by orthographic conventions, would befruitless, since we shall become aware of suchcases as our work progresses. Suffice one: wholeareas of extremely important and meaningfulspeech behavior, such as stress and intonation,tend to be left out of consideration because theyare only imperfectlyand sometimes not at allindicated in the orthographic system. Yet, intona-tion and "tone of voice" are highly importantin determining the emotional attitudes of thosewith whom we are conversing.

'William G. Moulton, The Sounds of English and Ger-man, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962, p. 104 ff.

There are many kinds of misunderstandingswhich can arise because of the different ways inwhich German and English handle intonation.For example, Moulton5 cites a common Englishfriendly greeting with the intonation:

Good morning, Mrs. Meyer.The above pattern is not common in Germangreetings, and the standard intonation would morelikely be:

Guten Morgen, Frau Meyer.However, if this intonation were used in English,it would sound like a reproof, like that whichan office manager might use to greet an employeewho has arrived late:

Good morning, Mrs. Meyer.Such structural features must be given our

very special attention in teaching; first, becausethey are masked by the writing system; second,because the student is largely unaware of the in-tonation patterns of his own language; and third,because few materials, except the very newest,contain drills of any kind on stress and intonation.

Until very recently, the presentation of all butthe most obvious syntactic features has beenhampered by the absence of an effective analyticaltechnique. It has long been considered impossibleto describe certain phenomena except in terms ofsome vague "affective" meanings. In the last fewyears, however, extensive procedures for describ-ing syntactic structures have been developed, andwith these modern developments, there is nolonger any excuse for failing to extend our gram-matical treatment to the totality of the languagewe are teaching and to the totality of its dif-ferences from the totality of English structure.

Now, what of drills? Their main purpose is tohammer home points of structure that causedifficulty. Obviously, they must be constructedcarefully with this in view and must be gradedfrom the simple to the complex,

They must also be provided in profusion since,as we saw in Chapter 1, to form a linguistic habit,to reinforce it, and finally to control it, infiniterepetition is needed. The newest materials con-tain pattern drills of this type and in the sug-gested quantity already built in. However, as asecond-best solution, it is always possible to adaptand amplify existing texts by supplying new drillmaterial, provided that whoever makes the drillmaterial has the necessary competence.°

"The person doing the job must have a thoroughcommand of three skills: he or she must know the

'Moulton, op. cit., p. 137 ff.This is treated fully in Chapter 9.

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target language itself well; must understand itsstructure and be able to identify the crucial pointswhere it differs from the learner's language; andmust know how to construct substitution andvariation drills so that the student can practicethe appropriate patterns."T Needless to say, anydrills created by non-natives can always profitfrom inspection by a native speaker to insurenaturalness.

A great deal of public and professional interesthas been aroused in the audio-lingual approachby recent progress in the field of equipment,especially the language laboratory. While suchinterest is always helpful, there is danger that thelanguage laboratory may be used unwisely. Badmaterials are not improved by putting them ontape. One hears reports of teachers making re-cordings in an atrocious accent, or merely com-mitting to tape the exercises or readings fromolder texts, or even reciting grammar rules. Somego to the extreme of holding classes in the lan-guage laboratory without making any use of themechanical aids at all. As we shall see in ourlesson on language laboratories, the purpose ofthe laboratory is pattern reinforcement and drill.Whereas many of the new texts come with drilltapes already prepared, a teacher who is stuckwith an old-fashioned text now must know someof linguistic analysis if he is to supplement thetext with well-made dialogues and drills for lab-oratory use.

These, then, are the principal areas in whichthe findings of linguistic ,:cience are indisputablyof great importance. By approaching each of theproblems presented in this course with the attitudethat the findings of linguistics can be understoodby any intelligent person and that they can beapplied to the classroom situation with great effectby any teacher with a good command of the lan-guage, we shall be able to take advantage of themto improve our teaching.SAMPLE SKELETON AUDIO-LINGUAL UNIT

Although format and procedure may vary, mostof the basic audio-lingual materials provide thesame types of learning activities for all students.All audio-lingual units at beginning levels consistof two main features: dialogues and pattern drills.Other kinds of learning exercises complete the unitand various mechanical devices (tapes, transparen-cies, films, etc.) may be employed to their fullestextent, as long as all efforts are carefully inte-grated to the learning process involved at themoment.

I. Basic dialogue. The heart of the audio-linguallesson, to be memorized by the student.The dialogue should represent a true-to-life situation, real and enjoyable. The

'Brooks, Op. cit.

language is authentic, contemporary andinformalthat which would be used inequivalent circumstances by native speak-ers of the same age as the learner.A. Situational presentation, with students'

books closed, to convey the meaningsof the dialogue with minimal or norecourse to English translation.

B. Backward build-up with choral andindividual echo of component wordsand phrases.

C. Use of mechanical aids to reinforcepresentation.

IL Cultural notes.III. Phonetic drills. Isolation of the most difficult

problems in pronunciation which an Eng-lish-speaking person will have in learningthe foreign language. These drills areusually found in the teacher's manual,rather than in the student textbooks.They are necessary to offer special helpand correction when pronunciation diffi-culties ariseand there certainly areproblems since many students do notautomatically pronounce as well as theirmodel.A. In class.B. Coordinated in the language labora-

tory.IV. Dialogue adaptation. Relates the dialogue

sentences and situation to the personal ex-perience' of the student and aids inmemorization.A. Consists of questions and answers, to

be used as soon as the correspondingpart of the basic dialogue has beenwell learned.

B. These questions and answers arevaried, but only within the limits ofthe students' learned vocabulary andstructure.

C. No new vocabulary or structure is in-troduced.

D. The purpose of the dialogue adaptationis to use known words and patternsin a different context and in morepersonal situations.

V. Supplementary materials. Vocabulary, idi-oms and expressions (dates, weather, etc.)suggested in the basic dialogue, whichmay be learned and practiced easily aspart of the daily routine.A. They are taught by repetition and

learned by rote.VI. Grammatical (structure or pattern) drills.

Exercises which drill certain grammaticalpoints of the language in terms of thelanguage itself. The purpose of these drillsis to present an utterance which exempli-fies a particular grammatical point. It is

to be manipulated in such a wk.* that theitems illustrating thiv point are variedwithout changing .64 ,essential structureof the utterance. Therefore; .the students'attention is focused on. the slot where thechanges are to be niade; ,he learns tomanipulate properly the items that can besubstituted in the slot, and *gradually de-velops an awareness and understandingof the pattern he is handling.A. Identification of the point to be drilled.B. Examples (target language only) for

choral and individual echo, dividedinto as many groups as deemed neces-sary by morphological considerations(tense, mood, gexider, .etc.)..

C. Extrapolation. Diagram or chart of theconstruction involved (target languageonly) to show the process involved. Nofurther comment.Notes.Drills. Beginning with simple substi-tution (item substitution) drills, thenproceeding to as many variations asdesired.8

F. Discussion of pattern (descriOtive gen-eralizati61). ;

G. Reinforcement drills. Generally theseare not nenessary, but if used, the bestis the combined replacement drill.

VII. Recombination Dells. Brief narratives orconversations (directed dialogues, conver-sation stimuli) which recombine the ma-terials of the preceding units and thisunit in a new form. Slight variations instructure and some new vocabulary mayappear.

VIII. Readings (in later units).A. In written form, for reading compre-

hension.B. On tape in the laboratory, or in class

by teacher, to check auditory emigre-hension.

IX. Response drills based on readings.A. In written form' for orthographic prac-

tice.B. In laboratory, or in class with tape,

for oral practice.As a model of Section VI above, we shall take

parts of Unit 9 from A-LM German, Level I, pp.79-89, dealing with dative prepositions:

A. Repetition drills:1. Was machst du nach der Kirche?2. Was machst du nach dem Kino?

D.E.

3. Wann kommst du aus der Kirche?4. Wann kommst du aus dem Kino?5. Ich spreche mit meinem Vater.6. Ich spreche mit meiner Mutter.7. Treffen wir uns bei der Schule?8. Treffen wir uns beim Kinor.9. Wir sprechen gerade von der Schule.

10. Wir sprechen gerade vom Kino.11. Wir gehen zum Flugplatz.12. Wir gehen zur Post.13. Die Schule ist gegeniiber der Post.14. Die Schule ist dem Kino gegeniiber.

GENERALIZATIONS

DATIVE PREPOSITIONS1. These prepositions are always followed by

dative forms:nach to (place), after (time)

aus out of, frommit withbei at, nearvon of, from

zu togegenfiber opposite, across from

2. In the preceding units, the following dativeforms have been presented:

definite articlesindefinite articles

negative keinpossessive adjectives

personal pronouns

dem, dereinem, einerkeinem, keinermeinem, meinerdeinem, deiner, etc.mir, dir, ihm, etc.

question word wem?3. When the prepositions bei, von, and zu pre-

cede the dative forms of the definite article,they often contract into a single word. Thefollowing contractions are commonly used:

bei dem becomes beimvon dem becomes vom

zu dem becomes zumzu der becomes zur

4. The preposition gegeniiber may either pre-cede or follow a dative form.

B. Item substitution drills:1. Fragst du nach dem Kino?

(Zeitung, Bibliothek, Plattenspieler, Platte,Kuchen)

2. Franz liest etwas aus dem Buch.(Roman, Zeitung, Heft)

3. Hier kommt Hans mit der Karte.(Buch, Heft, Violine, Spiegel, Zeitung)

4. Der Roman ist da driiben bei der Zeitung.(Klavier, Spiegel, Violine, Heft, Platte)

5. Ich habe das Buch von meiner Mutter.(Schwester, Bruder, Vater, Feundin, Freund)

6. Begleitest du ihn zum Kino?(Tar, Strassenecke, Autobus, Post Krankenhaus)

7. Walter wohnt gegeniiber der Post.(Kino, Kirche, Schule, Krankenhaus, Jugend-

herberge)C. Grammatical generalization

'Brooks, Op. cit. D. Combined pattern replacement drill

12

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION

Discuss each of the following assertions in thelight of the material presented in this chapter,your own experience, and the practical require-ment of foreign language teaching in publicschools.

1. The findings of linguistic science can be ofservice to language teachers, whatever meth-od they use to teach the language.

2. Grammar as it is presented in the audio-lingual lesson is considerably different fromthe normative (prescriptive) grammar taughtin the traditional classroom.

3. The comparative structure of the source andtarget language can be of great benefit toeven an experienced teacher.

4. The teacher who is not a native-speakershould rely strictly on existing materials fordrill in class.

5. In an audio-lingual course the teacher mustassume a secondary role.

6. A teacher accustomed to traditional methodswill have little to change in converting tothe audio-lingual approach.

7. The "generalization" presented in an audio-lingual lesson is superfluous since the"extrapolation" has already presented thestructure being drilled.

8. The teacher should never provide, or en-courage the students to make, a vocabularylist to accompany an audio-lingual lessonsince this would be contrary to all the prin-ciples upon which audio-lingual learning isbased.

9. One disadvantage of the audio-lingual lessonis that the students' responses are completelycontrolled.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

Harold B. Allen (ed.), Readings in Applied EnglishLinguistics, New York: Appleton, Century Crofts, 1958.

Theodore Andersson (ed.), The Teaching of ModernLanguages, New York: UNESCO, 1955.

Leonard Bloomfield, Outline Guide for the PracticalStudy of Foreign Languages, Baltimore: WaverlyPress, 1942.

Dwight L. Bolinger, "Are We Playing Fair with OurStudents Linguistically?", Hispania 34 (1951) 131-136.

William E. Bull, "Linguistics, Not Grammar, in ForeignLanguage Teaching," Modern Language Forum 39(1954) 15-24.

Dan Desberg, "Structural Linguistics and High SchoolLanguage Teaching," Classical Outlook 37.2 (1959)13-14.

Esther Eaton and Lynne Norton, Source Materials forSecondary School Teachers of Foreign Languages,Washington, D. C.: USOE, 1962.

Ernest F. Haden, "Descriptive Linguistics in the Teach-ing of a Foreign Language," Modern Language Journal29 (1954) 170-176.

Robert A. Hall, Jr., "Some Desiderata for ElementaryLanguage Texts," Modern Language Journal 29 (1945)190-295.

Archibald A. Hill, "Language Analysis and LanguageTeaching," Modern Language Journal 40 (1956) 335-345.

Charles F. Hockett, "Objectives and Processes of Lan-guage Instruction," California Schools 30 (1959) 112-116.

Marjorie C. Johnston (ed.), Modern Foreign Languagesin the High School, Washington, D. C.: USOE, 1960.

Robert Lado, Language Teaching: A Scientific Approach,New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.

Joseph Michel, Foreign Language Teaching: An An-thology, New York: MacMillan, 1966.

Maxim Newmark (ed.), Twentieth Century LanguageTeaching, New 'York: Philosophical Library, 1948.

Howard L. Nostrand, et al., Research on LanguageTeaching: An Annotated Bibliography for 1945-1961,Seattle: University of Washington, 1962.

Mary J. Oilman (ed.), Selective List of Materials, NewYork: Modern Language Association, 1962.

Jacob Ornstein, "Structurally Oriented Texts and Teach-ing Methods Since World War II: A Survey andAppraisal," Modern Language Journal 40 (1956) 213-222.

William R. Parker, The National Interest and ForeignLanguages, New York: Modern Language Association,1965.

Robert L. Politzer, Language Learning, Boston: Blaisdell,1965.

Wilga M. Rivers, The Psychologist and the ForeignLanguage Teacher, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1964.

Donald D. Walsh, What's What-A List of Useful Termsfor the Teacher of Modern Languages, New York:Modern Language Association, 1964.

SOME RECOMMENDED AUDIO-LINGUALTEXTS FOR GERMAN

(Entries marked * are sequenced for beyond the firstyear)

George A. C. Scherer and Hans-Heinrich Wangler, Con-temporary German, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966.

*A-LM German New York: Harcourt, Brace and World,1963.

*Helmut Rehder, Ursula Thomas, Freeman Twaddelland Patricia O'Connor, Verstehen and Sprechen, etc.,New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962.

Margaret Keidel Bluske and Elisabeth Keidel Walther,Das erste Jahr, New York: Scribner's, 1965.

R. Max Rogers and Arthur P. Watkins, German ThroughConversational Patterns, New York: Dodd, Mead andCo., 1966.

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COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONByron W. Hansford, Commissioner

Denver September, 1967

Written by



Chapter 3

A "LINGUISTIC" TEACHING PROCEDURE

Now that we have examined briefly the scopeand shape of the audio-lingual method in itstheoretical foundation, let us look more closelyinto the organization of representative audio-lingual materials and see how these theoreticalconcepts are put to work.

Central to the teaching of the spoken languageis a principle known as "guided imitation." Someteachers prefer to call is the "mim-mem" method,referring to mimicking the model and thenmemorizing the pattern. Like so many of the basicconcepts of the audio-lingual method, guided imi-tation may appear to be new, but has actuallybeen known to teachers for many years. CertainEuropean language teaching centers discoveredits value in the nineteenth century! Its goal, likethat of all audio-lingual techniques, is to teachone to speak easily, fluently, and with very littlenon-native accent, and to do all of this withoutconscious effort.

The success of the guided imitation techniquedepends to a very large extent upon the students'learning a relatively small body of material sowell that it requires very little effort to produceit. This is what happens when one learns to speakone's own language and is the goal of the learnerof a second language. This process is familiar tous from our education courses and is known asoverlearning. Xt is axiomatic that, if a studentoverlearns every dialogue and drill as he movesthrough the course, he will almost certainly prog-ress rapidly. The success of the technique alsodepends upon the student's attention to exactimitation of the model. His goal is to manipulatethe sound, sequences, and patterns of the languageas accurately as possible. This implies a greatresponsibility for the teacher: the model that thestudent imitates must be a model of German aspeople really speak it in actual conversations. Be-sides, the teacher must know how to guide andcorrect the student as he learns to imitate accu-

rately. Above all, the normal tempo of pronuncia-tion must be the classroom standard; slowingdown is, for our purposes, distortion.

The teacher must, therefore, be confident thatwhat he presents to the class is a model of standardconversational German. If the teacher is not con-fident of the excellence of his German, he should,out of fairness to the students, make use of thetape recorder. Many of the latest audio-lingualtexts, such as Deutsch im Ersten Jahr, A-LMVerstehen and Sprechen, and others, come withsets of tapes containing all the exercise materialsrecorded, under careful supervision, by nativespeakers. Most modern tape recorders come equip-ped with a manual or pedal on-off and reverseswitch at the end of a control wire. Thus, theteacher can start and stop the tape as he movesabout the room. In this way, the students imitatean accurate model, but at the same time profitfrom the immediate correction and suggestion ofthe teacher if they fail to imitate the model accu-rately. We must repeat that there is no real substi-tute for the fluent teacher, but it is always wiserto use the tape model if one's own pronunciation isdoubtful.

The guided imitation technique has been devel-oped in many cases (notably by the ForeignService Institute, in Washington, D. C., where theemphasis is on fluency in the shortest possibletime) to the extent of 60 units, which equalsroughly four high, school years of German. In-struction time is considered to be about 600 hours.

In almost all audio-lingual materials, the veryfirst lessons are devoted to pronunciation prob-lems. Drills on other aspects of the language arepostponed deliberately because of the importanceof developing good pronunciation habits from thevery beginning. Pronunciation control is the only,the ONLY, basis of real fluency. We now knowthat a person is readily able to understand any-thing that he can meaningfully say himself,

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provided that the correlation between the wayhe hears it and the way he says it is reasonablyclose. But we must also emphasize that pronunci-ation practice never ceases to be a primary concernof the language teacher. Every drill, no matterwhat structural point may be at issue, is also adrill on pronunciation. In short, at every step ofthe way, from the first year to the fourth, theteacher must be alert for faulty pronunciationhabits.

The student's model for all pronunciation isthe teacher, or the tape, if its use has becomenecessary. The fundamental classroom procedurefor learning new material according to the audio -lingual method is by direct and immediate imi-tation of the model. Depending upon the typeof drill (and we shall look into the various typesin a later chapter), the repetition technique willvary. The most commonly used repetition tech-nique is: teacher, students-in-chorus, teacher,individual student, teacher. The basic formulamay be varied, but inherent in all repetitiontechniques are two axioms. First, no student isasked to imitate another. If an imitation drill isin progress, the teacher must repeat the modelfor each student. If he does not, the students relyupon each other as a model and mistakes arecompounded as students recite one after the other.If the student is being called upon to respond withan entire phrase to a cue of perhaps one word,then, of course, he himself generates his ownphrase on the basis of what he has been taught.Second, after each corrected response to eitheran imitation drill or a cued response drill, theteacher should repeat the correct phrase so thatthe student who has recited can compare hisimitation or answer with an authoritative modeland so that the entire class (in chorus) can havean opportunity to practice each response. Thepurpose of having the class imitate new items inchorus before individuals are singled out is sothat the negative influence of nervousness or thedesire not to make a mistake can be minimized.The choral repetition permits individual studentsto have a "dry run" before they are called on toperform individually.

Although we will discuss drills at greater lengthfurther on, it would be well to mention here thatpart of a successful drill is the rhythmic mannerin which it is conducted. Corrections during drillsshould be limited to supplying the correct formand carrying on. Detailed corrections which implystructural generalization or special drill shouldbe postponed until after the drill in progress hasterminated.

Also within the scope of remarks on rapid drillsis the matter of indicating how the students are torespond: in chorus or individually. This meansthat learning a set of unmistakable gestures isnecessary for the teacher and the students. Aset of suggested gestures will be discussed laterin this chapter.

One of the problems inherent to the use ofgestures stems from the size of the classroom andthe arrangement of the seats. The ideal arrange-ment of the language classroom is that in whichthe seats are placed, in a horseshoe fashion withthe seats in the second and third rows slightlyelevated. This is not possible in many cases, ofcourse; therefore, it behooves the teacher to moveabout the room or station himself in a place wherehis gestures may be clearly seen by all students.

For large classes particularly, calling the studentto recite by name may be impractical, since anyhesitation on the part of the teacher breaks therhythm of the exercise. Some teachers have sug-gested a number system, but others reject it eitherbecause they have no specific seating plan orbecause they feel it is too impersonal.

The use of gestures may be impeded by a largeand heavy textbook which cannot be carriedeasily in one hand, leaving the other free forgesture. Some teachers use a portable music standwhich holds the book firmly in place and leavesboth hands free for cueing. The stand can beplaced in the center, or at the side, of the class,whichever cuts to a minimum the distancebetween the teacher and the farthest corner ofthe room. Often, however, the teacher remains"anchored" to the stand. Perhaps the best sug-gestion, however, is that the teacher write theexercises for the day on 3 x 5 cards. These may behandled easily, allowing the teacher to move aboutthe room, and may be held in one hand whileleaving the other free for gestures. Some moderntexts include such preprinted cards among thematerials distributed with the teacher's manual.

All imitative drill is easier for younger childrenthan for older ones. If a person is fortunate enoughto have begun his study of a second languagebefore the age of eight or ten, the powers ofimitation are normally sufficient to insure excel-lent results in pronunciation without resortingto technical explanations of what happens tovarious parts of the vocal apparatus. Most olderchildren and adults require more specific guidancebased on the awareness of the particular problemsof producing particular sounds. Therefore, thedrills and explanations regarding pronunciationwhich are taken up first are devoted to the specificproblems an English speaker with his Englishhabits of pronunciation will have in accuratelyimitating the sounds and sequences of sounds inGerman.

Speakers of English are, as a group, highly liter-ate: that is, they are used to thinking of language,erroneously, as being fundamentally written. Ifit were not for this characteristic, it might bepossible to teach effectively without reference toany written symbolization. Most students, how-ever, are more comfortable when some kind ofvisual representation of what they are imitatingis also available. There is, of course, the traditional

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German orthography. As writing systems go, Ger-man is quite adequate for providing visual cuesfor those who already speak the language. Forthe learner, however, many problems result. First,German uses a variety of symbols (ss, /3, and s)to represent the sound /s/, but there is no ortho-graphic distinction between the [g] sound in ichand the [x] sound in nach.

Often long vowels are distinguished from shortvowels in German by a clear orthographic device:an alteration of the written vowel, liest vs. List;a doubling of the written consonant following thevowel, wir vs. wiry. However, this is not alwaysthe case and we do have homographs which failto reveal an essential long vs. short vowel con-trast: bucht vs. Bucht. Yet another problem in theorthographic representation of long vowels hasto with the p. This symbol, possibly for reasonsof typographical economy, is being eliminatedfrom the writing habits of many Germans. How-ever, we can see that in pairs such as Mus andmup, the /3 is the primary orthographic cue forthe short vowel. The English-speaking studentquite easily pronounces a letter such as a final bin German the same way he does in English,resulting in a faulty accent. To minimize theprobability of these and similar errors, many ofthe newest materials make use of a device knownas "respelling." The purpose of respelling is toachieve a one-to-one correspondence between thesounds of the language and the written symbolswhich represent them, for example: the respelledb to represent the breath-group initial sound /b/as in Bein /baIn/, and the respelle. letter p torepresent the final sound of such wor is as ab /ap/.

But wouldn't a student still try to pronouncethe "respelled" letters like their closest counter-parts in English spelling? Yes, he might. The onlyway to avoid any possibility of transfer would beto use a respelling which had nothing whateverin common with the English alphabet. Somephoneticians have adopted the idea, believing thatthe very unfamiliarity of the symbol is a healthyreminder that none of the English sounds is anexact duplicate of the German sounds to bemastered. All systems of respelling are based onthe scientific analysis of the sounds of Germanand we shall discuss that analysis and suggestsome of the more practical respellings devisedup to now.

In any case, most of the new audio-lingualmaterials use the principle of respelling to somedegree in their presentation. Some texts use thephonetic respelling throughout (such as theForeign Service Institute course), while othersprefer to limit it to the very first lesson or two.

Another of the advantages of the phoneticrespelling arrangement is that important phono-logical features which are almost universallyneglected but which are of vital importance in

achieving a near-native accent, such as intonation,can be shown. We shall discuss major intonationtypes in a later section and will discover thenthat there are certain major types which consti-tute the "normal" patterns of language. Thesepatterns can be indicated graphically by a varietyof methods, among which are the following:

1. A musical staff with musical notes or dotson it:

cZt

Aj:Lonomm...1Es regnet heute Abend.

2. A series of dots or "accent marks" written atvarying heights above the written line:

Es regnet heute Abend.

3. An ascending and descending wavy line de-scribed above the phrase:

Es regnet heute Abezid.4. A "block" line above the written phrase:

Es regnet heute Abend.5. A series of numbers written slightly above the

written phrase:2 3 1Es regnet heute Abend.

Another immediate advantage of the respellingsystem is that its symbolization will allow for aconsistent interpretation of the pronunciation ofany dialect area of the German-speaking world.

The acquisition of a good pronunciation is, firstof all, the result of careful listening and imitation,plus whatever help can be obtained from initialpronunciation drills and description, as well asfrom the respelling devices.

The typical (although by no means only) or-ganization of an audio-lingual lesson, in mostcurrent materials, is as described at the end ofthe last chapter, beginning with a basic situationaldialogue with a few pertinent cultural (andperhaps linguistic) notes. You will notice that anynotes are relegated to a position where they donot distract the students' attention from the dia-logue itself. This is followed by material basicallydevoted to phonological and grammatical drills(also called "pattern drills") and discussion. Dis-cussion, in this sense, as we shall soon see, meansa particular type of grammatical explanation(sometimes also called "generalization") whichfollows the exercises. It is important to note, how-ever, that discussion always FOLLOWS the exer-cises, and students are not expected to generalize

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until after they have mastered the pattern. Thesections are generally concluded by a set of drillsor narratives which put together the same materialas originally appeared in the basic dialogues anddrills, but in a slightly different way. Readingsare introduced as a part of each lesson aboutone third of the way through the first-year course.

The real core or heart of each unit is the basicdialogue. At best, these dialogues are re-creationsof real situations a student is most likely toencounter, and the vocabulary and sentences arethose he is most likely to need for practical com-munication abroad. They are written in the mostrepresentative and authentic manner possible.While most texts grade the difficulty of the dia-logues progressively throughout the course, otherssimply ask natives to prepare them without regardfor the progressive difficulty of the material.Since only certain structural focuses are drilledin any given unit, these non-graded dialoguessimply footnote any form they may contain whichis not to be drilled in that particular unit. Theyhave achieved a certain success. Some texts keepa continuing train of thought throughout thecourse, setting all the dialogues in the countryin which the target language is spoken. Eachdialogue subsequently involves speakers from thetarget-language country and American studentsof high-school age travelling, studying, or livingin the target-language country. As much culturalinformation as is practical in view of the language-teaching objectives is included in the dialoguematerials.

At first, all new vocabulary and constructionsare introduced in the basic dialogue. Later on,new items may be introduced in the drill sections,but only when it is either not the focus of theexercise or when its meaning is obvious, as inthe case of cognates. Many audio-lingual textsemphasize the new items in the dialogue by isolat-ing them for repetition before the actual phrasein which they are used is introduced; for example:

go (travel)tomorrow

homeI'm going home

tomorrow.

fahre (fahren)morgennach HauseIch fahre morgennach Hause.

It is impractical to introduce each new word orconstruction more than once, so the student mustbe cautioned to master them as they occur. Sincethe drill material of each lesson is based on thedialogue, a student's failure to master the dialoguewill inevitably result in poor performance in theexercises. In most of the new materials, painshave been taken to see that each word introducedwill reappear many times later in the course tohelp the student assimilate it in a variety ofcontexts.

Should these words be learned by memory atthe outset? Yes, but always in context. It canbe important for the student to learn the literal

meaning of certain items, but such literal learningshould always be followed by learning the mean-ing of the form in following context. The studentshould not be concerned if the meaning in contextis strikingly different from the literal meaning.In the new materials, the teacher must bear inmind, the dialogue was prepared in German. TheEnglish is simply a post hoc equivalent and nota literal translation. The sooner the student ismade aware that the English and German will notnecessarily "follow" one another, the better.

The basic dialogue is commonly printed in thetextbook. As we shall see later on, this simplefact has proved to be the largest single detrimentto the correct learning of the dialogue. The fourmost common formats in which these dialoguesare laid out on the pages of the textbook are:(1) in two parallel columns, German orthographyon the one side and English on the other; (2) back-to-back, with German on the recto and Englishon the verso; (3) German only in the lesson, Eng-lish for all the dialogues as an appendix at the rearof the book; and (4) in three parallel columns,German on the left, phonetic transcription in themiddle, and English on the right.

All four concepts share two immense and im-mediate drawbacks. First, the presence of standardGerman orthography is detrimental, as we haveseen earlier in the chapter. Second, the availabilityof an English translation is a negative feature,be the translation on the same page or at somedistance from the German. Sooner or later, theclassical problem of "translation" vs. "equivalent"will succeed in complicating the process of learn-ing the dialogue. One example will illustrate thispoint: A man greets his friend with Was gibt'sNeues?'. The English translation would be: 'Whatgives it new?' which hardly conveys the meaning.The English equivalent would read: 'What's new?'which makes good sense, except that the studentmay associate the German and English word-by-word: Was (what) gibt's (is) Neues (new)', andthen risk incorrect analogical formations such asWas gibt's deine Adresse?' for 'What is your ad-dress?'

As for phonetic respelling, we may applaudthe device as a means of retaining a visualaide-memoire, without resorting to the standardorthography, yet many students experience diffi-culties in learning the transcription and thus anew impediment is introduced at a moment inwhich it can least be afforded.

Much of the success of the dialogue as a learningexperience depends upon the presentation. Donecorrectly, the presentation can also remove theneed for line-by-line "translation" or "equir .

lents." First, the books are taken from thestudents; they will not see them until the dialoguesequence is completeperhaps four days hence.Then the teacher describes what the dialogue is

18

about. This description may be done in Englishor in German. It is a short prose summary. Visualaids are referred to from the beginning. In somecases these will be pen-and-ink drawings of arough nature done by the teacher himself. Inothers, they will be the printed charts that some-times accompany the textbook in use. In yetothers, they will be color drawings or magazineclippings collected by the teacher.

The purpose of the initial description is to makecertain that the students understand the contextin which the dialogue is to take place. Perhapsthe description will require repetition; perhapsthe teacher will want to ask a question or two ofindividual students to ascertain that the descrip-tion is understood, even if it has been done inEnglish.

Now we are ready to model the dialogue itself.Referring to the same visual aids as in the descrip-tion, in order to recall the situation vividly to thestudents, the teacher reads the dialogue (or usesthe tape). Three readings usually suffice. Thenstudents are called to the front of the room and,as the teacher or tape repeats the dialogue, thestudents selected "walk through" their parts. Theydo not speak. They then return to their seats andthe dialogue is read once again.

Now that the situation is vividly clear, both byexplanation and by dramatization, the teacher isready to begin the presentation of the dialoguefor memorization by the class. The following pro-cedures have been used with considerable success:

1. Modeling. It is suggested that the teachermodel the line three times before calling for anychoral echo. He must use the same speed andintonation as the speaker on the tape (if the tapesare not available and the teacher is not certainof the intonation, he should consult a nativespeaker), and free use should be made of authentickinesics (facial expression, bodily movements,etc.) and the visual aids to recall meanings estab-lished earlier. The gesture suggested to indicatethat the students are only to listen is that ofthe arms extended, with palms of the hands facingthe students.

2. Backward buildup. Prior to the class theteacher has analyzed the line and has dividedit into logical utterances, thought groups andintonation patterns. As an example, let us takethe first line of the dialogue in Lesson Six ofGerman Through Conversational Patterns byRogers and Watkins:1 `Guten Tag! Schones Wetterheute, nicht wahr ?' This line would be divided:`Guten Tag! / Sch Ones Wetter heute, / nichtwahr?'

For backward buildup on this line the teacherwill model nicht wahr? with proper intonation,two or three times, then elicit choral repetitionIR. Max Rogers and Arthur R. Watkins, German

Through Conversational Patterns, New York: DoddMead and Company, Inc., 1965, p 85.

19

an equal number of times, always repeating theutterance between the choral echoes. The gestureto indicate that the entire group is to echo is thesign commonly used for "come here", done slowlywith both hands. Choral response is continueduntil no blatant pronunciation errors are heard.Then, using the same gesture, with only one hand,the teacher indicates several different individualswho should echo the utterance. It must alwaysbe modeled by the teacher between the individualechoes, just as it was between the choral echoes.

The learning of this line will be completed intwo more steps, in which the procedures outlinedabove are used, first with the phrase SchonesWetter heute, nicht wahr?, and finally with theentire sentence Guten Tag! Schones Wetter heute,nicht wahr? The same procedure is used in pre-senting the second line. When this has beenmastered, the teacher returns to drill the firsttwo lines together, then adds the third forthorough drill, returns to drill the first three linestogether, adds the fourth, and so on.

Correction in pronunciation is never made bystopping the individual student and insisting thathe repeat until he has mastered it. If a studentpronounces incorrectly, the teacher immediatelymodels the utterance, calls for full choral echo,models again, proceeds to another student, modelsagain, and then returns to the student who madethe original error.

The merit of the backward buildup techniquelies in the fact that the oral memory is consider-ably shorter than the visual memory. That is,if a learner is attempting to memorize a line ofsome length given orally, he tends to rememberwhat he heard first and to forget what he heardlast. Therefore, once the entire line has beenmodeled, the emphasis for repetition should beginon the utterance with which the line concludesand slowly build backwards. This method alsoserves to strengthen correct intonation, for theteacher is always modeling each phrase with theintonation which it has in that sentence, no matterhow strange it may seem when isolated.

A number of other techniques have provenhighly successful in reinforcing the learning ofthe dialogue and in adding variety and interest.These may be introduced as soon as two or threelines of the dialogue have been thoroughly pre-sented as indicated above.

1) Role playing: teacher-class. Teacher give thefirst line, students in chorus add the second, whichthe teacher immediately models. The teacher thenproceeds to the third line, students give the fourth,which the teacher models, etc. It is importantthat the roles be reversed in this process so thatthe class has opportunity to say each line severaltimes.

2) Role playing: class only. One half the class,or some indicated group (such as all the girls or

all the boys) gives the first line, which theteacher models, followed by the next line givenin chorus by the other group. Reversing roles isalso necessary in this procedure.

3) Role playing: teacher-individual student.Teacher plays one role and asks different studentsto add the next line. Teacher will always modelthe rejoinder of the student and elicit, by gesture,full choral echo when errors have been made.

4) Role playing: students. Roles played by indi-vidual students, with teacher modeling after eachstudent performance and calling for full choralecho when necessary.

5) Chain drills. Teacher starts the dialogue andproceeds around the class with each successivestudent adding the next line. For variety, theteacher may start the dialogue and then bygesture (in this case, merely pointing), indicatestudents, not in their order of seating, to givethe next line.

While it is necessary to follow the verticalsequence of the dialogue in the early stages ofits learning, it is worthwhile to introduce a dif-ferent 'technique involving horizontal learningonce the students have a reasonable command ofthe material. That is, the teacher gives lines 3, letus say, and the student is to respond with line 4.This avoids the danger of the student feeling thathe can only give line 4 if he has heard the dialoguefrom the beginning, as he memorized it, just asthe student who has been forced to memorize anddrill verb paradigms find it difficult to producethe form er spricht unless he first thinks or saysto himself ich spreche, du sprichst, the two pre-ceding forms in the paradigm.

This horizontal concept may also be used in thechain drills. That is, the first student gives anyline of the dialogue he chooses, and the nextmust give the appropriate rejoinder. The thirdstudent then gives any line he chooses and thefollowing line must be given by the next student.Of course, the teacher will always model eachline and each response after the students givethem.

The amount of repetition necessary will dependon the length of the utterance and the difficultyof pronunciation involved. It is absolutely essen-tial that the teacher follow the text of the dialoguereligiously, or better yet, that he memorize thedialogue beforehand so that he will never deviatefrom his "score" and thus add confusion to theprocedure. The value of having the dialogue writ-ten on 3 x 5 cards for teacher use (which do notobstruct the system of gestures) has been men-tioned earlier.

Once the teacher has presented the dialogue,utilizing the above procedures, the student is toldthat he must now memorize the dialogue, orportion of it, by heart as his homework. He maytake advantage of the language laboratory for

drill with the tapes, or he may practice at homewith the take-home records. If the text is accom-panied by such records, the students may be askedto purchase them, or in some instances, the schoolhas a supply of the records which are made avail-able to the students for home study through alibrary system.

If the school has not provided a language labora-tory, it is suggested that the various teachers taketheir turn at staying in their rooms one-half hourafter school, with a tape recorder which is avail-able to the students. Most modern texts areaccompanied by tapes which may be purchasedor borrowed from the publisher for duplicatingpurposes. If none are available by these means,then the teacher should have a native colleaguein the school or district make the necessary tapes.

After the students have memorized the dialogue,the next class may be devoted to checking theirperformance on the materials in one or all ofthe following ways: (1) having students standbefore the class, or at their seats, facing eachother, and present the dialogue as a living situa-tion, (2) using chain drills discussed earlier, or(3) utilizing the directed dialogue drills providedin many texts. If these dialogues are committedperfectly to rote memory, the following drillswill go easily and rapidly and produce the bestresults. As much as half the time available for agiven unit can be invested in perfecting the basicdialogue without distorting the presentation ofthe unit.

Two other techniques are frequently used butare not recommended: elicit a written response orreproduce the dialogue by giving cues in English,which is indeed the easiest and fastest way ofchecking. Neither of these, however, is in accordwith the approach presented in this book and isnot necessary if the dialogue has been presentedas outlined above.

Once the entire dialogue has been memorizedfrom oral stimuli, the textbooks are returned tothe students and they are permitted to see theprinted text. The use of the dialogues for pur-poses of learning reading and writing will bediscussed in a later chapter.

The basic dialogue is followed by drills. Patternsof the structure of the language which have beenlearned in the basic dialogues are expanded andmanipulated in the drills. As we progress in thecourse, we will come to meet a variety of drilltypes. Most, varied as they may be with regardto format, focus either on the systematic variationof selected basic sentences within the structureand vocabulary the student has already learned,or on the structure of the language to provide asystematic coverage of all important patterns.

All drills are planned to be answered rapidly.They are best done orally with only the teacher'sbook open, although some, because of their com-

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plicated nature, may be done with the students'books open. Generally, the manner of presentingthe drill is obvious from the format of the text.Sometimes, however, the teacher will be wise todo a "pre-run" at home before presenting the drillin class. Some texts provide the answers to drillsfor the teacher's convenience and for the studentto refer to when studying outside of class. Gen-erally, if a drill is found to be hard, it is becausethe student did not adequately master the dialogueand possibly also the preceding drills. Audio-lingual drills reject any similarity to mathematicaldrills in that they are not to be puzzled out. Theemphasis is on doing them rather than on figuringthem out. They do not contain tricks and they arenot intended as tests (although some may be usedas such after they hav,, been done in class). Thebalance of this discussion may be followed byreferring to the sample Fivo- ton unit which ap-peared at the end of the pr' ceding chapter.

After the drills thems,,,v es, there is a moredetailed discussion of the pattern drilled. Thesedescriptions are written in a condensed and some-what technical fashion. In some materials theseare called grammatical explanations; others preferthe terms generalizations, descriptions, etc. Aneffort is alwayc made to keep these explanationsaccessible, clear, and readable. But it must berecognized that a description of a language is atechnical sort of thing and simplification is at-tained only by sacrificing comprehensiveness

and accuracy. The student is actually acquiringthrough these &Scussions a set of analytical toolswhich should serve him through the balance ofhis career as a language learner. Therefore, ourgoal is always to present explanations whichwill not need to be revised at each step ofdevelopment.

Later units have conversation and readingselections, as we have mentioned. The conversa-tion part is designed to help the student bridgethe gap between the more or less mechanicalstimulus-response activity of the drills and theskill of free conversation, which the ultimateaim of the audio-lingual course. These so-calledrecombinations extend the abilities of the studentinto ever more natural situations. The recombi-nation narratives are usually an anecdote type ofdescription of an event or situation which issometimes further recast as a directed dialogue inwhich the teacher acts as a prompter for studentswho take the various parts as actors. The promptergradually withdraws his help so that in the endthe conversation is carried on freely. Readingselections are designed in most new materials toprovide interesting information about the cultureof the target-language countries. At the outset,these reading selectiors do not present words orstructures that the student has not already metin the dialogues and drills. About halfway throughthe course, however, reading selections may beused to expand the students' vocabularies.


Discuss each of the following in the light ofmaterial presented in this chapter, your own ex-perience, and the practical requirements of mod-ern foreign language teaching in public schools.1. Since the students will seldom have the oppor-

tunity in real-life conversation to use the exactlines of any dialogue given in an audio-linguallesson, why is it essential that these dialoguesbe memorized perfectly?

2. Since intensive choral response can becomemonotonous for the students and provide noopportunity for the teacher to hear individualerrors, should it be kept to a minimum in theaudio-lingual lesson?

3. Can the judicious use of the tape recorder inthe classroom make modeling by the teacherunnecessary?

4. Is the use of pictorial aids in presenting thedialogues useful only to those teachers whosehistrionic abilities do not permit them to pre-sent the material effectively without the aids?

5. Does the method of correcting students' errorssuggested in this chapter have any intrinsicvalue? Is it based on sound principles of lan-guage learning?

6. Can the teacher who is not provided with alanguage laboratory or portable tape or discrecorders expect to teach effectively in theaudio-lingual approach?

7. Does the organization of the audio-linguallesson correspond to the principles of languagelearning outlined in Chapters I and II?

ADDITIONAL. READINGS

Bela Benathy, et al., "The Use of Contrastive Data inForeign Language Course Development," in AlbertValdman, ed., Trends in Language Teaching, NewYork: McGraw-Hill, 1965.

Curricular Change in the Foreign Languages, 1963Colloquium on Curricular Change. Princeton: CollegeEntrance Examination Boards, 1963.

William W. Gage, Contrastive Studies in Linguistics: ABibliographical Checklist, Washington, D. C.: Centerfor Applied Linguistics, 1961.

Charles Ferguson (ed.), Linguistic Reading Lists forTeachers of Modern Languages, Washington, D. C.:Center for Applied Linguistics, 1963.

21

John H. Hammer (ed.), A Bibliography of ContrastiveLinguistics, Washington, D. C.: Center for AppliedLinguistics, 1965.

Frank Rice and Allene Guss (eds.), Information Sourcesin Linguistics, Washington, D. C.: Center for AppliedLinguistics, 1965.

Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language, New York:Doubleday, 1959.

Robert A. Hall, Jr., Introductory Linguistics, Philadel-phia: Chilton, 1964.

Harvard Educational Review, Language and Learning,vol. 34 No. 2, Spring, 1964.

Archibald A. Hill, Language Analysis and LanguageTeaching, New York: Modern Language Association,Foreign Language Bulletin #41.

Robert Lado, Linguistics Across Cultures, Ann Arbor:University of Michigan Press, 1957.

, "Linguistics and Foreign LanguageTeaching," Language Learning X (1961) 29-41.

William G. Moulton, "Applied Linguistics in the Class-room," PMLA LXXVI (1961) 1-6.

William G. Moulton, A Linguistic Guide to LanguageLearning, New York: Modern Language Association,1966.

Jacob Ornstein and William Gage, The ABC's of Lan-guages and Linguistics, Philadelphia: Chilton, 1964.

Robert L. Politzer, "The Impact of Linguistics on Lan-guage Teaching: Past, Present and Future," ModernLanguage Journal XLVIII 3 (1964) 146-151.

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4



4


Byron W. Hansford, CommissionerDenverSeptember, 1967

Written by



Chapter 4

SIGNIFICANT CONTRASTS AND THE TEACHING OF PRONUNCIATION

We have previously mentioned the confusionbetween speech and writing, and we have takenthe positive stand that the study of a spoken lan-guage cannot effectively be approached throughwriting. Rather, the spoken language must beconsidered per se, for language is primarily anoral-aural system of communication and soundsare the stuff of which it is made. It thereforebehooves the language teacher to have a familiar-ity with, or' better yet, a working knowledge of,soundshow they are made by our organs ofspeech, how they are classified, and how theyare used in the particular language of his interest.In one of his books, Robert A. Hall, Jr. has pro-vided a clear and logical explanation of the systemused to describe sounds, which, although summar-ized in the following paragraphs, should eventu-ally be used in its entirety by the serious student.1

If there were any assurance of scientific ob-jectivity in it, a simple system for describingsounds could be evolved, based on auditoryimpressionsthe effect of each sound on the lis-tener's ear. But what one person might describeas a "flat, harsh sound" may not be understood assuch by another person, since terms such as "flat,broad, harsh, etc." are too relative to have anyobjective reality. It would be like trying to de-scribe chemical elements in terms of their smells.

As the use of sound spectrography becomes morewidespread, linguists are growing better able torecord and chart characteristics of sound-wavesas they occur in speech and to analyze moreprofitably the intensity, frequency and otheracoustic features of the sounds.' For the non-specialist, however, a highly effective system isnow in use, based on the description of sounds,not according to their auditory impressions oracoustic characteristics, but in terms of the organs

'Hall, Linguistics and Your Language, op. cit.'Ernst Pulgram, Introduction to the Spectrography of

Speech, s'Gravenhage: Mouton and Co., 1959.

of the body used in producing them. Thus wemay classify the sounds of a given language ac-cording to the speech organs involved and thespecific ways in which they are used. This studyis known as articulatory phonetics, since the analy-sis made is of the physiology of articulation.

To work with this system demands a knowledgeof the organs of speech, diagrammed below:

The organs of speech include essentially allthe human respiratory tract. Air is drawn intoand expelled from the lungs, which expand andcontract under the influence of the diaphragm.As the breath moves to and from the lungs, itpasses through the mouth, nasal cavity, pharynxand trachea. These and other closely related partsof the body '(such as the tongue and lips) are theorgans customarily used in speech. The air passesin and out of the lungs in a stream or column,called the breath-stream. The diagram above givesa cross-section of the human head and neck, show-ing the route that the breath-stream follows onits way to and from the lungs, and the mainorgans of speech.

Within the area of the mouth, the organs ofarticulation are divided into two general cate-gories: active articulators include those organswhich actually move during the articulation of

23 --

the sounds of the language: the tongue, the velum,and the lips. The passive articulators are thoseorgans which do not move, but with which theactive articulators often come in contact: thepalate and the teeth. By moving the active ar-ticulators, or by placing one or another of themin contact with specific passive articulators, asthe breath-stream passes through them, all thesounds of a given language can be produced.

Among all the sounds which the human organsof speech can produce, there is a basic division:

a) Those sounds which can be made exclusivelyby forming resonance chambers in the mouthby changing the position of the tongue. Theseare the sounds traditionally termed vowels.

b) Those sounds produced by obstructing thebreath-stream by the use of the active andpassive organs of speech to produce audiblefriction. These are traditionally labelledconsonants.

It is important to remember that here we are notspeaking of the traditional orthographic vowels(a, e, i, o, u, o, ii, a) and consonants (all the restof the letters of the alphabet), but of vowel soundsand consonant sounds.

In making both types of sounds, we utilizevariations in position of the organs of speech fromthe vocal cords upward. Three main factions areresponsible for differences in sound:

a) The activity of the vocal cords.b) The place or position in the mouth where

a sound is articulated.c) The manner in which it is articulated.For every sound, we also distinguish three

stages in its pronunciation: the onset, or time inwhich the organs of speech assume the positionof its pronunciation; the peak, or time duringwhich they are in that position, and the coda, ortime in which they leave that position. In somelanguages some sounds differ only in the lengthof hold, or in the time of release.

After leaving the lungs, the breath-streampasses between the vocal cordstwo movablemembranes which can either lie along the sideof the larynx without making any Sound (thusproducing what are termed voiceless sounds, suchas English and German s, f, final b and d, whichin German are phonetically [p] and [t] , or may bebrought together, either partially or completely,to set up sound waves and produce voiced sounds(usually all vowels and many consonants, likeEnglish and German /m, n, 1, v, z/).

Once it has passed the vocal cords on its wayout of the lungs, the breath-stream passes throughvarious points in the pharynx, nose and mouthwhere the column of air may be further modified.

In the nasal cavity there are no points at whichan obstruction or other change in the breath-stream can be made, but the whole nasal cavity

can be brought into play as a resonance chamber(producing nasalization) or may be shut off _fromthe course of the breath-stream by the velum(whose movable tip is known as the uvula).

However, in the mouth (oral cavity) thereare a number of ways the breath-stream can bemodified. The most active organ in these processesis undoubtedly the tongue, since it can be raisedvarying degrees at the front, middle or back ofits entire 'extension.

For vowel sounds, the tongue does not comedirectly in contact with the roof of the mouth,but assumes various positions inside the mouthto form cavities that serve as resonance chambers,conditioning the specific quality of the vowelsound. Two main factors determine the quality ofthe vowel: the position of the tongue in the frontor back of the mouth, and the height to which itis raised in the mouth. (Occasionally lip-roundingand/or nasalization are also factors to be con-sidered.)

Vowels, therefore, are usually classified byphoneticians in two main categories: tongue posi-tion (front, central, back) and tongue height (high,mid, low, and each of these three positions maybe further subdivided. For German we wouldmake one further subdivision: tense vs. lax. Thetense articulation is slightly higher than the lax,e.g. German /e/ vs. / E /) and lip rounding.

The tongue is also the main factor in the pro-nunciation of consonants, but here other organsof speech (vocal cords, velum, uvula, soft palate,hard palate, alveolar [gum] ridge, lips and teeth)are also called into play. There are a numberof special adjectives commonly applied to describesounds articulated at these various points:Term: Refers to:uvular uvula

velarpalatal

alveolar

dental

velumpalate,especiallythe hardpalatealveolar(gum)ridgeteeth

labia-dental lips andteeth

bilabial lips

Example (German):[rlFrau, fragen, rot (may

also be alveolar allophone)[k] Kasse, Gasseclich, nicht

[s] [z] rei /3en, reisen

[t] [dl Teich, Tasse, Dieter,das

[f] falseEpl [b] passe, Pa/3,Bap

In addition to describing the position in whicha sound is made, the linguist also distinguishesthe manner in which it is articulated, since thereare a number of ways in which the vocal cords,tongue, palate, etc. can obstruct the breath-stream,either shutting it off completely or directing itspassage through one kind of channel or another.The stream of breath may be stopped completely,as in the English or German /p, b/; or it may beforced through a channel. This channel may take

24

,the form of a narrow slit, as in English f, v; or ofa trough or depression (a rill) in the center of thetongue, as in English s. The air may also pass overthe depressed sides of the tongue, as in some kindsof 1. It may be modified by a single or repeatedflap of some movable organ, like the lips (in theEnglish interjection usually written brrr), thetongue-alveolar r or the uvula-uvular R. Or thebreath-stream may be checked entirely and heldwhile the nasal cavity is used as a resonancechamber, as in the English m, n, and the soundwe write with the letters ng (in sing). Types ofrelease may differ: a sound may be released witha little explosion (like English p, t, k), with thetongue assuming position to form a rill (as inEnglish ch) or to make a slit.

For these reasons another set of adjectives is

used to describe the various manners of articula-

tion:

TermStop

Uvular

Stop orocclusive

Affricate

Continuantsor spirantsmade up ofthe followingtypesFricative

Sibilant

Lateral

Trill (ed)

Nasal

Refers tosoundprouncedwith:

back oftongueCompletestoppage ofbreath-streamReleaseinvolvingfricative(slit-typechannel)No completestoppage ofbreath-stream

Slit-typechannelRill-typechannelChannel (s)over sidesof tongueOne or moreflaps of mov-able organNose used asresonancechamber

Example (German):[p] Pa/3[b]BaS[g] Garten[k] Karten[r]

rot, fahren, Haar[R][p, b, t, d, k, g]

Pein, Bein, Tank, Dank,Kunst, Gunst

[6]church (English)

(c, x]ich, ach

[s, z]na/3, Nasez] Schatz, Genie

[flFell, hell

[R]rot

[m, n]-- hemme, Henne,hinge

While the stream of breath is being modifiedat a given point and in a given manner, as illus-trated above, still other things may be happeningat the same time. A puff of air may be sent outimmediately after a consonant and produce asound known as aspirated. The sound may besent into the nose for a fraction of a secondbefore a consonant is articulated, coinciding withthe onset of the sound, which is then called apre-nasalized consonant. If the tongue is raised

close to the palate, at the same time the consonantis pronounced, the consonant is palatalized.

Furthermore, sounds are pronounced with dif-ferent degrees of intensity of air being expelledfrom the lungs. This intensity is termed stressand is of great significance since a change of stressmay change the meaning of an utterance.

With the frame of reference elaborated thusfar, the phonetician can describe and classify thesounds of any language. He might describe a soundas a "high tense front unrounded vowel" (forwhat we usually write ee in English or ie in Ger-man) or as "voiceless dental fricative" (for whatwe normally spell th as in thing in English).

The phonetician found that this terminology,though it was the only scientific and universalway of describing a sound, was somewhat cumber-some. As chemistry had already shown, specificsymbols could be assigned to represent elements,so the phoneticians devised a set of symbols, aone-to-one correspondence with each sound to berepresented; this came to be known as phonetictranscription. Each symbol was to stand for onlyone sound and each sound should be representedby only one symbol. Our traditional English andGerman spelling systems or alphabets, based onthe Roman alphabet, are inadequate to serve forphonetic transcription since the twenty-six or soletters and diacritic markings could not begin torepresent all the possible sounds. As a result, manysystems of phonetic transcription were devised,such as Bell's "Visible Speech" and Pike's "Func-tional Analphabetic Symbolism" which abandonedall use of Roman alphabet. However, most widely-used phonetic transcriptions, such as the Inter-national Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) use the tradi-tional Roman alphabet as a base and introducenew letters or alterations in shape of familiarletters when the need arises. Those interested inphonetic symbols will find them readily availablein a variety of books.'

From 1920 on, however, after the research ofmen such as Edward Sapir and Leonard Bloom-field, linguists began to see that sounds are im-portant only as they perform a specific functionin the language by differentiating the meaningof words. Research was then concentrated on dis-covering and symbolizing not only speech-soundsas such, but those functional units of speech-soundthat are significant, i. e., that make a differencein meaning. For such functional units of sound,the term phoneme was adopted.

In English, for instance, the words bit and piteach contain three significant units of sound, orphonemes, but differ from each other only in thefirst phoneme (Cf. Pap and Bap in German). Simi-larly bit and beat each have three phonemes anddiffer only in the second phoneme (Cf. GermanKamm, komm). By this method of contrasting

3For example, R. M. S. Heffner General Phonetics, Madi-son: University of Wisconsin Press, 1960, pp. 70-72.

25

pairs of words, specifically called minimal pairs,the linguist can establish a series of meaningfuldifferences among words and each differenceserves to set up a pair of contrasting phonemes.

For an individual sound, functioning as part of

a unit of sound, the term allophone (or positionalvariant) is issued. As an example, let us take thetwo sounds in many types of American Englishwhich are normally written as 1, but are phoneti-cally quite different: the alveolar variety foundat the beginning of a syllable in words such aslead and look and the velar variety at the end ofthe syllable, in words like wool and fool. Thesesounds are represented by different phonetic sym-bols [1] and m and the difference is easilyaudible, but after studying the distribution pat-terns of these sounds within words, the linguistfinds that [1] always occurs at the beginning ofa syllable while [X] is always found at the endof a syllable. Therefore, these two sounds nevermake a difference in meaning between two wordsin English (Cf. initial r in French rue and ther in courte). He, therefore, finds the sounds repre-sented by [1] and [ X ] to be merely positionalvariants or allophones of the same phoneme whichare not significant functional units of sound sincethey do not make a difference of meaning in audi-tory perception.

The stage of analysis described above is knownas phonemics and has now been accepted by allforward-looking linguists as an essential part oflinguistic analysis. The symbolic representationof the phonemic analysis is known as phonemictranscription and the symbols are normally placedbetween slant lines: / / to distinguish them fromphonetic transcription, which uses brackets [ ] ,

or from ordinary spelling.Phonemics does not in any way supplant pho-

netics, but simply builds further on the resultsobtained in phonetics, with a change of emphasis.In essence, it is a simplification of the analysisof the sound system and represents a shift inaimfrom that of representing every identifiable

sound to that of representing only functionallysignificant units of sound. It has the advantage ofnot being cluttered up with non-essentials.

Since each language has its own organization,its own economy, the phonemes of one languageare not the same as those of another. We find thatthe sounds of each language fall into a distinctivepattern and we have no right to expect onelanguage to have the same patterns as another.Any feature of sound may be highly significantin one language and completely without phonemicsignificance in another.

In general, more mature speakers of one lan-guage can hear and imitate without special train-ing only those phonemic distinctions which theirown language has taught them to be attentive to(the difference between /o/ and /I/ has in thighand thy, important to the speaker of English, isscarcely perceptible to a German). In order to hearand make unfamiliar phonemic distinctions, wenormally need to have our attention speciallycalled to them and often have to be carefullyinstructed in the means of producing them.

With this in mind, the following chart of sig-nificant sounds of German, the phonemes andmajor allophones, has been prepared, utilizing thedescriptive terms presented earlier in this chap-ter. The terms which appear in the verticalcolumn at the left indicate the manner in whichthe sound is articulated. The terms in the hori-zontal row across the top of the diagram indi-cate the point at which the sound is articulated.Each vertical column is subdivided into voicedand voiceless. Thus we identify the sound /p/as a stop, as a bilabial, since it is produced bystopping the flow of air from the lungs by bringingthe lips together, and as voiceless, since the vocalcords are not vibrating as the sound is articulated.

With the aid of the information presented inthis diagram, the teacher will be able to utilize theprinciples of phonemics (significant contrasts) inpresentation and correction of pronunciation.

SUMMARY OF THE SOUNDS OF GERMANConsonants

Bilabial Labiodental

v1.1 vd.

Dental-Alveolar

vl. vd. vl. vd.

Palatal Velar Uvular

vl. vd. vl. vd. vl. vd.

Stops

Fricatives

/P/ /b//f/ /v/

It/ /d//g/

/k//x/

/g/

/V /z/ /g/ /i/Nasals /m/ in/ /.5 /

Lateral /1/

Trill CR1

Seminconsonants

1v1.voiceless; vd.voiced.

/h/ /j/

26

A system of charting, similar to the one usedabove for the consonants, is used for the vowels.Note again how the vertical categories refer tothe relative height of the tongue, while the hori-zontal categories refer to the area of the mouthin which the vertically-represented feature occurs.To illustrate this correlation more fully, we maysuperimpose the diagram of the upper and lowerjaws over the vowel chart:

VOWELS

HIGH tense

FRONT CENTRAL BACK

unrounded rounded1 ii u

lax I if if

MID

tense e 6 o

lax E 5 o

LOW

tense a

lax a

VOWELSEnglish German

[i][I][e:]i[e][[ .16][P]fa][A][a][a:][u:][u][U][o:][o][ ]E ][11.:]

[a][8:][ 5 ]

sieht /p/seat /t/sits Sitz /k/

gehtgate /3/bet Bett /f/bat /v/bird /4)/

(bitt)e /g/but /h/

Stadt /s/Staat /z/tut /g/

tootputs Putz /1/

Boot /in/boat /n/

Gott /S/brought /r/

fiihle /y/fiille /w/WildeMille

CONSONANTSEnglish Germanput /p/ Passetook /b/ Badcook /t/ Tassechill /d/ dasgill /k/ Hassefoot /g/ Gassevile /f/ fassething /v/ wasthough /s/ Satinwho /z/ Satzsing /g/ Schatzzone /i/ Genieshould /g/ Chinarouge /x/ Rauchlong / II / langmat /m/ Massenat /n/ nassesing / / singenred /R/ Rasseyoung / / Jackewould /h/ hasse

1[:] =phoneme of length

German has seventeen contrasting vowel allo-phones and diphthongs in stressed position. Aneighteenth vowel is listed by Siebs;2 however thishas become marginal for many speakers. An addi-tional vowel occurs only in unstressed positions.

We have already mentioned that the mainarticulatory factors which determine the qualityof the vowel are the position of the tongue inthe front or back of the mouth, and the heightto which it is raised. We will need to recall thoseother dimensions here. Lip-rounding plays a very

important role in the formation of German vowels.The contrast between short and long vowels andtense and lax vowels are additional elements,which distinguish one vowel phoneme from an-other.

Referring back to our chart of the Germanvowel system above, we can see how the laxsounds [I], [U], and [U] are lower and slightlymore central than their tense counterparts [1],

[a], and [u].You see that /i/ /u/ /u/ are lower and more

central than /i 1,1/ and /e § o/ are lower andmore central than /e O 9/. /a/ on the other handis higher than / a /. These vowel phonemes can bedemonstrated to the class through the minimalpairs listed further on in this chapter.

In a similar analysis," English is shown to haveat least twelve vowel phonemes, none of whichcorrespond very closely to the German vowels.Traditionally, of course, a student seeing Germanhat /h St/ might well have been expected to pro-nounce it using the nearest English equivalents,the result being a form like hat /ht/. Similarlythe /p/ in Otto would be pronounced like the Eng-lish / a / in on. Since we have nog developed ateaching technique whereby the student does notmeet the written representation of sounds untilhe already knows them, this kind of "spellingpronunciation" will be less frequent. The tendencystill remains, however, for the English-speakingstudents to pronounce a German vowel soundwith the nearest English equivalent; or, in otherwords, to transfer his English habits into his Ger-man pronunciation.

We have all heard our students pronounce /i/in Vieh like the English /iy/ in fee. The studenttries to substitute English allophones for the Ger-man vowels he cannot yet form. The English allo-phone is lower and too dipthongal. The German/i:/ is pronounced very high and with the lipsspread; it is tense and monophthongal. The stu-dent may encounter the same reaction to theGerman /u:/ in zu or du and will substitute theEnglish /uw/ in too, or do. The same kind oferror will most likely be repeated with all stressedvowels. Unstressed vowels and the consonants aresubject to the same kind of transfer of habits.

The point is simply that there are no exactequivalents in the vowels and perhaps only twoor three close approximations in the consonantsof the two languages and that the student cannotoften rely directly upon English analogies. Whenour older textbooks began a chapter on Germanpronunciation by saying that the /i:/ sound ofGerman Vieh sounds like the /iy/ vowel-nu-

3Theodor Siebs, Deutsche Hochsprache, 18th ed., Berlin:De Gruyter, 1961.

H. A. Gleason, Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics,New York: Holt, 1961.

-- 27 --

cleus of English niece, piece, we know that, sincethe two sounds are not really alike, this is mis-leading to the student and may well destroy thestudent's chances of acquiring a more authenticaccent.

How, then, can the principles of significantcontrasts help us to take a more realistic view ofteaching pronunciation? First, we must knowwhat muscular actions are involved in producingthe sounds of German. Although we do not needto have a physiologist's knowledge of speechorgans, we must know the approximate positionand shape of the lips and tongue, and whetherthe vocal cords are vibrating (for voiced sounds)or are not (for voiceless sounds). Second, wemust have recourse to a competent analysis of thesounds of both English and German to see whichEnglish sounds the English-speaking student willattempt to substitute for somewhat similar Ger-man sounds."

Once we have this information, we are readyto proceed to the technique itself. In general, theprocedure is the same for teaching vowels andconsonants: a pronunciation drill containing foursteps, one of which, as we shall indicate, is op-tional, depending upon how well the studentslearn the sounds from the beginning.

(1) Present the sound in a context, usually aword. Thus, if the sound to be taught is/e/,present it to the students in a list of forms,such as: See, Weh, wen, den, etc. Of course,the students will repeat after the teacher'soral model (or a tape recording) and will notsee the corresponding written symbols. Thecontextual presentation adheres to an im-portant principle of the audio-lingual ap-proach, which is to present forms in contexthere, sounds in a context of actual Germanwords. Besides, however, the student is un-consciously practicing the pronunciation ofthe adjacent sounds. The method of repetitionis as we have suggested before: teacher,students-in-chorus, teacher, students-in-chor-us, teacher, individual student, teacher."

(2) Present the sound in minimal contrast withanother sound of the same class (vowel orconsonant). Thus, if we continue with thevowel pair /e/ and /i/, we shall ask the stu-dents to repeat pairs of utterances: See, sie;Weh, wie; wen, Wien; etc. This enables thestudent, not only to hear the differences, butalso to feel the changed position of the articu-latory organs. The method of repetition isas suggested previously.

5William G. Moulton, The Sounds of English and Ger-man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962, pro-vides one such analysis.

"We shall have more to say about this drilling mode(the "five-cycle" drill) in Chapters 5 and 6.

(3) Present the sound in a more complex content. Continuing with /e/, hide it in a largerphrase, such as Er geht in die Bibliothek.This helps us to make sure that the studenthas really mastered the sound and that, whenhe is forced to articulate a longer chain ofsounds, his correct response is really auto-matic.

(4) Because of the tendency to transfer Englishspeech habits into German, which we havealready discussed, a few students will stillsubstitute a near-English sound for theGerman sound, even after the above threesteps are completed. Such students need anexercise in contrasting the English soundwith the desired German one. Such a con-trastive exercise generally suffices to makethe student aware of the physical difference(the difference in the organs and muscles heuses) that causes the difference in soundwhich his ear had failed to detect before(during the earlier exercises). This exerciseagain uses minimal pairs, but, now, one mem-ber of the pair is German and the other,English-German /e/ and English /ey/: P(letter name), pay; B (letter name), bay;geh, gay; wen, vain; Beet, bait; etc. If neces-sary, the teacher can explain which speechorgans are involved and how they are placed.Many teachers find the use of tongue depres-sors by each student helpful in bringing stu-dents to a physical awareness of tongue posi-tion in vowel articulation.

With the consonants, the problems maybe different, but the same four-step tech-nique we have been discussing gives goodresults. Here, we have visual devices andlittle demonstrations to help put across ourinstructions and to reinforce practice. Forexample, the German phoneme /g/ is almosta new sound to the speakers of English. Itis a voiceless dorso-palatal fricative whichfinds its closest English equivalent in theinitial consonant group of /hjta/ hue, Hugh,/11j63/ huge, /hjumId/ humid, /hjinnan/human. Many Americans pronounce the /h-/in these environments as a /g/ with a ratherwide oral opening. If the student is able toisolate this sound and narrow the openingbetween the blade of the tongue and thepalate until strong friction is produced, hewill approximate the German /g/. It willhelp at first to have the student say thevowel /i/ in front of /g/ and gradually adapt-ing to the position of the desired sound: /1:/,/i:hi:/, /1:gi/, /i:g/, /ig/ as in ich.

To help you build a small file of dependablephonological exercises, a small project is suggestedfor which you will need a packet or two of 4 x 6cards. For each of the phonological contrasts on

28 e.

the next pages, make your own set of ten minimalpairs on one card. The heading on each card, upperright, should indicate the contrast being illus-trated, according to the following diagram. Thecards can then be filed and used in class for anintroductory pronunciation drill, or to re-drill theclass whenever pronunciation problems occur.

OUTLINE OF PRINCIPAL SIGNIFICANTCONTRASTS FOR DRILL

I. Vowel Contrasts:Contrasted with one another:/i:/ vs. /I/ Hest vs./i:/ vs. /ii:/ Ziege vs./u :/ vs. /ii:/ Hut vs./U/ vs. /D/ Mutter vs./e:/ vs. /i:/ See vs./e:/ vs. / 8 / den vs./ C / vs. /AV rette vs./e:/ vs. /8:/ Meere vs./ä/ vs. /5 / Wafter vs./ C / VS. / 5 / Kerne vs./ 5 / vs. /o/ Worter vs./o:/ vs. /6:/ Sohn vs./a:/ vs. /a/ kam vs./a/ vs. /g/ Kamm vs./a:/ vs. /g/ kam vs./e:/ vs. / a / Kaffee vs.

English interference:1. Stressed vowels:

/a/ for /ay//A/ for /a// a / for /Q//i/ for /i//uw/ for /u/

2. Unstressed vowels:English ii-a-a/

minimumnumerousnegative

English a - a -a /nominativecomparablesuperlative

ListZfige}HiteMuttersiedennRateMiihreWiirterKiirnerWorte&ohneKammkommkommAffe

English German

Parupcaughtfeedo

for Paarfor abfor Gottfor Viehfor du

German /V-v -v/MinimumNumerusnegativ

German /V- v -v -v/NominativKomparativSuperlativ

Consonant contrasts: Here are included some of theproblem areas which the teacher may need to drill:

A. Little apparent difficulty, therefore minimumdrill./m/ vs. /n/ mein vs. nein

B. The German /1/ is a lateral consonant. Thissound is articulated by placing the apex justabove the upper teeth or against the alveolarridge and allowing the breath-stream to flowout unhindered along one or both sides of thetongue. The American /1/, although it re-sembles the German /1/ in some positions,often shows varying degrees of velarization, i.e.

the back of the tongue may be humped uptoward the velum. The German /1/ is nevervelarized, To practice this contrast, Englishand German, Moulton suggests the followingpairs:

English vs. German English vs. German

/fii1/ VS. /ff:1/ feel VS. viel/fejl/ VS. /16:1/ fail VS. fehl/powl/ VS. /p6:1/ pole VS. Pol

Vs. AVIA/ stool VS. Stuhl/bflt/ VS. /bflt/ built VS. Bild/f t lt/ VS. /f t lt/ felt VS. faiit/lajt/ VS. /left/ light VS. Leid/plats/ VS. /plats/ plots VS. Plata/kles/ VS. /k164/ close VS. Klo/3

2. The German /r/:This phoneme consists of several allophones thepronunciation of which depends on the individualspeaker and the position of in in a given word.

a. prevocalic /r/followed by a vowel; it is usuallya voiced dorso-uvular fricative or trill.

b. postvocalic /r/when it is not followed by avowel, it has varying allophones, the most fre-quent of which is (4].Prevocalic: Postvocalic:frfiihre furirre irrbessere besser

Consonant contrasts with English:In vs. ER) reef vs.

rest vs.creak vs.fry vs.

/r/ vs. E03 here vs.air vs.bitter vs.father vs.

3. /5/ unrounded vs. /5/ roundedshesheershone

/P/ vs. /p/ passparadeapart

/t/ vs. /t/ talktabletatome

/k/ vs. /k/ comecollideaccord

c.

Englishpricebroadtruedrycrygrayfree

shrink

-- 29

Initial consonant clusters:+/r/

German/p/ Preis/b/ breit

treu/d/ drei/k/ Kreis/g/ grau/f/ frei/s/

Schrei

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

VS.

riefRestKriegfreihiererbitterVater

+/I/Englishplanblue

SkischierschonragParadeapartTagTablettAtomKammKalenderAkkord

GermanPlanblau

clean kleinglass Glasfly Flugsly Slawe(Schlitz) Schlitz

D. Voiced vs. voiceless:

voiced

/b/-/p/ Id/-/t/ /g/-/k/ /v/-/f/ /z/-/s/

graben finden fragen Motive lesen

Voicelessfinally

Grab Fund Frag! Motiv Lies!

Voicelessin compound

Grabmal Fundort fragwiirdig motivreich Leseart

Voicelessbefore suffix

Begrabnis Find ling fraglichlesbar

Voiceless incluster with /t/

er grabt er fragt er versklavt er liest

Voiceless incluster with Is/

des Grabes des Fundes du fragst du versklayst

E. The following consonants are best taught inisolation.

Jacke/z/ Genie/g/ ChinaIts/ Zeit

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSIONDiscuss each of the following in the light of the

material presented in this chapter, your ownexperience, and the practical requirements ofmodern foreign language pedagogy in the sec-ondary school.1. The principal pedagogical value of describing

the sounds of a language in terms of theirpoint (place) and manner of articulation isthat it eliminates reference to spelling. (Besure to consider in your discussion why spell-ingand likewise the very presence of theprinted textis disruptive in the early stagesof learning correct pronunciation habits.)

2. Traditionally-oriented textbooks often tried toteach German sounds by relating each one toa nearly equivalent sound in English, e.g. Ger-man / e / as in echt with English / E / as inegg. Why was this procedure not generallysuccessful? What might be expected to havehappened in longer stretches of speech?

3. Features of stress, intonation, and rhythm areas vital in the attainment of near-native accentas are the individual vowel and consonantarticulations. Yet, these features are rarelymade the main point of any lessons in mostteaching materials, new or old. Discuss waysof bringing the necessary instructional em-phasis to bear on these matters, regardless ofthe particular text being used.

4. Discuss the comparative importance of theorgans of speech in the production of Germansounds.

5. What pedagogical advantages result from theclassification of sounds into phonemes?

Do the following:6. Pinpoint the specific ways in which the Eng-

lish vocalic system interferes in learning thepronunciation of German vowels.

7. Make a list of 15 German consonants and de-scribe the articulatory features that pertain toeach one. For example:

/z/ voiced alveolar fricative

8. The tendency for the English-speaking learnerto transfer the English phonemic system intoGerman causes many problems which we can,by contrastive analysis, anticipate. Name atleast 5 such specific problems and indicatetechniques which you would use to teach thestudent the correct articulation.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

Pierre Delattre, Comparing the Phonetic Features ofEnglish, French, German and Spanish, Philadelphia:Chilton, 1965.

Jethro Bithell, German Pronunciation and Phonology,London: Methuen, 1952.

Eugen Dieth and Rudolf Brunner, Vademekum derPhonetik, Bern: Francke, 1950.

Otto von Essen, Allegemeine and Angewandte Phonetik,Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1953.

, Grundziige der hochdeutschen Satzintona-tion, Dusseldorf: Henn, 1956.

Carl and Peter Martens, Phonetik der deutschenSprache, Munich: Hueber, 1961.

William G. Moulton, The Sounds of English and Ger-man, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

, "Textbook Materials for Teaching Ger-man Pronunciation," Monograph Series on Languagesand Linguistics No. 8, Washington, D. C.: GeorgetownUniversity Press, 1955.

Theodor Siebs, Deutsche Hochsprache, 18th ed., Berlin:De Gruyter, 1961.

Hans-Heinrich Wangler, Instruction in German Pro-nunciation for Americans, St. Paul: EMC Corp., 1964.

, Grundriss einer Phonetik des Deutschen,Marburg: Elwert, 1960.

, Patterns in German Stress and Intonation,St. Paul: EMC Corp., 1964.

Hildebrandt, Bruno and Liesilotte, Drills in GermanPronunciation, Boulder, (Colo.): Pruitt Press, 1964.

30 --





DenverSeptember, 1967

Written by



Chapter 5SYNTACTIC DRILLS

The audio-lingual approach to the teaching ofsyntax centers about two features: carefullyconstructed dialogues into which the syntacticpatterns are woven and which the students areexpected to memorize and drills of rather definitetypes which embody the patterns and make themhabitual by varying them, in systematic ways. Ofcourse, even with the more traditional textbook,these same kinds of drills still give excellentresults; so it is well to know how to make anduse them, regardless of the textbook being used.

The structural focuses of any given unit in theaudio-lingual text are determined by the structureembodied in the dialogue of the same unit. Thepoint of departure for each syntactic (or patternor structure) drill is, then, always the basicdialogue in which the feature being drilled oc-curred. In this way, the drill becomes an inductivelearning experience in which the student, afterhaving practiced, memorized and habituated thebasic sentence in which a particular syntacticstructure has appeared in natural, native context,learns how to manipulate the same structure indifferent analogous situations. Note that we donot attempt to generalize a "rule"; rather weallow the pattern to emerge by conditioned varia-tion within an understandable context.

The reader may wish to review Section VI ofthe Sample Skeleton Audio-Lingual Unit pre-sented in Chapter 2, in which we deal with drills.The grammatical point being presented is manip-ulated in such a way that the items illustratingthe point are varied without changing the essentialstructure of the utterance. Therefore, the student'sattention is focused on the slot where the changesare to be made; he learns to handle the item thatcan be substituted in the slot and gradually de-velops an understanding of the pattern beingdrilled.

Let us now examine the fundamental methodby which syntactic drills of the type we are dis-

cussing are built:First, the audio-lingual structure drill begins

with a model utterance or "frame" which theclass always repeats in chorus after the teacher'smodel, at the beginning of the exercise. For ex-ample, the frame 'Gisela spielt die Violine' canform a point of departure for the verb formexercise:

Teacher (model) : Gisela spielt Tennis.Class (echo) : Gisela spielt Tennis.Teacher (cue) : Sie (plural)Class (response) : Sie spielen Tennis.Teacher (cue) : IchClass (response) ; Ich spiele Tennis.Teacher (cue) : Luise und FritzClass (response) : Luise und Fritz spielen Tennis.Teacher (cue) : WirClass (response) : Wir spielen Tennis.etc.

Obviously in the syntactical points illustratedabove, there is no difference between this struc-ture in English and in German. The student quick-ly grasps the syntactical point since the structurein English would produce an identical frame:`Gisela plays tennis.' The difference is only inthe words that occupy the position in the frame.At the other extreme are utterances like 'I'msorry' and 'Es tut mir leid.' Here the frames arein contrast, and this is readily apparent throughthe frame approach. Naturally, the drills used todemonstrate points of similarity will be short (re-member how the same criterion was applied to the`significant contrasts' of the sound system), andthose drills which teach more complex differenceswill be longer, to avoid foreign-sounding phrasesor perhaps even a breakdown in communication.

We now turn to the various types of drills andframes. We shall begin with a simple frame, herecalled Frame A, composed of a subject and apredicate of one word each: Karl lernt. Let ussuppose that the utterance was presented in thebasic dialogue (our first rule for the composition

-- 31--

of drills); also present in the dialogue might besuch words as: Rudolf, Marie, Erich, and the verbforms singt, besucht, kommt.

The name "slot" is given to the position occupiedby each word in the basic frame. Frame A there-fore has two slots. Then if one slot is held con-stant, and substitution is made in the other slot,using forms presented in the dialogue, we mayconstruct drills such as:

Teacher (model)Class (echo)Teacher (cue)Class (response)Teacher (cue)Class (response)Teacher (cue)Class (response)

Karl lerntKarl lerntMariaMaria lerntErichErich lerntRudolfRudolf lernt

Or we may maintain constant the first slot andsubstitute the verb form in the second:


Karl lerntKarl lernt

besuchtKarl besuchtsingtKarl singt

kommtKarl kommt

The latter drill could, of course, be enlargedconsiderably by alternately substituting Rudolf,Erich and Maria along with the three verb forms.

We can easily see how more than one wordcould fill the other slot without changing theframe in any way. If we extend our search, wemay find that words other than the names ofpeople can occupy the initial position in Frame A,

such as mein Freund, die Lehrerin, sein Vater, etc.The drills presented above are examples of thesimple substitution drill.

The simple substitution in one or another slotin a given frame offers a wide variety of drillsin which the syntactic structure of the frame is

not changed. Below are further illustrations:1) Substitution of noun, drilling use of posses-

sive adjectives in: (a) the accusative and (b) thedative:a) Teacher

(model) : Haben Sie unsere Mutter gesehen?Class(echo) : Haben Sie unsere Mutter gesehen?Teacher(cue) VaterClass(response) : Haben Sie unseren Vater gesehen?Teacher(cue) BucherClass(response) : Haben Sie unsere Bucher gesehen?Teacher(cue) HawMiss(response) : Haben Sie unser Haus gesehen?Teacher(cue) GitarreClass(response) : Haben Sie unsere Gitarre gesehen?

Teacher(cue) FreundClass(response) : Haben Sie unseren Freund gesehen?Teacher(cue) BriiderClass(response) : Haben Sie unsere Bri ider gesehen?

b) Teacher(model)Class(echo)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue) Auto.Class

: Peter steht dort bei meinem Bruder.

: Peter steht dort bei meinem Bruder.

Mutter.

: Peter steht dort bei meiner Mutter.

(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)

: Peter steht dort bei meinem Auto.

Freunden.

: Peter steht dort bei meinen Freunden.

Schwestern.

: Peter steht dort bei meinen Schwestern.

2) Substitution involving person and numberof verbs:

Teacher(model) : Wir gehen morgen zur Schule.Class(echo) Wir gehen morgen zur Schule.Teacher(cue) : FritzClass(response) : Fritz geht morgen zur Schule.Teacher(cue) : IchClass(response) : Ich gehe morgen zur Schule.Teacher(cue) : Sie (plural)Class(response) : Sie gehen morgen zur .Schule.Teacher(cue) : DuClass(response) : Du gehst morgen zur Schule.

The frame from 2) above could be used to drillvocabulary and the use of dative prepositions, byholding the first slot constant and varying theobject slot:

Teacher(model) : Wir gehen morgen zur Schule.Class(echo) : Wir gehen morgen zur Schule.Teacher(cue) Arbeit.Class(response) : Wir gehen morgen zur Arbeit.Teacher(cue) Bahnhof.Class(response) : Wir gehen morgen zum Bahnhof.Teacher(cue) Post.Class(response) : Wir gehen morgen zur Post.

32 --

Teacher(cue) Fest.Class(response) : Wir gehen morgen zum Fest.

The simple substitution drill may be elaboratedinto a progressive substitution drill, sometimescalled a replacement drill, where the same frameis used, but the constant slot and the variationslot are alternated, such as the following, fromGerman Through Conversational Patterns:1

Teacher(model) : Ich lege den Bleistift auf den Tisch.Class(echo) : Ich lege den Bleistift auf den Tisch.Teacher(cue) BuchClass(response) : la, lege das Buch auf den Tisch.Teacher(cue) unterClass(response) : Ich lege das Buch unter den Tisch.Teacher(cue) Zeitung.Class(response) : Ich lege das Buch tinter die Zeitung.Teacher(cue) KreideClass(response) : Ich lege die Kreide unter die Zeitung.Teacher(cue) nebenClass(response) : Ich lege die Kreide neben die Zeitung.Teacher(cue) Sofa.Class(response) : Ich lege die Kreide neben das Sofa.Teacher(cue)Class(response) : Ich lege den Roman neben das Sofa.Teacher(cue) hinterClass(response) : Ich lege den Roman hinter das Sofa.Teacher(cue) Stuhl.Class(response) : Ich lege den Roman hinter den Stuhl.

etc.

Roman

The purpose of the foregoing exercise is ob-viously to drill the definite article. This same typeof progressive substitution drill can easily beadapted to, let us say, a subject and verb exercise.To show the flexibility of these drills, let us usethe same drill as above, but vary also the verbslots to provide the desired drill on verbs in addi-tion to that on the definite article:

Teacher(model) : Ich lege den Bleistift auf den Tisch.Class(echo) : Ich lege den Bleistift auf den Tisch.Teacher(cue) Wir

1R. Max Rogers and Arthur R. Watkins, GermanThrough Conversational Patterns, New York: DoddMead and Company, 1966, p. 76.

Class(response) : Wir legen den Bleistift auf den Tisch.Teacher(cue) BuchClass(response) : Wir legen das Buch auf den Tisch.Teacher(cue) tinterClass(response) : Wir legen das Buch unter den Tisch.Teacher(cue) : sehenClass(response) : Wir sehen das Buch unter dem Tisch.Teacher(cue) : HansClass(response) Hans sieht das Buch tinter dem Tisch.Teae..iler(cue)Class(response) : Hans sieht das Buch tinter dem Sofa.

etc.

Sofa.

As can be seen in the above drill, frames neednot be limited to two slots only! The frame 'Rudispricht Deutsch' gives us three possible variantsfor simple substitution, i.e., holding two slots con-stant and varying the other. Thus with the firstslot varied:

Rudi spricht Deutsch.Mein FreundHerbert

With the second slot varied:Rudi spricht Deutsch.

verstehtlernt

With the third slot varied:Rudi spricht Deutsch.

Franz8sisch.Englisch.

Using the same frame as in the above drill, anelaborate progressive substitution drill (some-times called a "combined pattern replacementdrill") can be made dealing with vocabulary, per-son and number of verbs and indefinite articles:

WINNINOMEIMi

-- 33

Teacher(model)Class(echo)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)

: Rudi spricht Deutsch.

: Rudi spricht Deutsch.

: Gretchen

: Gretchen spricht Deutsch.

014110.01111.11i ist

: Gretchen ist Deutsche.

: junge

: Der Junge ist Deutscher.

: Jungen

: Die Jungen sind Deutsche.

Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response)

Englander.

Die Jungen sind Englander.

lernen

: Die Jungen lernen Englisch.

: Ich

: Ich lerne Englisch.

: schreibe

: Ich schreibe Englisch.

: Madchen

: Das Madchen schreibt Englisch.

: Sie (plural)

: Sie schreiben E:nglisch.

Brief.

: Sie schreiben einen Brief.

Buch.

: Sie schreiben ein Buch.etc.

In progressive substitution drills care must betaken not to provide a cue that can fit more thanone slot. For example, in a frame such as 'Rudolfsieht Peter,' the cue Erich could fit either the sub-ject or the object slot, making possible the tworesponses: 'Erich sieht Peter' and 'Rudolf siehtErich.' Progressive substitution drills are espe-cially valuable at the end of a given unit of study,as a review, or as a test.

The last two examples given above are substi-tution drills, but they are of the sub-type of cor-relation drills. A correlation drill involves align-ing the words that go into the slots so as to makethem "agree." A word of explanation is in orderto show how correlation drills differ from simplesubstitution drills. In Gisela kommt we have anormal frame, which might equally well be repre-sented by Fritz ruft or Paul schreibt. This is be-cause the category of words represented by Gisela(and Fritz, das Madchen, etc.) can "co-occur" withthe category of words represented by kommt (andruft, schreibt, besucht, etc.)which is simply tosay that nouns can co-occur with verbs. This kindof co-occurrence of compatibility within a frameis called "construction co-occurrence."

Sometimes, individual words will not match upwith other individual words or, similarly, indi-vidual sub-classes of words will not correspondwith other sub-classes--for example, while wemight say 'Das Geld regiert die Welt,' we wouldnot normally say* 'Das Restaurant regiert dieWelt' (we use the asterisk to indicate that theutterance so marked is not a normal German

34

sequence); but this is a matter of individual co-occurrence, and not of construction co-occurrence.

Within each of the categories, however, thereare formal changes that must also be controlledto make them match. We can say 'Mein Brudergeht,' but not *`Die Frauen geht,' despite the factthat Frauen is a noun and geht is a verb, andnouns can occur with verbs. Here, what has gonewrong is what Bolinger terms a matter of "flex-ional co-occurrence"singular calls for singularand plural for plural. That is, we must also matchthe singular affix of the nouns with the singularaffix of the verb. Here is an example of a simplecorrelation drill with the lexical item in position2 "correlated" with that in position 1:

Teacher (model)Class (echo)Teacher (cue)Class (response)

: Wir werden hungrig.: Wir werden hungrig.: Hans: Has wird hungrig.

This parallels the technique of the simple substi-tution drill. There our parallel ends, however,since, in the case of the simple correlation drilldealing with concord, the word in position 1 (inthis case the subject of the verb) determines or"governs" the word in position 2 (the verb), butnot vice versa. In other words, a simple correla-tion drill involves changing the "governing" ratherthan the "governed" word. Replacement of the"governed" words leads us back to the simplesubstitution drill. The correlation drill, as we haveseen, has the effect of conjugating a tense forverbs. And the more forms a tense has, the morevaluable the simple correlation drill is. It providesmore adequately than any traditional drills forpractice in correlating person, gender, and numberbetween verb forms and subjects. In the first cor-relation drill we demonstrated, we correlated thelexical item in position 2 with that in position 1.In the following drill, a progressive correlationdrill, lexical items in position 1 are progressivelycorrelated with lexical items in position 2.


: Doris liest.: Doris liest.

singt.: Doris singt.: Ulrike und Paul: Ulrike und Paul singen.

singst.: Du singst.

When we want to have students practice theconjugation of one tense of one verb, we use thesimple correlation drill. When we want to givepractice in one or more tenses of one or moreverbs, we use the progressive correlation drill.

We are in no way limited to one tense, either.A progressive correlation drill may be constructedto give a synopsis of one verb in several tenses.First, we correlate lexical items in position 1 withitems in position 2:

Teacher (model) : Die Jungen essen.Class (echo). : Die Jungen essen.

Teacher (cue) . gegessen.Class (response) : Die Jungen haben gegessen.Teacher (cue) . werdenClass (response) : Die Jungen werden essen.

Second, we may correlate items in position 2 withthose in position 1, thus drilling several verbs,varying both in number and in tense:Teacher (model) :Class (echo)Teacher (cue) :

Class (response) :

Teacher (cue)Class (response) :

Teacher (cue) :

Class (response) :

Teacher (cue)Class (response) :

Teacher (cue) :

Class (response) :Teacher (cue) :

Class (response) :

Teacher (cue) :

Class (response) :

Wir lesen das Buch.Wir lesen das Buch.

gelesenWir haben das Buch gelesen.Der StudentDer Student hat das Buch gelesen.

gebracht.Der Student hat das Buch gebracht.Sie (plural)Sie haben das Buch gebracht.

bringenSie bringen dasWalterWalter bringt das Buch.

wirdWalter wird das Buch bringen.

This last example raises the question of whatkind of item can be substituted in a slot. As youcan see, the single word Wir has been replacedby Der Student. This does not violate any prin-ciple of drill construction, since the slots them-selves remain intact and the frame is unaffected.But it does mean that we should call attentionto the four different kinds of substitutions thatcan be made: replacement, expansion, alteration,or reduction.

1) Replacement involves the substitution of oneor more words which differ completely in formfrom the original entry. Thus we say we "replace"Karl by Der Hund, Ihr or Die Frau; and lauft bykommt, ruft, or sieht in the examples below:

A. TeacherClassTeacherClassTeacherClassTeacherClass

B. TeacherClassTeacherClassTeacherClassTeacherClass

Karl lauft.Karl lauft.Der HundDer Hund lauft.IhrIhr lauft.Die FrauDie Frau lauft.Karl lauft.Karl lauft.

kommt.Karl kommt.

ruft.Karl ruft.

sieht.Karl sieht.

2) Expansion involves adding modifiers to, orotherwise extending the length of the slot. Thus,Das schone Madchen and Das schone jungeMadchen could be simple expansions of DasMlidchen in the frame Das Madchen ist krank.Each of the three slots is filled by a single wordin the frame Er schwinimt gut may be expandedto include two or more words, as is done with thesubject slot in the following example:Teacher(model) : Er schwimmt gut.

Class(echo) : Er schwimmt gut.Teacher(cue) : Der MannClass(response) : Der Mann schwimmt gut.Teacher(cue) : alteClass(response) : Der alte Mann schwimmt gut.Teacher(cue) , der mit meinem Vater arbeitet,

Class(response) : Der alte Mann, der mit meinem Vater

arbeitet, schwimmt gut.

The expanded subject in the last response above(Der alte Mann, der mit meinem Vater arbeitet)is the same basic syntactical structure (the sub-ject of the utterance) whose drill was begun bythe simple frame Er schwimmt gut. In the samplebelow, slots 1, 2, and 3 are progressively replacedand expanded:Teacher(model) : Dieter kommt heute.Class(echo) : Dieter kommt heute.Teacher(cue) : Mein FreundClass(response) : Mein Freund kommt heute.Teacher(cue)Class(response) : Mein Freund ist heute gekommen.Teacher(cue) : guterClass(response) : Mein guter Freund ist heute gekommen.Teacher(cue)

gekommen.

Class(response)

Teacher(cue)

nach Hause

: Mein guter Freund ist heute nach Hausegekommen.

Strassenbahnmit der

Class(response) : Mein guter Freund ist heute mit der

Strassenbahn nach Hause gekommen.

The last steps of this drill involve the expansionof the predicate from kommt heute to ist heutemit der Strassenbahn nach Hause gekommen.

3) Reduction. The same drill given above couldbe done in reverse by starting with the last sen-tence and progressively reducing it by replace-ment until we have returned to the basic frame:Dieter kommt heute.

4) Alteration is a change in the ending of theoriginal entry, e.g., hast gerufen for rufst.

It is important to realize that any drill mayutilize a combination of these structures withoutviolating the syntactical pattern established inthe basic frame (i.e., the lengthy drill in section 2)above was a substitution drill which involved both

--35

replacement and expansion.) Below is anotherexample of a three-part progressive substitutiondrill involving replacement and expansion:Teacher(model) : Ich spreche mit dem Lehrer.Class(echo) Ich spreche mit dem Lehrer.Teacher(cue)Class(response)Teacher(cue)Class(response) dem neuen

neuen

: Ich spreche mit dem neuen Lehrer.

: Die Studenten

: Die Studenten sprechen mitLehrer.

Teacher(cue)

Class(response)

Teacher(cue)Class(response) : Die Studenten sprachen mit dem

Lehrer, der Bilcher schreibt.

The processes of replacement, expansW, reduc-tion and alteration are combined in boki simpleand progressive drills to meet the needs of specificdrill focuses.

Up until now we have been considering variouskinds of cued drill procedures designed to producea regularly alternating single structural changein some frame as a base. Substitution and correla-tion drills were best suited for these purposes.Now we shall present several drill procedureswhich use a different sentence as a base for everystep in the drill. These drills fall into three generalcategories: transformation drills, question-answerdrills, and translation drills. The term "transfor-mation" is used here as a name of a specific drilland should not be confused with "transformationgrammar."

(1) Transformation Drills. Below are a veryfew of the many possible transformation drills:

a) A verb in the present indicative tense trans-formed into past tense:

Teacher cues: Student's transformations:Ich warte auf meinem Ich wartete auf meinem

Bucher schreibt., der

: Die Studenten sprechen mit dem neuenLehrer, der Biicher schreibt.

sprachen

neuen

Freund.Was haben Sie vor?Wir gehen nach Hause.Hans sucht den Hund.Peter sieht seinen Bruder.Ilse lasst die Tilr offen.

Freund.Was hatten Sie vor?Wir gingen nach Hause.Hans suchte den Hund.Peter sah. seinen Bruder.Ilse liess die Till. offen.

In the preceding drill it will be observed thatthe verbs in the present tenses have been deliber-ately selected to provide a variety of regularand irregular forms. This type of advanced exer-cise assumes that regular and irregular verbshave already been practiced separately in sub-stitution and correlation drills.

b) Word substitution transformation of direct

or indirect object pronouns:Teacher cues: Student's transformations:

Die Eltern bringen flu. Die Eltern bringen es ihr.ern Geschenk.

Die Mutter gibt euch die Die Mutter gibt sie euch.Gitarre.

Mein Freund schenkt mir Mein Freund schenkt ihneinen Roman. mir.

Siehst du das Brot? Siehst du es?c) Transformation of verb from singular to

plural, and vice versa, with accompanyingchange in the possessive adjective: (A-LMGerman Level I, p. 71)

Teacher cues: Student's transformations:Wir geben unsrem Ich gebe meinem Freund

Freund das Buch. das Buch.Er bringt seiner Lehrerin Sie bringen ihrer Lehrerin

den Roman. den Roman.Ihr kauft eurer Mutter Du kaufst deiner Mutter

eine Platte. eine Platte.Sie gibt Ihrer Schwester Sie geben Ihrer Schwester

einen Blumenstrauss. einen Blumenstrauss.Du leihst deinem Bruder Ihr leiht eurem Bruder

fiinfzig Pfennig. fiinfzig Pfennig.Sie zeigt ihrem Vater den Sie zeigen ihrem Vater den

Kuchen. Kuchen.Ich schenke meiner Wir schenken unsrer

Freundin die Blumen. Freundin die Blumen.d) Transformation of an affirmative sentence

to the negative:Teacher cues: Student's transformations:

Wir lernen Englisch. Wir lernen nicht Englisch.Er muss zu Hause bleiben. Er muss nicht zu Hause

bleiben.Rudolf liebt mich. Rudolf liebt mich nicht.Gehen Sie morgen zur Gehen Sie morgen nicht

Schule? zur Schule?Er ruft ihn Er ruft ihn nicht an.

(2) Question-Answer Drills. These drills aredivided into two categories: those containing ques-tions which elicit the response Ja or Nein, andthose eliciting a response other than Ja or Nein.

a) Questions eliciting Ja or Nein:Teacher asks: Possible student responses:

Suchst du deinen Nein, ich babe ihn.Bleistift? gefunden.

Kommen Sie mit mir zur Nein, ich gehe mit Ilse.Schule?

Hat Fritz Ihnen einen Ja, er hat mir einenBlumenstraussgegeben? Blumenstrauss gegeben.

Nein, er hat mir keinenBlumenstrauss gegeben.

Will Fritz mit uns essen? Ja, er ist hungrig.Nein, er hat schon

gegessen.Kennen Sie FrAulein Nein, ich kenne Fraulein

Goetze? Goetze leider nicht.b) Question-answer drills tailatlerelicit a re-

sponse other than Ja or Nein are furtherdivided into three groups:1) Information questions, free response:

Teacher asks:Wo gehen Sie hin?

Wieviele Seiten muss Hansnoch lesen?

Was machen Sie, wennern Freund kommt?

36

Possible student responses:Wir holen unseren Vater

vom Flugplatz ab.Er muss noch sieben

Seiten lesen.Er hat alles gelesen.Wir essen!

1.1.,,,,,,MgrriMr

2) Controlled-response questions (answerrestricted to a choice between two alter-natives contained in the cue):

Teacher asks: Student responds:Ist Paul mit dem Auto Er ist mit dem Auto

oder mit dem Zug angekommen.angekommen?

Besuchst du meine Ich besuche deineSchwester oder mich? Schwester.

Gibt Hans ihm oder ihr Er gibt es ihr.das Buch?

3) Cue-response questions:Teacher asks: Student responds:

(Oper) Gehen Sie heute Nein, ich gehe in die Oper.ins Kino?

(Freund) Rufst du deine Nein, ich rufe meinenSchwester an? Freund an.

(zwolf) Warm haben Sie Ich habe heute um zwolfheute gegessen? Ulu. gegessen.

(3) Translation Drills. These drills may be ofseveral types. Extreme caution must be used indeciding those few cases in which translationdrills are useful. Their overuse is contrary tothe audio-lingual approach. They may, for ex-ample, be used to point up differences in struc-ture between the source and target languageswhich cannot be effectively and unmistakablycued from within the target language:

a)Teacher says:

Das Haus gefallt mir.I like the hat.He likes the hat.I like the hats.We like the books.She liked him very

much.

b)Sie stelit sich var.

She stations herselfbefore the class.

She introduces herfriend.

She introduces herwork.

She introduces herself.

Er gab mir ein Geschenk.He spent a lot of

money.He published the book.He gave me a present.

Student responds:Das Haus gefallt mir.Der Hut gefallt mir.Der Hut gefallt ihm.Die Hiite gefallen mir.Die Bticher gefallen uns.Ihr hat er gut gefallen.

Sie stellt sich vor.Sie stellt sich vor die

Klasse.Sie stellt ihre Freundin

vor.Sie stellt ihre Arbeit vor.

Sie stellt sich vor.

Er gab mir ein Geschenk.Er gab viel Geld aus.

Er gab das Buch heraus.Er gab mir ein Geschenk.

Translation drills may also be used to reinforcepatterns learned through progressive substitutiondrills. For instance, after drills on the comparisonof adjectives have been completed, the followingtranslation drill could be used:

Teacher says:Rolf ist so gross wie Fritz.

Gisela is as old as Ilse.She is not as pretty as

Doris.She is older than Doris.He is more intelligent

than his sister.

Student responds:Rolf ist so gross wie Fritz.Gisela is so alt wie Ilse.Sie ist nicht so schon wie

Doris.Sie ist alter als Doris.Er ist intelligenter als

seine Schwester.Four additional pattern drill types (essential

variations of the major types we have been dis-cussing) appear frequently in audio-lingual textsand are used for specific types of learning objec-tives:

1. Repetition Drill. In this drill, students repeatindividually or in chorus what has been modeled.We use this drill especially for dialogue presenta-tion and for the establishment of a new pattern.A good example is that used in presenting objectpronouns:

Teacher (model)Class (echo)Teacher (model)Class (echo)Teacher (model)Class (echo)Teacher (model)Class (echo)

: Ilse hat die Platten.: use hat die Platten.: Use hat sie.: use hat sie.: Ilse hat den Roman.: nse hat den Roman.: use hat ihn.: use hat ihn.

etc.

2. Combination Drill. In this drill two clauses(or sentences) are combined into a single unit orsentence:

Teacher says: Student responds:Ich mochte ein Kleid, das Ich mOchte ein rotes Kleid.

rot ist.Wir wollen in ein Restau- Wir wollen in em nettes

rant gehen, das nett ist. Restaurant gehen.Georg will eh" Haus Georg will ein neues Haus

kaufen, das neu ist. kaufen.Ich tanze mit meiner Ich tanze mit meiner

Freundin. Sie ist hiibschen Freundin.hubsch.3. Rejoinder Drill. There are two types of re-

joinder drills: directed rejoinder and free re-joinder. In the former, the student is told whathe is to do (directed dialogue). In the latter thestudent is free to respond in any stylistically-appropriate manner:

A. Directed rejoinder drill: (From A-LM Ger-man Level I, p. 128)

Teacher says: Student says:Ilse, fragen Sie Luise, wie Ilse: Wie kommen wir am

Sie and Maria am besten zum Park?besten zum Parkkommen!

Luise, sagen Sie ihnen, Luise: Geht hier fiber dendass sie hier fiber den Platz!Platz gehen sollen.

Maria, fragen Sie Luise, Maria: Ist es weit bisob es bis dorthin weit dorthin?ist!

Luise, sagen Sie ihr, dass Luise: Es ist sehr weit.es sehr weit ist!

Ilse, fragen Sie Maria, ob Ilse: Kannst du so weitsie so weit laufen kann! laufen?

Luise, sagen Sie ihnen, Luise: Nehmt lieber dendass sie lieber den Bus Bus!nehmen sollen.

B. Free rejoinder drill:Teacher1st Student2nd Student3rd Student4th Student

-- 37 --

: Peter ist heute krank.: Das ist aber schade!: Ist er zum Arzt gegangen?: Es tut mir leid.: Er ist zu Hause geblieben, nicht wahr?

etc.

4. Question Formation Drill. Here we teach thestudent to form a question from a declarative cue:Teacher : use ist gestern mit ihrem Auto gekom-

men.1st Student : Wer ist mit ihrem Auto gekommen?2nd Student : Warm ist Ilse gekommen?3rd Student : Wie ist use gekommen?

To be successful, drills impose two require-ments, the first having to do with their prepara-tion, the second with their use. As to preparation,it must be emphasized again that there is nosubstitute for drills prepared under the guidanceof a trained linguist and double-checked foridiomatic authenticity by a native speaker. When-ever possible, traditional materials should bediscarded in favor of audio-lingual materials.Where it is impossible to do so and the teacherwishes to update his traditional text, it is alwayswiser to "borrow" drills from prepared audio-lingual materials, such as Verstehen and Sprechen,A-LM German, etc. The teacher inexperienced indrill making must proceed with the extreme cau-tion in creating his own drills until he has had theopportunity to practice extensively under criticalguidance.

As to how best to use the drills, we mustremember that it is vital that every student par-ticipate. The beauty of audio-lingual drills is theiradaptability to either choral or individual recita-tion, and we must take advantage of this to makesure that everyone takes part. The fact that adrill has only 8 items in no way limits it to 8individuals in the class. It is always assumed thata drill will be repeated over and over until everystudent has a chance to vary all the slots requestedto be changed. The object of these drills (as is theobject of all audio-lingual drills) is fluency. Thedrill is to be repeated until the entire class canperform it flawlessly (including an authenticaccent). In some classes, an exercise will beperformed perfectly after only a few minutes ofpractice. In others, nearly half a period must bespent on a relatively brief exercise. Only theperfect performance of a drill indicates that thedrill is ended. Class time can be saved, of course,by having the student practice ahead of time inthe language laboratory with tapes of the exercisesdone by native speakers. No exercise is considered"done," until perfection is reached in classroomrecitation.

We shall have more to say about the additionaluses to which these drills may be put in ourchapter on the language laboratory.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION1. Observe the following pattern drills. Describe

them in terms of their type, noting if expan-sion, replacement, alteration, or reduction isinvolved. Then specify the purpose of eachdrill and why it is the best drill type to achievethe purpose you have given.2

_38

(a)STIMULUS

Sie eilen zu den Bussen.Sie eilen zu den

Bahnhofen.Sie eilen zu den Zugen.Sie eilen zu den

Flugzeugen.

RESPONSESie eilen zum Bus.Sie eilen zum Bahnhof.

Sie ellen zum Zug.

Sie eilen zum Flugzeug.(b)

Teacher(model) : Ich lese es in den Zeitungen.Class(echo) : Ich lese es in den Zeitungen.Teacher(cue) Biicher.Class(response) : Ich lese es in den Biichern.Teacher(cue) Roman.Class(response) : Ich lese es in den Romanen.

etc.

(c)Teacher(stimulus) : Wohin ist Kurt geschwommen?Class(response) : Kurt ist ans Ufer geschwommen.Teacher(stimulus) : Wer ist aus dem Zug gesprungen? Herbert.Class(response) : Herbert ist aus dem Zug gesprungen.

etc.

(d)Teacher(model) : Die Oberstufe hat einen Ball.Class(echo) : Die Oberstufe hat einen Ball.Teacher(cue) : Jedes JahrClass(response) : Jedes Jahr hat die Oberstufe einen Ball.Teacher(cue) im FebruarClass(response) : Jedes Jahr im Februar hat die Oberstufe

einen Ball.etc.

(e)Er macht sich keine Sorgen.

She doesn't worry.I don't worry.We worry.Do you (du) worry?

2. Explain how the concept of individual co-occurrence and construction co-occurrenceaffect the way in which successful drills areconstructed.

3. How can a cue (the phrase said by the teacherto stimulate the student's response) be pre-sented so that not more than one slot is poten-tially filled at any stage of the drill? Constructbrief sample drills to illustrate the "right"and "wrong" ways.

4. Use the following three phrases as basicframes. Construct a simple substitution drill

2Drill examples taken from ALM-German, Level Two.

for Frame A, using slots 1 and 2. Do the samefor Frame B, using slots 1, 2, and 3. Then con-struct a progressive substitution drill forFrame B, using slots 1, 2, and 3. Construct asimple correlation drill for Frame C.

Frame Basic pattern sentence

ABC

Er reicht mir die Hand.Hermann schreibt den Brief.Gerda ist Deutsche.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

William G. Moulton, "What is Structural Drill?" Inter-national Journal of American Linguistics XXIX(1963) 3-15.

Harold Basilius, "A Structuralist View of German Syn-tax," Modern Language Journal XXXVII (1953) 130-3.

Karl Boost, Neue Vntersuchungen zum Wesen wul zurStruktur des Deutschen, Satzes, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1955.

Samuel Brown, "German," in Simon Belasco, ed.,Manual and Anthology of Applied Linguistics, Wash-ington, D. C.: USOE, 1960.

Herbert L. Kufner, The Grammatical Structures ofEnglish and German, Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1962.

James W. Marchand, "The Teaching of German WordOrderA Linguistic Approach," Language LearningVIII (1958) 27-35.

Hans Glinz, Die Innere Form des Deutschen, Bern: A.Francke, 1947.

John Waterman, "Basic Syntax for Language Learn-ing." German Quarterly XXX (1957) 262-268.

39






Written by

Prof. David M.FeldmanProf. Waiter D. Kline


04114P4sIvINP#411141N41.041041,004+04.040000#404141#41140041~0411444

Chapter 6

THE LANGUAGE LABORATORY

Much of the current interest in foreign languageprograms in the secondary school centers aroundthe language laboratory. The laboratory has almostsimultaneously been touted as a panacea for alltypes of language learning problems and de-nounced as useless, once the student loses interestin the "novelty" of the mechanical devicesemployed in the lab. A realistic view, as we mightexpect, is somewhere between these two extremes.As most linguistic analysts with experience indealing with beginning language studies willagree, the laboratory is not the only way to gainproficiency in a language. The audio-lingual ap-proach does not depend entirely upon the labora-tory for its success, although its effectiveness isgenerally enhanced by using the lab. While manyof us as language teachers have had good studentswho do not use, and apparently do not need to use,laboratory facilities to acquire proficiency, evi-dence also indicates that the low-aptitude (yetmotivated) student will gain much from the useof lab tapes, often exceeding, by hard work andconcentrated laboratory practice, the achieve-ments of the high-aptitude students.

The laboratory, like the audio-lingual approachitself, is largely the product of experience gainedin the World War II Army language trainingprograms. In these programs, which we discussedin Chapter 1, the learning of a foreign languagewas treated as the acquisition of a skill, whichcould be acquired only through the "overlearning"of material until it became a part of the learner'sautomatic speech habits. This was accomplishedby intensive practice sessions in which dialoguesand pattern drills were done and redone underthe supervision of a native-speaking instructor.As this amount of student-teacher contact wasimpossible in the school systems, the laboratorywas seen as one way to provide this guided, pro-grammed instruction without the physical pres-ence of the teacher. The laboratory in today's

secondary school serves to help the studentassimilate speech patterns by overlearning untilthey become his own habits of expression. In thissense, the student has, in a self-contained listener-speaker situation, the opportunity for audio-lin-gual practice and aural experience with authenticmaterials.

Because the student in the language laboratoryis isolated both from his group and from externaldistractions, he is able to give maximum attentionto the taped materials. This "individual" experi-ence also makes the student less self-consciouswhen he is required to repeat after the tape,reducing the inhibition factor so detrimental toeffective language learning.

Another physical advantage of the laboratoryis that the student is able to speak individuallyfor an entire lab period, whereas in class eachstudent is fortunate to speak for a minute or twoin a whole hour (except in repetition drills, etc.,of course). This is making efficient use of thestudent's time since he is spending every minutein active production of language.

Psychologically, the laboratory is an "all busi-ness" environment and in some cases actuallyincreases the attentiveness of some students. Wemight also mention that a well-equipped languagelaboratory provides the student with a highfidelity of sound reproduction through his ear-phones, free from external interference to whichhe is subjected in class, including the inevitableinfluence of the imperfect pronunciation of adja-cent students in the classroom. Although it isa good idea, as the student advances, to exposehim to muffled speech or noisy environments inorder to accustom him to everyday speech situa-tions in which street noises and the like do "blur"conversation, beginning and intermediate studentswill profit from the clear reproduction of theacoustic image by high-fidelity equipment.

The student is allowed to proceed at his own

optimum rate of learning by the procedure ofself-pacing with programmed lab materials. Thusthe lab is also a way for students to make up anoccasional lesson missed due to absence, or toprovide the superior student with the opportunityto work ahead with greater challenge.

Because the larigungp laboratory is still a some-what revolutionary phenomenon in languageteaching, not all teachers agree as to how it shouldbe used, what goals should be set for it, whatresults can be expected, and how the teacher'sresponsibilities toward it should be distributed.Consequently, a new methodology has been devel-oped (or rather, is evolving) toward finding waysto couple this radically different teaching deviceto the older ones with which we are alreadyfamiliar.

Is the laboratoky simply a classroom withelectronic equipment? No. The laboratory has itsown set of functions which it performs in additionto, and not in place of, the regular classroomteaching program. Misuses of the laboratory aredue in part to misunderstandings concerning itsproper role and to a less-than-complete considera-tion of all the implications of these functions.

As a collection of equipment the lab does nothingby itself and because it is at its weakest whensuperimposed on traditional instructional practice,it is vital that the physical layout of the lab andits position in the foreign language program ineach school be considered as inseparable, with theprime voice in the final decision being that of theforeign language faculty of the school concerned.From the outset, matters of staffing the lab andkeeping it open at the time when it will best servethe needs of the program of which it is an integralpart is as urgent an issue at the planning stage asthe selection of the electro-mechanical equipmentitself (Cf. items 1 through 9 in the Do's and Dont'sat the end of this chapter).

Since, as we have said, the purpose of thelaboratory is to provide the student with thepractice he needs to make the patterns he haslearned a part of his speech habits, only materialwhich has first been presented to him and sub-jected to the teacher's correction in class is fitmaterial for the lab. This does not mean thatmaterial which is a variation on that presentedin class (such as recombination narratives of dia-logue materials, as discussed in Chapter 3) isnot proper lab fare, but rather that the lab is notthe place for the presentation of new material.

The class drills and their counterparts in thelaboratory should be designed so as to accentespecially the points of conflict between the sourceand target languages. Everything that is new tothe student, suggests George Scherer, should bebrought to the "safety level" in class first by theteacher before the students are sent to the labora-tory for overlearning the same material. The"safety level" is that level of accomplishment

which insures that every student is hearing whathe should be hearing and that he is echoing thematerial accurately, not only in chorus, but alone.

Recordings of songs, plays, and recitations areuseful in the lab only when the student is alreadyfamiliar with the vocabulary and structure pat-terns which form the basis of these materials.(It is understood, of course, that the student isexpected to be able to induce meanings and func-tions from familiar vocabulary and structureitems.)

Pierre Delattrei suggests that there are threegoals for which language laboratories were cre-ated: (1) to develop natural speed in conversationresponse, without reflections as to the grammarrules involved; (2) to learn the patterns of a lan-guage orally, without reference to a spelling thatwould mask the linguistic truth; and (3) to acquirehabits of correct pronunciation and fluent auralcomprehension.

The function of the laboratory, then, is to sup-plement the classroom procedure by providingthe student with an opportunity for extensive,planned, individual practice, with authentic mate-rials. In this sense, the idea that every classroomshould be at once a classroom and a laboratory(the so-called electronic classroom) is neithernecessary nor even recommended as long as thelaboratory is made available to the students forextra practice along lines we shall suggest below.

Despite a great deal of literature which tendsto dispute the principle of the language laboratoryas a supplementary program, the vast majorityof experts in the field adhere to the approach weare supporting.

The obvious implication in the concept of thelaboratory as an adjunct to the classroom is thatit is to be used beyond the language class hours.This does not mean that it is entirely an after-school arrangement, for it is possible to make thelaboratory available during the lunch hour andthose hours when students, in many schools, atleast, have the opportunity to decide about thewise use of their time during certain "free"periods.

Certainly the laboratory can be nothing morethan a novelty for the students as long as theonce-or-twice-weekly migration (classroom to lab-oratory and back) system or the mistaken use ofthe laboratory as a classroom are tolerated. It iswasteful to pre-empt the teacher's time pushingbuttons instead of teaching. These practices aredue, in part, to the difficult problem of schedulingso that appropriate outside-of-class use of thelaboratory would be possible.

There is no easy way around itthere will beextra hours of work required by the effective useof the laboratory and released time for a teacher,

iDelattre, Pierre, "Testing Audio Equipment by Ear,"Audiovisual Instruction, 5:156; May, 1960.

.40.

other employee, or the use of a teacher-aide mustbe planned from the outset.

The equipment to be found in secondary schoollaboratories varies with the use that the schoolplans for it and with the funds available for thepurchase of equipment. This is an extremelyserious matter in that if the equipment does notfully meet the exact specifications of the programin which it is to be used, it can easily ruin thatprogram. Fundamental to all effective installa-tions is this dual need: (1) the student must beable to listen to, and (2) record his own voice.Less necessary, but still desirable, is a monitoringdevice so that the teacher can, if he chooses, listenin on his students as they practice.

To be effective in its role as a supplementarypractice center, the laboratory must be a roomseparate and distinct from the classroom. Theconcept of the electronic classroom, which doublesas laboratory and classroom, is often erroneouslyviewed as a means of eliminating a separate lan-guage laboratory with resulting financial econo-mies. But if we compare the four major functionsof the electronic classroom [ (1) the immediateshifting from live to tape presentation and back,as in dialogue presentations; (2) the immediateaccessibility of a native model of dialogue anddrill material in the text; (3) the conservation ofthe teacher's voice in certain kinds of drills; (4)the limited testing of listening comprehension],with these and the many more which can beaccomplished in the laboratory, we realize that theelectronic classroom may be a desirable adjunctto, but never a replacement for, a well-designedlaboratory.

We shall only outline here some of the moreuniversal features of the efficient laboratory. Theteacher may consult the references given at theend of this chapter for more detailed information,remembering that it is not the size of the labora-tory, but rather the quality of the equipment itcontains, that ultimately determines its value.

We divide the laboratory into three mainsections:

I. AdministrativeA. Master consoleB. Repair and maintenance counterC. Supervisor's desk and master tape stor-

age unitII. Instructional

A. Student boothsB. Library shelves of student tapes

III. PreparationalA. Recording "studio"

Let us now consider each of these sections in thelight of the foregoing discussion.

First, the administrative area. The master con-sole, in addition to the master power switch forthe whole laboratory, should also provide for:

1) Playing a particular recorded programto any number or combination of student

positions without necessarily pre-emptingall positions;

2) Dubbing several copies of tapes from themaster played at the console to decks inthe student booths;

3) Monitoring any given student positionwhile it is in use.

The monitoring function is actually optional, sincemonitoring is a technique with an unconvincinghistory of success. After all, teacher time is moreprofitably spent in the classroom. Only one boothcan be monitored by a single person at one time,and the amount of attention thus given eachstudent is relatively insignificant. Besides, it isoften quite unnerving for the student suddenlyto hear his programto which he is supposedlypaying close attentionabruptly interrupted bythe voice of the unseen monitoring teacher.

If we eliminate the monitoring function, themaster console should contain one or more play-back machines (for dubbing or generating amaster program), a disc turntable and pickup, amaster microphone which can replace any otherprogram source at any time, and program selectorswitches which allow the teacher or supervisorto control the distribution when more than oneprogram source is in use. A small workbench witha locked cabinet should be provided for the repairof minor breakdowns. A desk, locked file, andbulletin board should be provided for the labora-tory supervisor. A large locked cabinet should alsobe provided in the administrative area for. thestorage of master and virgin tapes.

The instructional area consists primarily ofstudent positions. These should be booths withacoustically-treated side panels, glass front andopen back (where the student sits). The trans-parent front is important so that the supervisorcan see any student at work at any time withoutleaving the area of the master controls. Eachbooth should be equipped with facilities for thestudent to hear the program, respond to it, andeither hear his response simultaneously or recordit for playback comparison, and to control the rateof presentation of the program (self-pacing) bylengthening the pauses in it.

The equipment might ideally consist of aheadset-microphone combination, a 2-track record-playback tape deck with individual volume andon/off controls, and a pause pedal. Although noone student may put all these facilities to use ata given moment, we feel that the well-designedlaboratory will provide all the features we aredescribing if it is to achieve maximum flexibilityand effectiveness. The headset-microphone plusthe record-playback equipment at each studentbooth provides the possibilities of audio-passive,audio-active, and audio-active-evaluative (audio-active-compare) learning experiences. Audio-pas-sive refers to equipment which provides onlyfacilities for listening; audio-active adds the pos-

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sibility of the student hearing his own voicethrough the earphones in response to the stimuli;audio-active-evaluative (audio-active-compare) in-dicates that equipment which includes the fore-going plus the possibility of the student recordinghis response for immediate or delayed playbackand comparison.

The pause control adds the important dimensionof "self-pacing" essential to individual pro-grammed work in a library-style laboratory. When"self-pacing" is not desired, the master console, aswe have described it, provides for the predeter-mined pacing of a given program in any onebooth, combination of booths, all booths. Theaccessibility of open shelves where the studenttapes for the particular program used in theforeign language sequence and for supplementarywork are available guarantees maximum realiza-tion of the laboratory's use potential withoutadding the "check in/check out" task to the super-visor's duties.

The recording "studio" is, at best, a separateroom with a highly sensitive microphone andrecording equipment with which the foreign lan-guage faculty may prepare new teaching materials.Where a separate room is not possible, a well-insulated student-type booth with the appropriaterecording equipment may be substituted.

The laboratory room itself should be acousti-cally treated, well lighted and ventilated, andappropriately wired.

In the planning of all these features, the foreignlanguage faculty should seek the aid of a qualifiedconsultant not committed to the interests of anysingle equipment manufacturer. The consultantmust be a specialist in language laboratory con-struction and use; the local physics teacher oraudio-visual technician is rarely sufficientlytrained in these specific areas of concern tofunction adequately as consultant.

Material for use in the laboratory is usuallydivided into two types: (1) prerecorded, commer-cially-produced tapes to accompany particulartextbooks; and (2) tapes recorded by individualteachers or specially-hired native speakers tosupplement course work. Because these tapes servethe students as models of diction, it is importantthat the speakers possess pleasing tonal quality,ample range, and extremely clear pronunciation.The greater the variety of accents and voice typesrepresented on the tapes, as long as they areunquestionably native, the better, since the varia-tions will help prepare the student for the naturalvariations encountered in the countries where thetarget language is spoken.

Directions to the secondary school student onhow to use tapes are clearest when presented inthree phases: (1) as a part of the assignment givenin the classroom, (2) on a written sheet whichthe student either keeps in his notebook or isgiven as he enters the laboratory, and (3) repeated

at the beginning of the tape. These directionsshould be clear and succinct. Where they areunusually long or complex, they should be re-peated. Students should be given sufficient time,also, to adjust to the directions: this sometimescalls for pauses within the recorded instructions.If the tape consists of exercises to be done inconjunction with a text, then page, paragraph,and line numbers should be given. Students andlaboratory technicians always appreciate knowingexactly where specific exercises end. A simple"End of Exercise X," said on the tape, is generallysufficient.

Among other' technical considerations beforemaking tapes is one of time. Since the laboratoryis essentially a device for reinforcement, optimumresults are obtained when the assignments arerelatively brief and intensive. A tape which canbe repeated three times during the laboratoryperiod is considered to be of adequate length.Time is also an important factor in exerciseswhich the student is asked to repeat after a model.To allow for the pupil's hesitation and slower rateof reproduction, the pauses allowed for his repeti-tion should be approximately 30 percent to 50percent longer than the time it took for the nativeto record the utterance. Sometimes a cue, such as aclick or a snap, will speed up the pupil's response.

The content of tapes depends largely upon theneeds of the students, but is also determined bythe fact that the language laboratory is mosteffective in promoting speaking and comprehen-sion skills. Drills to improve pronunciation andintonation may be specially devised for the pro-duction of individual sounds, sound sequences, orintonation patterns. Exercises, such as are foundin many texts, are helpful, when taped, in focusingthe pupils' attention on specific pronunciationproblems; but it is well to remember that pro-nunciation and intonation accuracy will also beimproved through laboratory practice with thestructural patterns from dialogues or patternpractice sessions.

Special precautions are needed in the earlymonths when students have not yet acquired theawareness necessary to recognize subtle discrep-ancies between the model and their reproductionof it. For this reason, early laboratory assignmentsare best limited exclusively to duplicating ratherthan expanding material already presented inclass. Later, as students learn to discriminate, theymay train themselves in self-monitoring which is,after all, a major goal of laboratory practice.

The basic format of all laboratory tapes whichis adhered to by the best commercially-producedmaterials and which should be scrupulously ob-served by persons creating new materials for usein the laboratory is as follows:1. The exercises on the tapes are designed to makethe pupil either echothat is, imitatewhat hehas heard, or to make him respondin other

-- 42 --

words, create the new grammatical pattern re-quested.2. The listen-and-respond exercises work on theSkinnerian principle of Stimulus-Response-Rein-forcement.2 That is, the pupil first hears a stimu-lus, such as a word or a sentence. Then there is apause in which he is to say what is requested ofhim. Immediately afterward he hears the correctresponse so that he may know right away whetherhe was right or wrong. Then the model echoes thecorrect response for reinforcement. Finally, a newstimulus is presented.Cycle 1.Stimulus

Cycle 4.Pause forlearner toecho

Cycle 2.Pause for learnerto respondCycle 5.Model echoescorrect responseto leave the pupilwith the correctacoustic image.

Cycle 3.CorrectresponseCycle 1.

etc.

Cycle 2. If a strictly-controlled space for the stu-dent's response is required, then the appro-priate space must be provided on the tape.However, if a response to be made at aspecific rate of speed is not required, thenno space is provided on tape, but rathermerely an auditory signal (bell or buzzer)to indicate that the student should activatethe pause control to provide enough timeto form the correct response.

Cycle 4. Here again, if no space has been providedon the tape for the student's echo, thenas soon as he has listened to the correctresponse in Cycle 3, he activates the pausecontrol again while echoing the correctresponse. If the pupil responded correctlyin Cycle 2, repeating the response in Cycle4 will reinforce his mastery of the pattern.If, however, he has said it incorrectly,echoing the correct response will help learnit

3. After completing the first practice using thepause control, the pupil rewinds and goes throughthe tape again without the pause control. Thiswill help build up speech reflexes to the point ofautomaticity that comes only with much practice.The pupil should go over the drill again and againuntil he can do it perfectly and correctly in thepause provided on the tape. Once the pupil hasmastered each item, it should not take him anylonger to make his responses than the time pro-vided on the tape.

The teacher should, as a general practice, listento all tapes to be used as laboratory assignmentsso that he may eliminate from his own modelingof the utterances, which the student will later usein the laboratory, any disparity between his oralproduction and that of the taped model.

Syntactic drills, like the phonetic drills we havebeen discussing, are best suited for laboratorypurposes when the target item is not long andremains predictably consistent throughout theexercise. Thus, almost all of the pattern-drill types11101..111111.

2The application of the Skinnerian principle as statedhere has been evolved by 1"Yr. Gustave Mathieu.

discussed in Chapter 5 are potentially useful forthe laboratory. Translation drills, combined pat-tern replacement drills, and free rejoinder drillsare better reserved exclusively for classroom use.Exactly as in the creation of classroom drills, asufficient amount of content should be providedin the given form; the resulting target changeshould represent only the desired variation. Con-cise drills, scheduled so that the entire tape can bedone at least three times in a given laboratoryperiod, will produce the best results.

In addition to pronunciation and syntactic drills,oral-aural comprehension-reproduction drills areuseful in the laboratory. In these exercises, de-signed for more advanced pupils, narrative phrasesdemonstrating more subtle pronunciation andintonation patterns, conditioned by longer andmore complex sentences, are presented for repeti-tion. The student responds without benefit ofwritten text. For the purposes of such drills, tapescan be prepared from existing recordings of con-temporary theater or from class materials. Dia-logue from the theater is always the preferredliterary form for audio-lingual drill since it comesclosest to normal speech. Poetry i y discouragedsince formal poetic recitation is not usually repre-sentative of standard speech. Again, these ma-terials should be introduced only after the basicstructure and vocabulary contained have beenpresented in class.

The development of an accurate and meaningfultesting program for the language laboratory is acontinuing concern. Only recently have successfultests been devised to correspond to the two skillsthat may best be developed in the laboratory:listening-comprehension and speaking. We shalldiscuss the construction of specific tests in Chapter8. Our purpose below is merely to describe themost successful areas of testing which may becarried out in the laboratory.

Tests of speaking ability should parallel asclosely as possible the format of laboratory lessons.That is, the test must expect the student to makespoken responses to auditory or visual stimuli ata rate of speed that, while permitting him suffi-cient time to respond, does not allow time forreflection about the grammar rules involved.Pattern drills are, in themselves, as we havementioned, speaking tests, in that they are doneorally. In this sense, they make good foundationsfor laboratory tests. It might be added that aspeaking test should always include a part specifi-cally covering correct pronunciation and intona-tion. Again, the same pronunciation drill formatfrom daily laboratory lessons will serve as anadequate test, provided that the scope of thedrill-test is broad enough to include all thematerial that needs to be included.

Some schools have found laboratory testing tobe impractical, and have abandoned it in favor ofpersonal interviews, including aural-oral sections

43

in regular classroom tests or using a tape-recorderin the classroom. Bolinger suggests several im-portant drawbacks to laboratory testing whichshould be eliminated or compensated for, beforeproceeding. Among them are, first, the fact thatnot all students are equally adept at manipulatinglaboratory machinery introduces the extraneousfactor of manual dexterity into the test. Second,there is the question of mechanical failure which,even in the case of a single position, can invalidatean entire test. Third, laboratory tests, in whicheverybody is required to say the same answer atthe same time, create a confusing din and also maypermit the unprepared student to overhear thecorrect answer from his neighbor, thus invalidat-ing the examination as a reliable evaluation ofwhat that student knows.

Scheduling students for laboratory sessions, bothduring the school day and after school, is adifficult matter, and one that can be resolved aswe have said only as each institution takes intoaccount the number of positions available, thelength of the school day, the number of studentsrequired to use the laboratory, the length of thelaboratory session itself, the availability of tech-nical assistants and faculty supervisors, etc. Someresearchers feel that laboratory sessions of morethan 30 minutes each are counterproductive, inthat the attention span of most pupils does notexceed 30 minutes of intensive drill. Sloppy workin the laboratory, of course, encourages the habitu-ation of inaccurate responses, so care should beexercised not to overload the pupil in the labora-tory. It is generally advisable to insist that allstudents make use of the laboratory for a specifiedlength of time each day. This avoids the "punitive"atmosphere that has evolved in some schoolsin which "better" students are exempted fromlaboratory exercises.

Tape loan programs have helped many insti-tutions solve some of their scheduling problems.The program involves dubbing the master tape fora given practice session on a pupil's own tape.Enough students have access to a tape recorderat home to make this a practical way of increasinglistening time and cutting down the load on thelaboratory itself. It is cheaper to dub a tape thanto install additional positions.

Precautions must be taken, however, regardingthe use of copyrighted materials in the laboratoryand making them available for dubbing. Althoughmany schools do lend tapes by considering themextensions of the laboratory exercises, it is wellto secure direct information from the publishersconcerning your school's rights in dubbing andloaning tapes.

Detailed suggestions for day-to-day proceduresfor operating the laboratory and for ordering, re-cording, dubbing, labelling, and storing tapes willbe found in the sources referred to in the bibliog-raphy and appendices at the end of this chapter.

BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE LANGUAGELABORATORY'

Audiovisual Instruction, Vol. 7, No. 9, November, 1962.Special issue devoted to Foreign Language Teachers.

"Coordination between Classroom and Laboratory"Northeast Conference: Reports of the Working Com-mittees, 1961.

Delattre, Pierre, "Testing Audio Equipment by Ear,"Audiovisual Instruction, 5:156; May, 1960.

Eddy, Frederick D., and Elton Hocking, Editors, Pur-chase Guide for Programs in Science, Mathematics,Modem Foreign Languages, Boston, Massachusetts:Ginn and Co., 1959.Supplement, Boston, Massachusetts: Ginn and Co.,1961.

Gravit, Francis W., and Albert Valdman, Editors, Struc-tural Drills and the Language Laboratory, Report ofthe Third Language Laboratory Conference held atIndiana University, March, 1962, Bloomington, Indiana:International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 20,Part IL April, 1963.

Grittner, Frank, and Russell Pavlat, Language Labora-tory Specifications, Madison, Wisconsin: Departmentof Public Instruction, 147 North Capitol Ave., 1965.

Guide for the Development of Language LaboratoryFacilities. Bulletin of the California State Departmentof Education, Sacramento, Vol. 29, Oct., 1960.

Hayes, Alfred S., Technical Guide for Selection, Pur-()haze, Use and Maintenance of Language LaboratoryFacilities, Washington, D. C.: U. S. Office of EducationBulletin OE-21024, 1963.

, Step-by-Step Procedures for LanguageLaboratory Planning: Some Suggestions for Schoolsand Colleges. New York MLA Foreign Language Pro-gram Research Center, 1960.

Hocking, Elton, "Language Laboratories," The Nation'sSchools, Vol. 67, No. 2, Feb. 1961.

, Language Laboratory and LanguageLearning, Washington, D. C.: National Education Asso-ciation, 1964.

, "The Language Laboratory in LanguageLearning," California Schools, Vol. 31, January, 1960,

33-34.Hocking, Elton, and Robert C. Merchant. "The Fabulous

Language Labs," Educational Screen and Audio-VisualGuide, Vol. 38, April, 1959, 184-187.

Huebener, Theodore. Audio-Visual Techniques in Teach-ing Foreign Languages, New York: New York Uni-versity Press, 1950.

Hutchinson, Joseph C. Modern Foreign Languages inHigh Schools: The Language Laboratory. Washington,D. C.: U. S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare,0E-27013, 1961.

The Language Laboratory: How Effec-tive Is It? Washington, D. C.: U. S. Office ofEducation,1964.

Iodice, Don. Guidelines to Language Teaching in Class-room and Laboratory, Electronic Teaching Labora-tories, 1961.

Johnston, Marjorie C., and Catherine C. Seer ley, ForeignLanguage LabsiOltires in Schools and Colleges, Wash-ington, D. C.: SOE, 1959.

Done, Elliott H., Editor, "Language LaboratoriesModern Techniques in Teaching Foreign Languages,"Bulletin 19 of the Audio-Visual Education Association,New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Audio-Visual Center, 1959.

"Language Learning Today-45 Questions and Answers,"Audio-Visual Instruction, Washington, D. C.: NEA,1959.

This bibliography was compiled especially for this textby Dr. Gustave Mathieu.

44

Le Bel, C. J. How to Make Good Tape Recordings, NewYork: Audio-Devices, Inc., 1956.

Locke, William H. "To Record or Not," Modern Lan-guage Journal, XLIV, No. 6, Oct., 1960.

, "The Future of Language Laboratories,"Modern Language Journal, XLIX, No. 5, May, 1965.

Lorge, Sarah W. "Language Laboratory Research Studiesin New York City High Schools: A Discussion of theProgram and the Findings," Modern Language Jour-nal, XLVIII, No. 7, November, 1964.

Mark, David, How to Select and Use Your Tape Re-corder. New York: Rider, 1956.

Marty, Fernand L., Language Laboratory Learning, Box185, Wellesley, Massachusetts: Audio-Visual Publica-tions, 1960.

Mathieu, Gustave, "The Case for Tapes Without Pauses,"Modern Language Journal, XLIX, No. 1, January, 1965.

, "Language Laboratories," Review ofEducational Research, Vol. 32, April, 1962.

Morton, F. Rand, "The Language Laboratory as a Teach-ing Machine," PMLA.

Najam, Edward W., Editor, Materials and Techniquesfor the Language Laboratory, Report of the LanguageLaboratory Conference held at Purdue University,March, 1961. Bloomington, Indiana: InternationalJournal of AmeE2can Linguistics, Vol. 28, Part II,

January, 1962.Oinas, Felix J., Editor, Language Teaching Today, Re-

port of the Language Laboratory Conference heldat Indiana University, January, 1960, Bloomington,Indiana: International Journal of American Linguis-tics, Vol. 26, Part II, Oct., 1960.

Proceedings of the First Conference of the Role of theLanguage Laboratory in the Secondary Schools. AnnArbor: University of Michigan Language Laboratory,1960.

Stack, Edward M., The Language Laboratory and Mod-ern Language Teaching, New York: Oxford UniversityPress, Revised Edition, 1966.

Stafford, Thomas, and Arthur Karklins, First Aid forTape Recorders. Seattle: University of Washington,1960.

Weiler, Harold, Tape Recorders and Tape Recordings.Mineola, N. Y.: Radio Magazines, Inc., 1956.

Weir, Ruth Hirsch, Audio-Visual Aids in LanguageTeaching. Washington, D. C.: Georgetown University,1954.

Westcott, Charles, Tape Recorders, How They Work.Indianapolis: H. W. Sams and Co., 1956.

Scherer, George A. C., "The Use and Misuse of LanguageLaboratories." German Quarterly, May, 1965.

Planning and Operating a Language Lab or an Electronic Classroom in a High School

A Dozen Do's

1. DO hire a consultant (not employed by a labequipment manufacturer), to help you plan,evaluate bids, do the financial checking ofinstalled equipment.

2. DO define your teaching objectives first andthen choose equipment that will implementthem.

3. DO see at least three different types of suc-cessful installations in operation before youdecide on your equipment.

4. DO follow the instructions and guidelines (pp.26-28, 263-287) in the Council of Chief StateSchool Officers' Purchase Guide (Ginn andCo., 1959) and its Supplement (Ginn and Co.,1961).

5. DO urge each teacher who is to use the lab tostudy the growing literature on the subjectand take a workshop course.

6. DO write exact specifications into your con-tract and accept delivery as completed onlywhen the equipment tests up to specificationsand functions smoothly for a full month andwhen there are adequate provisions for serv-icing.

7. DO build an expandable and flexible lab tohandle future increases in demand and newimprovements in equipment and methods.

8. DO provide for regular preventive mainte-nance, with an annual budget of 3 percent to5 percent of your total initial cost.

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and Don'ts'1. DON'T try to do it yourself; planning a lab

requires as much knowledge as planning aschool and a radio station.

2. DON'T leave the planning entirely to admin-istrators or A-V specialists, who may knowlittle about foreign-language teaching.

3. DON'T plan a lab for use by everyone (foreignlanguages, English, shorthand, speech); thiswill result in confusion and frustration.

4. DON'T forget that a lab is no stronger than itsweakest component, mechanical or human.

5. DON'T expect the foreign-language teacher toteach and operate the lab at the same time;hire a technician to assist him.

6. DON'T forget Murphy's Law of Electronics:Anything that can go wrong will.

7.

8.

DON'T overlook the alternative of electronicequipment in each foreign-lan age classroominstead of a single lab.

DON'T forget to budget for tapes, discs, andother expendable equipment.

4A Dozen Do's and Don'ts for Planning and Operatinga Language Lab or an Electronic Classroom in a HighSchool, Modern Language Association Materials Cen-ter: New York, 1961.

9. DO insist that the lab work be an integralpart of the foreign-language course.

10. DO plan for short lab sessions; 20 minutes ofactive daily use is the ideal.

11. DO arrange your seating and equipment withprovision for viewing, as well as hearing andspeaking.

12. DO cut in half the teaching load of the labdirector and allow released time for all teach-ers who prepare lab materials.

9. DON'T impose the lab program on unwillingor unprepared foreign-language teachers; startwith one beginning course taught by an en-thusiast, make it a success, then add othercourses one at a time.

10. DON'T expect all your equipment to functionall the time; provide 10 percent to 20 percentspare parts or use only 80 percent to 90 per-cent of capacity.

11. DON'T accept inferior sound; it should befree of extraneous noise, and as natural andfull-ranged as a live voice.

12. DON'T expect the lab to reduce the teacher'swork; it will increase it, redistribute it, re-orient it, and make it more effective.

JOB DESCRIPTIONDuties of Language Laboratory Supervisor

by Gustave Mathieu

GENERAL:1. Works under the direct supervision of the

Chairman, Department of Foreign Languages.2. Assists foreign-language teachers by operating

equipment, locating materials, and playingtapes and records as requested.

3. Helps train inexperienced, new, substitute,and student teachers in the use of laboratoryequipment.

4. Performs common clerical tasks related to thelaboratory.

5. Advises when supplies and materials shouldbe ordered and notified when it may be neces-sary to repair or replace items of equipment.

6. Keeps laboratory open before and after schoolfor work by individual students (absentees,slow students, gifted students, etc.)

SPECIFIC:1. Opens language laboratory and closes it at

designated time.2. Plans and maintains a daily work sheet.3. Operates tape recorders, players, and record

players used in the laboratory.4. Places tapes and records on players according

to requests of instructors and students usingthe language laboratory.

5. Prepares equipment for use by instructors andstudents.

6. Checks and examines players, earphones, andmicrophones before each lab period to insurethat they are in good working condition.

7. Makes copies of instructor-made tapes, dupli-cates commercial materials (when permitted),and accumulates individual student recordingson tapes; cuts, splices, and repairs tapes, in-serts leaders and labels properly.

8. Catalogues, files, issues, receives, and main-tains tapes, records, scripts, and other instruc-tional materials and supplies.

9. Keeps records of location and use of instruc-tional materials.

10. Types and maintains lists, inventories, sched-ules, charts, and similar records.

11. Checks attendance of students.12. Cleans earphones and microphones frequently.13. Maintains and makes minor repairs to equip-

ment used in the laboratory; cleans, demagne-tizes, and lubricates tape heads, guides andrunners; cleans capstans and guides, lubricatesmotors in tape decks as recommended bymanufacturer; polishes heads; checks and re-places needles on turn-table arms; checks andreplaces rubber drive belts; adjusts speed fortape decks; cleans and dusts equipment. (Callrepairman for major repairs.)

14. Turns off power and locks all equipment,windows, and doors before leaving for the day.

15. Performs other work as required.5

Useful Accessories for Making Tapesby Gustave Mathieu

1. Leader and Timing Tape. Splice two to threefeet to each end of the tape. Leader tape pro-tects against damage and breakage to the endsof the tape. It also allows to record right tothe end of your tape and start the tape at theprecise point. Leader tape can also be insertedbetween selections for easy identification.Lastly, pertinent data (speed, selection, etc.)can be written on the leader tape with pen orpencil.

2. Splicing Tape. Do not use ordinary cellophanetape for splicing! Use only splicing tape.

5A more detailed analysis of the responsibilities of thesupervisor of a modern language laboratory will befound in Daymond Turner, "Occupation: LanguageLaboratory Director," Modern Language Journal,XLVIII, 3 (1964), 151-154.

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3. Automatic Tape Splicer. Will permit you tosplice tape quickly, easily and professionally.

4. A Pair of Scissors. Necessary for cutting tape.Keep scissors carefully demagnetized.

5. Self-Adhesive Labels. Handy to identify areel of tape in case it becomes separated fromits jacket. Use self-sticking label.

6. Pen or Pencil. Needed to write data on thestick-on label and the jacket. (Selection,course, length or playing time, speed, date,etc.)

7. Bookstand. Handy for easier reading of yourscript while recording.

8. Patch cord. Needed when transferring mate-rial from one tape to another or from recordto tape.

9. Stop Watch. An important accessory for tim-ing your tape or individual selections andpauses for echo or response by students. Itshould have a stop-and-start button in caseyou are interrupted while recording the tape.

10. Bulk-Eraser. Handy for erasing a recordedtape in a few seconds without having to run itthrough the tape recorder.(1) Head eraser(2) Kleen tape(3) Methyl-ethyl-ketoneTips for Making A Good Master Tape

1. Always work from a written script. Rehearsescript before recording.

2. Bring your microphone as close as possibleto your voicewithin 2 to 4 inches.

3. Make sure that your recording indicator pro-vides a good recording level, not too high and

not too low.4. Do not speak directly into microphone but

past it. This will reduce the "puff" sound inplosives like p and the hissing sound in sibi-lants like s.

5. Suspend microphone if possible or place iton separate table. This will prevent the micro-phone from picking up vibrations made by thetape recorder.

6. Place your script on a reading stand. This wayyou will be able to speak without loweringyour head.

7. The microphone should be placed at least fourfeet from the nearest wall unless this wall issound-proofed. This will prevent the soundwaves from bouncing off the wall.

8. Always work with a tape recorder that has aninstantaneous pause button with lock. It willmake you feel at ease because you know thatyou can stop and start the tape instantly with-out having to stop and restart the entiremechanismbut without recording a click.

9. Be sure to turn off fans or any other apparatusthat makes noises which can be picked up bythe microphone.

10. Have a glass of water ready to "lubricate"your voice.

11. When rewinding, remove tape from head.12. Proof-listen your master tape.

Note: A sound-proofed recording cabin is mostuseful, but not absolutely essential. One of itschief advantages is that the teacher will be ableto make master tapes while other activities aregoing on in the laboratory or in the school.


Discuss each of the following in the light of thematerial presented in this chapter, your ownexperience, and the practical requirements ofmodern foreign language teaching in the second-ary school.

1. Why is taking a class to the laboratory fora given portion of the class period each dayor two less profitable than making the labassignment for an after-school or "free-hour"period, often in lieu of homework?

2. Your district plans to spend $10,000 forelectro-mechanical language teaching devicesin your school. Your faculty is given itschoice of three electronic classrooms or oneaudio-active-evaluative lab. Discuss the ad-vantages and disadvantages of a choice ofeither of the alternatives.

3. Assuming that the laboratory has provisionsfor self-pacing, should a limitation be put onthe fast learner to keep him from progressing

47

rapidly without really having mastered eachstep along the way? How will good students,taking advantage of self-pacing to advancemore rapidly, affect the rhythm of your class-room procedures? Can the foregoing be con-sidered a conclusive argument for or againsta laboratory with provisions for self-pacing?

4. What arguments can you give in favor ofand against monitoring in the laboratory bythe teacher?

5. What are the advantages of the audio-active-evaluative lab over one which is simplyaudio-active?

6. If you have a language laboratory in yourschool, describe it and the uses to which itis put, suggesting where it might be im-proved. If your school does not have one,discuss the problems of setting one up, sched-uling its use, and programming materialsfor it.

GERMAN: CONTEMPORARY 1111

METHODOLOGYAN INSERVICE STUDY GUIDE FOR MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS



Written by



Chapter 7READING AND WRITING IN THE AUDIO-LINGUAL APPROACH

There can be no doubt that the abilities to reada foreign language with comprehension and enjoy-ment and to write it, both without reference toEnglish, are skills which form an important partof foreign language education. The audio-lingualapproach, despite a false impression to the con-trary, does not eschew these skills, but simplymoves them to a different place in the sequenceof learning. Furthermore, the audio-lingual ap-proach re-evaluates the function of both theseskills and has brought us new understanding ofhow much time should be devoted to teachingreading and writing and of what our goals shouldbe.

The belief that skill in speaking the languageis the only real measure of fluency leads theaudio-lingual teacher to conclude that reading,whether it is basic or supplementary, must providesatisfaction to the learner. It may be undertakenas part of one's studies or to gain information,for pleasure or for an appreciation of literatureor culture. In this sense, reading in the foreignlanguage has the same general purpose as doesreading in the native language of the learner.

We have seen that the audio-lingual approachduplicates in its teaching program the order ofsteps in "natural" language learning: speak onlythat which has been heard; read only that whichhas been heard and spoken; write only that whichhas been heard, spoken, and read. Thus, it is onlyafter the audio-lingual foundation has been laidthat reading should be undertaken.

As Charles C. Fries has pointed out, learning toread is learning to do something, and achievementin this skill should be evaluated on the efficiency ofperformance which can be achieved only throughhabit-forming practice.' Reading is a kind of lin-guistic response which depends upon the languagecontrol achieved by each particular individualreader and must, therefore, begin with, and buildon, habits of language response already existingfor the learner at that time.

The process of learning to read a language isthe process of transfer from the auditory languagesignals, which have already been learned, to thenew visual signs used to represent those sameauditory signals, or the transfer from signals rep-resented by auditory patterns to those same lan-gauge signals represented by patterns of graphicshapes. One can "read" insofar as he can respondto the language signals, now represented bycontrastive spelling patterns as completely andefficiently as he has learned to respond to thesame language signals formerly represented bycontrastive sound patterns.

Dr. Fries reminds the reader that this processof transfer is not the learning of the languagecode, nor is it the learning of a new or differentset of language signals. It is not the learning ofnew "words," new grammatical structure, or newmeanings. These are all language signals which thelearner has mastered so well in the pre-readingphase of instruction that he is no longer consciousof their use. With more experience he will con-tinue to develop his language capacity in thevariety and number of lexical signals he cancontrol. But this continual growth in meaning andin language signals must not draw attention awayfrom the main business of the "transfer stage" oflearning to read. During this period of learning torespond rapidly to the patterns of graphic shapes,the language materials used must be only thosealready well-controlled audio-lingually by thepupil. The "transfer" stage is not the time tostrive far the development of additional languagemastery.

The learning of reading, then, consists primarilyin recognizing graphic shapes in recurrent con-trastive patterns and establishing a connectionbetween these patterns and portions of the orallanguage signals. It is interesting to note, however,

'Charles C. Fries, Linguistics and Reading, New York:Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.

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that mitten materials contain fewer languagesignals than does talk, for intonation, stress andpause are not systematically represented in spell-ing. Professor Fries suggests one sentence as anexample of the many whose meaning changeswith a different positioning of stress in speech, butwhich is not evident in the writing system:

When did he come?When did he come?When did he come?When did he come?

Productive reading, then, is achieved when thereader is able to supply those portions of signifi-cant signals not represented graphically and torespond to them automatically. This is the secondstage in reading, in which the graphic shapesthemselves sink below the threshold of attentionand the reader is able to supply those portionsof the signals which are not in the graphicrepresentation.

The third stage begins when the reading processis so automatic that reading is used even morethan the spoken language to stimulate vivid imag-ination and develop new experiences.

Reading may be intensive, extensive, or supple-mentary, oral or silent. By "intensive" readingis meant that the student not only comprehendsthe ideas of what he has read, but also examinesand studies new vocabulary and structure. "Ex-tensive" reading minimizes detailed study andaims most often at "reading for content." "Supple-mentary" reading involves the "extensive" readingof material related to cultural or linguistic infor-mation which arises in the study of the languageitself. These supplementary readings are some-times done in English in the early stages.

It stands to reason, then, that emphasis shouldbe placed on intensive reading during the begin-ning semesters but should be decreased graduallyas the student passes the third semester. By then,a general facility in reading simple texts shouldhave been acquired and extensive reading can beintroduced. By the final year (seventh and eighthsemesters), the extensive and supplementaryreading program becomes paramount and muchof it is accomplished independently. Althoughmany teachers successfully introduce some sightreading in the earlier semesters, this appears tobe of only limited value.

The content of all reading material forwhatever purposeshould be linguistically andculturally authentic. Works written by personswho are not native speakers of the target languageand works in carelessly edited versions shouldbe avoided from the very beginning. While it isoften a good idea, in selecting reading material,to cater somewhat to the interests of studentstoamuse them or to entertain themthis shouldnever be done at the sacrifice of linguistic crcultural authenticity.

The purpose of intensive reading is to develop

50

the ability to understand the written foreignlanguage without recourse to English. In this wayactive vocabulary is reinforced and recognitionvocabulary is increased. Besides, these early in-tensive readings build the pupil's appreciation oflanguage patterns and style.

How do we introduce reading in the audio-lingual approach? Despite widely-held miscon-ceptions, the audio-lingual approach generallyinitiates the students in intensive reading almostfrom the beginning. These initial readings aresimply the same dialogues which form the coreof the audio-lingual lesson. After the student hasmastered and memorized the dialogue throughclassroom and laboratory practice, he is readyto sec the written text for his first associationwith the written symbolization of what he haslearned. This order of procedure is dictated by thedesire to avoid interference from written symbolsuntil after the student has acquired the foundationof good audio-lingual habits.

The nature of interference from the native lan-guage is discussed in the teacher's manual accom-panying A-LM German? To understand theseinterferences it is necessary to understand therelationship which the educated native speaker ofEnglish perceives between the sounds of languageand the graphic symbols used to represent them onpaper. There is a constant interplay between wordsand sentences as heard and words and sentences asprinted. What he hears said and what he seeswritten have become the same thing for him, re-sulting from a long training process during whichhe built up a whole system of automatic responsesto letters and words on the printed page. Theseresponses are so deeply ingrained that they be-come to him the only possible responses. As ispointed out in the aforementioned manual, thesecondary-school student has been exposed to suchtraining for a shorter time than has the "educatednative," but as he seeks to acquire the differenthabits of a new language, it should be no surprisethat native language habits frequently interposethemselves.

Just as speaking is hindered by the tendencyto produce native sounds rather than foreign onesand to form sentences according to native ratherthan foreign models, so when written symbols areintroduced, a powerful interference is at hand.Students of German are already familiar with theRoman alphabet and have established relation-ships between these symbols and English sounds,words and sentences. It is now their task to learnto associate German sounds, still relatively new tothem, with these same alphabet symbols, and thetendency will be strong to let English responsesprevail.

Unless the teacher is persistently vigilant, the

2Teachers Manual, A-LM German, Level I, New York:Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964.

new habits of speech carefully acquired early inthe audio-lingual course will be noticeably setback when the written symbol is introduced. It isnot only the established association of sounds andsingle letters which interferes, but also groups ofletters, whole words and even sentences. Obviousexamples are those printed words which containcombinations of letters which could occur easilyin English or in German: General, Autograph,Tod, was, etc.

The A-LM Teacher's Manual offers the followingsuggestions to minimize interference when thewritten symbol is introduced:

1. Explain briefly to the class the nature of theproblem. Caution them to be on guard atall times against the tendency to respond ina typically English fashion. Instill in thema pride to keep their hard-won Germanspeaking habits intact.

2. Insist on the same high standards of pronun-ciation that prevailed throughout the course.

3. When you name sounds or letters, be verysure to make clear which of these you aretalking about. Sounds are what is heard;letters are marks on paper. Form the habitof saying that a given sound is representedin a certain way, that a given letter or se-quence of letters represents a certain sound.

4. Always use the German names of the lettersof the alphabet.

"Reading" implies two meanings: 1) to pro-nounce words and sentences aloud in response toa stimulus of a printed word, and 2) to followprinted or written sequences rapidly for compre-hension with the eye scanning whole groups ofwords or sentences at a time. It is clear that thestudent must control the sound-letter correspond-ences of the new language if he is to acquire thefirst basic skill mentioned above. It is equallyclear that other techniques will be required tolay the foundation for the long-range readingskillrapid reading for comprehension. Extensivepractice is required for both, and specific drillshave been devised:

1. Mass association practice. This requires thereading aloud of material already mastered audio-lingually.

2. Interference drill. This drill elicits an oralresponse to German letters or letter sequenceswhich signal something quite different to thenative speaker of English, such as ch, j, r, gn.

3. Graphic minimal pairs. The visual differencebetween the letters a and ii is simply the presenceof the diacritical mark The student accustomedto reading English does not readily attach signifi-cance to this written distinction. But by pairingwords containing a with words containing a(minimal pair contrasts, e.g. Mantel and Mantel)and eliciting an oral response to the visual cue, thevisual cue is emphasized.

4. Graphic representation of difficult sound con-

trasts. Partially overlapping with the third typeof reading drill, this exercise elicits oral responsesto the paired graphic representations of difficultsound contrasts within German, such as [c] vs. [x]or [R] vs. [A ] .3 The student will undoubtedlystill have problems here, and special drill on thewritten differences should help to focus his atten-tion on the corresponding difference in sound.

But let us return to the use of the dialogue asan intensive reading exercise. As we have seen,the students are ready to see the written text ofthe dialogue after they have mastered the dialogueaurally and orally. They are then led to repeatthe dialogue several times with the written textbefore them, associating the oral form with thewritten. Choral repetitions and a 5-cycle formatmay be used. During this "mass association prac-tice," the teacher must take care not to analyzethe written form in any way. Some methodolo-gists suggest a third step, which is to have thestudents repeat the dialogue silently to themselvesseveral times as a reinforcement. Others, and per-haps more wisely, suggest that reinforcement bedone, but aloud and to the stimulus of a laboratorytape, with the written text of the dialogue openbefore them.

The next stage in intensive reading correspondsto the longer stretches of prose which are generallyadded fairly early in the first year (cf. samples ofearly reading selections in the Foreign ServiceInstitute's German: Basic Course, Unit 7, and inA-LM German, such as the narrative which opensUnit 7 of Level I). The recommended procedurefor presenting these readings is for the teacher (ortape) first to read the selection, while studentslisten but do not look at any printed materials.In the second step, the teacher or (tape) readsagain, while the students follow the printedmaterials. In the second step, the teacher (or tape)reads again, while the students follow the printedtext silently. The third step is a rereading by theteacher in short phrases with appropriate pauses,so that the students can repeat in chorus thephrase just heard. It is often recommended thatat the conclusion of the repetition of a group ofsentences or a paragraph, the teacher ask shortand simple questions eliciting short answers fromthe students. These short answers are then ex-panded by the teacher to form complete utteranceswhich are modeled and echoed by the class as areinforcement of the original repetitions. Fourth,the teacher and students read together the entireselection chorally without pauses, approximatingnormal speed. As pupils demonstrate proficiency,and as time permits, either in the classroom orin the laboratory, they may read aloud individ-ually for reinforcement.

After the fourth or fifth reading is done assuggested above, the procedures for intensive31ch/ach; rot /Hair

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reading are gradually changed. Oral presentationby teacher or tape will decrease bit by bit.Eventually, the teacher or tape will read theselection to the students only once and choralrepetitions will be limited to certain more difficultsections of the selection. A new set of problemsarises, however, which must be met by anticipationdrills. When readings from sources other than theinitial audio-lingual text are introduced in thethird and fourth semesters, pupils will encountermore and more material which they have notdirectly experienced audio-lingually; steps must,therefore, be taken to anticipate any special diffi-culties. Generally, this takes the form of notingthe new material and drilling it intensively asabove. The more the reading program progresses,the more new material is going to be met and themore necessary becomes this type of anticipatorydrilling.

One technical point remains for us in our dis-cussion of the intensive reading phase: testing.In many audio-lingual texts, a set of questionsaccompanies the intensive reading selections (cf.A-LM, Level I, p. 144) which serves as an adequatecheckup. Where such questionnaires are not avail-able, the teacher should prepare something of thesortin the form of multiple-choice questions orsentences to be completed with the newly intro-duced words and phrasescomprehensive enoughto test the students' understanding. Question-and-answer practice after each selection helps fixthe content in the pupils' minds and crystallizesalient points of the story as it progresses, if it iscontinued over several units. True-false statementsor direct-content questions are also useful. But itmust be remembered that true-false statementsare statistically inadequate for testing purposes.

The third year, especially as it leads into thefourth, sees the intensive reading program dimin-ish in favor of extensive reading. In this period,intensive reading will be more and more limitedto passages selected for special interest or for theimportance of the structural elements they pre-sent, and oral reading will be dropped. Silentreading is, after all, the most useful form for thepupil and it is in the third year that it becomesa major goal. The emphasis now shifts to therapid, extensive reading of a wide range of mate-rial containing elements for enriching the students'knowledge of culture and literature. This is thestage which Dr. Fries has called that of "vividimaginative realization." It is the stage in whichreading process becomes so automatic that thereader uses reading as fully as the spoken languagein acquiring and assimilating new experiences.Reading of this kind also fulfills the "literarypurpose," in which language is used not simplyto communicate facts and information but to pro-vide vivid imaginative realizations of actions,emotions and values. The literary artists carry a

capacity for vivid impressions into man's experi-ence and make it possible, as DeWitt H. Parker4suggests, for the reader to fulfill the secret longingfor the actions, thoughts and emotions whichslumber in his soul.

The ability to respond to artistic materials ofliterature presented in German is achieved onlyby constant practice, by learning the linguisticmaterial included in the "code" of literature, bylearning to identify particular meanings in par-ticular situations, by discussing the cultural impli-cations in the use of the language, by analyzing,in a gradually more complex fashion, the styleof the author, the characters of the literary per-sonalities, by discussing in German the culturalcontent, the plot, etc. Periodicals and newspapersshould also be included. The very nature of theskill being acquired implies independence, but theteacher must take care to provide selections withinthe pupils' linguistic powers and should continueto train them in rapid reading for comprehension.

The best audio-lingual materials provide readingselections as a part of each lesson, so that thestudent is ready to proceed to the reading of editedtexts as a next step. Assuming that languageinstruction is begun in the seventh grade, withaudio-lingual materials, the transition from inten-sive reading to extensive silent reading should beaccomplished during the second semester of theeighth grade. By the ninth grade, the pupil isgenerally ready to begin the extensive readingprogram. Here, the junior high school teacherhas a greater problem than has his high schoolcounterpart, for junior high school readings musttake into account the different psychology of thepupil. In this sense, reading selections should beof a length to be completed in a reasonably shorttime. Reading content should include approxi-mately equal doses of cultural information andliterary content. The choice of appropriate literarymaterial is, therefore, a vital one.

The oral approach has shown plays to be themost satisfactory first extensive readings, sincethese adapt themselves equally well to silent ororal reading. Students should demonstrate pro-ficiency with plays before being advanced tonovels (perhaps with short stories in between).Poetry may be used at all levels, provided it isstraightforward and easily understood, given insmall doses. Poems give a good opportunity fororal reading and, if short enough, can easily bememorized. Such memorization is enjoyed bymany pupils and gives them a sense of satisfactionand achievement. Periodicals can also be usedtoward the end of the ninth grade, but the specialnature of "journalese" makes even simple articlesdifficult to read.

4De Witt H. Parker, The Frinciples of Aesthetics, NewYork (1920), p. 41 (quoted by Fries, p. 209).

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There should be a small reference collection,including dictionaries and a reference grammar,in the classroom. Students should be encouragedto acquire a dictionary for their own use, but needto be carefully instructed in how to use it. Themore compendious ones often give too little in-formation, and the more comprehensive ones oftengive more than the student will know how to useunless he is guided.

In the three-year high school, the above com-ments apply to the eleventh grade, where firstinstruction was begun in the tenth grade. Thetwelfth-grade program in such schools puts theemphasis on literary works and periodicals. Agood supply of German language newspapers andmagazines should be available in the classroom.(Some of the more easily-acquired might include:Der Spiegel, Simplizissimus, Siiddeutsche Zeitung,Die Welt, Miinchener Merkur, Der Stern, and Du.Literary works selected should be classical Ger-man works in competent editions. As students pro-gress, the works should become steadily more dif-ficult. They may be correlated for topics for oralreports, etc. In systems in which a six-year se-quence, from grade 7 to grade 12, is maintained,the eleventh and twelfth years call for extensivereading of literary and cultural works, with atten-tion to literary style, the author's biography andhis place in literature, the technique of the work,the author's purpose and his philosophy.

Throughout the six years, whether split intotwo non-consecutive, three-year segments ortreated as a whole, reading performs the functionof a supplement to the audio-lingual program.Only in the last year of a six-year program shouldreading serve as the primary component of thecourse. Even then, the readings should be a basisfor audio-lingual activity, as we shall see inChapter XL

Writing is the fourth of the skills presented inthe audio-lingual approach and is the last to beintroduced. For this reason, the writing skill isbased primarily on what pupils can say and partlyon what they can read. From the practical view-point of using the language, writing is probablythe skill for which students will find the leastdemand. Still, it is important in reinforcing whathas been learned audio-lingually and also in givingthe pupils a chance for self-expression. Some lin-guistic analysts have also suggested that pupilslearn to observe the intricacies and the overall,structure of the language most accurately throughcomposition. Of course, the goal of writing in theaudio-lingual approach is free and creative compo-sition, expressing the pupil's individuality. Thegoal is reached, however, through writing practicewhich is both guided and imitative.

Generally, imitative writing is introduced short-ly after reading. The first step is for the pupil towrite the very same material that he masteredduring his audio-lingual practice. Practice in the

exact writing of a few authentic phrases is mosthelpful. Thus, he continues the use of meaningfulword-groups and avoids recourse to English. Thisphase can be accomplished as homework.

The first type of imitative writing exercisewhich is normally used is dictation. Its value liesin the many aspects of language learning involvedin its performance. The student must listen in-tently so as to differentiate sounds properly, anddistinguish words and speech groups. He must,of course, understand meaning, and this involvesthe recognition of form and structure. Further-more, he must understand the spelling system,including the use of diacritical marks and the useof capitals and punctuation marks. The teacher,in preparing and reading the dictation, should becareful to base the exercise upon material whichthe student has already heard and seen. It is wellto remember that short dictations done at frequentintervals have been shown to give better resultsthan lengthy ones at longer intervals. The follow-ing is recommended for administering dictation:

DICTATION PROCEDUREI. Preliminaries

A. Tell students exactly how you will pro-ceed.

B. Make sure students are acquainted withthe terminology of punctuation in thetarget language.

C. Be sure that the material for dictation isof reasonable length (100 words, approxi-mately) .

D. Be sure that the material for dictationis already familiar or easily analogizablefrom aural-oral experience.

II. DictationA. Read selection at normal ("broadcast")

speed.B. Read selection again, pausing at each

breath-group (5-cycle format with choralrepetition).

C. Read selection again at normal speed.D. Read selection in breath-groups, students

write in each pause.E. Read selection at normal speed, students

check what they have written.Immediate correction is vital in all dictation.

Perhaps the best means of providing this imme-diate correction, while still permitting the teacherto collect the student's written work is the follow-ing: each student is provided with two sheets ofpaper stapled together with a piece of carbon inbetween. The first page is blank. The upper halfof the second page is blank, but the lower halfcontains the correct version of the dictation. Thestudents write the dictation on the upper halfof the first page, tear it off and hand it in. Thesecond page then permits an immediate compari-son between what they wrote and the correctversion.

....-

As the pupils demonstrate proficiency inhandling the dictation exercises, a further stepcan be taken, which is still a form of writing fromaural comprehension. There are several possibili-ties which can be used in any order or mixedtogether as the pupil's progress permits. First, apassage is read twice at normal speed. It is apassage selected, like the dictations, from materialwith which the pupils are already familiar, aurallyand visually. Several short questions on thematerial are asked orally, each question repeatedtwice. The passage and questions are then read athird time for double-checking. As a variation,the teacher makes incomplete statements aboutthe selection read instead of asking questionsabout it. Pupils are required to complete thestatement in German. For more sophisticatedgroups, instead of questions or incomplete state-ments, students are required to restate the passageeither in their own words or in another person ortense. It must be remembered throughout that thereal meaning of diacritic markings and punctua-tion will become clearer through this phase ofinstruction.

When students are able to perform adequatelyin the foregoing exercises, the transition to freecomposition can be initiated through a "guided"composition phase. The first step is for students towrite exercises involving drill patterns reviewedin class. Thus, after doing, say Unit 8 of A-LMGerman, Level I, the Replacement Drills (p. 71)may be duplicated and given to the student forhis completion, thus making a composition exer-cise out of a drill which has been previouslymastered orally. Choice-question responses, suchas those discussed in Chapter 5, form the basisfor another variation in which students writeanswers to a series of carefully formulated ques-tions (already familiar to them audio-lingually)which contain speech patterns that provide abasis for the answers.

Pupils progress from this "guided" writing stageto a "controlled" writing stage. Here, pupilschange passages from one tense or person toanother, change dialogue to narrative or thereverse, summarize passages, etc., with the teachergradually lessening the controls. Students arealso required to formulate a connected passage todramatize or describe a "situation" which theteacher suggests. Gradually, students may beallowed to progress to full freedom in writingoriginal and individual compositions. In all cases,the linguistic content will have been familiar tothe student, both audio-lingually and visually,prior to the time of the writing exercise, thus pre-serving the prescribed order of hearing, speaking,reading, and writing.

It is impossible to lay down positive rules forcorrelating the successive periods of writing withparticular courses and levels; too much depends

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upon the success of the course and the achieve-ment of the students. Writing is, perhaps, thatphase of the audio-lingual approach which mostdepends upon the progress of the individual pupil.Thus, any indication of grade or level can be onlyapproximate. Generally, the phase of writing fromaural comprehension lasts for roughly the firstyear. The second year is devoted to guided writing,an occasional exercise in writing from aural com-prehension, ending with, perhaps, some controlledwriting. Controlled writing, leading to controlledcomposition, is the chief concern of the writingportion of the third-year program. Free composi-tion, to be truly profitable, requires a linguisticsophistication found for the most part only inadvanced students, i.e., those of the fourth year.

Again, some sections of the third-year coursein a given school may be ready for free composi-tion. All in all, a considerable degree of flexibilitymust be maintained in the writing program.

ADDITIONAL READINGSCharles C. Fries, Linguistics and Reading, New York:

Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.

William S. Gray, The Teaching of Reading and Writing,Paris: UNESCO, 1956.

Carl A. Lefevre, Linguistics and the Teaching of Read-ing, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.

George A. C. Scherer, A System for Teaching ModernForeign Language Reading, "Teacher's Notebook"Series, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964.

, et al., "Reading for Meaning," in Work-ing Reports of the 1963 Northeast Conference onthe Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Ake W. Edfeldt, Silent Speech and Silent Reading,Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960.

Michael P. West, The Construction of Reading Materialfor Teaching a Foreign Language, London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1927.

Marina Prochoroff, et al., "Writing as Expression," inReports of the Working Committees of the 1963 North-east Conference of the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

James Broz and Alfred Hayes, eds., Linguistics andReading, Washington, D. C.: Center for Applied Lin-guistics, 1966.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSIONI. Discuss the function of supplementary reading

in the audio-lingual approach.

2. Contrast intensive and extensive reading, andspecify their respective uses in the audio-lingual approach.

3. Discuss the principal aims of the writing pro-gram in the audio-lingual approach.

4. Which are the preliminary steps to be takenbefore the pupil is permitted to write a free

composition? Describe how each step fulfillsa basic need in the pupil's skills to prepare himfor free composition.

5. Discuss the point at which reading and writingbecome a part of the audio-lingual program.

6. Show how reading selections can be presentedto the student audio-lingually.

7. To what extent is it important that a readingselection reflect contrastive aspects of the

culture of which the target language is anexpression?

8. How long do edited texts have to be continuedbefore it is possible to use material that hasnot been edited or adapted at all?

9. What remedial steps can be used to cope withfrequently recurring errors in written compo-sition?


6 AN INSERVICE STUDY GUIDE FOR MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS




Written by



Chapter 8

TESTING AND EVALUATION

The aim of testing in the audio-lingual programis to permit the teacher to judge pupils' ability,progress, and achievement by frequent, systematic,and purposeful tests. Although this definitionbears a close resemblance to the principles of aneffective teaching program as developed in otherfields, evaluation of progress in a foreign languageinvolves special considerations which we shalldiscuss here. It has often been said that, becauseeach drill in the audio-lingual lesson is designedso that the student must have mastered precedingmaterial, no testing program is needed beyond thecorrect daily performance of the drills and exer-cises. While this is partly true, it fails to recognizeimportant aspects of testing other than immediateachievement. Long-range achievement, deficien-cies, placement, and diagnosing the program itselfare all quantities which must be measured bygroup and individual testing of a nature morecomprehensive than that of the simple audio-lingual drill.

Thus, the overall "theory" of testing in theaudio-lingual approach is not only to measure theskills and knowledge taught, but thereby also tomotivate the student to better learning and topoint out weak spots in the program itself. Thetest results provide the teacher with a basis forgeneralization and comparison necessary for themeasurement of progress.

Throughout our discussion, we have said thatthe audio-lingual course is divided into fourseparate units: listening, speaking, reading, andwriting. Although we now know that all of theseskills are tied closely together in the programitself and frequently overlap, it is often convenientto divide them and deal with them separately inmethodological discussion, as we have been doing.In testing, likewise, all four skills should be tested,both collectively and individually. Collectivemeasurement gives us a practical index of achieve-ment for communication goals so long as that

complex of skills required on the examination isnatural in normal language behavior.

Among other "ground rules" of language testing,our examination of the aduio-lingual approachleads us to conclude that the question-answertechnique in the foreign language is useful fortesting speaking and listening skills, in additionto its common use of testing the manipulation ofstructure. But we must remember that the spokenanswer to an aurally-perceived question or thewritten answer to a visually-perceived questionautomatically involves the simultaneous correctfunctioning of their separate skills: hearing andspeaking, and reading and writing, respectively.In measuring skills individually questions must bedesigned to eliminate as much as possible the useof other skills. The skills tested should be basedupon those taught in the class as part of normallanguage behavior in the area tested. Thus, idioms,vocabulary, and structures should be tested in con-text in active uses. Cultural items should be testedin a situationally and linguistically authenticcontext.

Many teachers prefer to avoid using incorrectforms on a test in the belief that the "correcting"of incorrect forms is a test type best reserved forstudents who have already mastered the languageand are learning to teach it. If the correction wasthe only purpose in presenting incorrect items ona test, these objectives would be valid. However,where a test item involves the pupils selecting a"best" form out of several possible forms, some ofwhich might be incorrect, one cannot find fault.The decisive factor in exercising this judgment isin the definition of the term "incorrect." If by"incorrect" we mean a mispelled or structurallyimpossible, or erroneous form, then the injunctionagainst their use is valid, for we risk focusing thestudent's attention on faulty usage. If it is a matterof more vs. less appropriate forms, all of whichare possible but only one of which is likely to be

used in this context by educated natives, then theinclusion of the less appropriate form is valid,since the exercise serves to test the pupil's "feel-ing" for the language.' The teacher must be careful,however, always to warn the pupil in advancewhen to expect items on an examination thatmay be incorrect in this sense.

Translation is a tricky matter in testing. Trans-lation from target to source language has no placeexcept on the most advanced types of tests wherethe focus is on the pupil's ability to render accu-rately into English material of a specializednature, such as technical articles, foreign corre-spondence, or material of a literary nature whichhe must render into good English style. Clearly,these are not the goal of a high school languageprogram. Nor are translations from English intothe target language recommended as a testingdevice. However, in the best audio-lingual texts,translation drills have been judiciously employedto point out the differences of structure betweenthe target and the source languages. Such drillsmay serve for purposes of testing (Cf. Chap. V).Their use is, at best, limited to situations in whichonly the direct comparison of the English formwith the target language will elicit the correctanswers or will determine, in limited circum-stances, whether or not the student has succeededin putting aside the influence of his native lan-guaga structure, for example: the contrast betweenUns hat er gut gefallen and We liked him.

Within these general limits, the preparation ofthe tests themselves can begin. Instructions to thestudent should be made clear and succinct. Direc-tions may be given in the foreign language,although this is not totally necessary. When thedirections cannot easily be understood by thestudents, they should be given in English. Wherenecessary, a model of the item and its target mightbe supplied. It is frequently helpful to read testinstructions aloud with the students before thetest itself begins. Test results are frequently in-validated when students who know the materialare delayed or confused by complicated instruc-tions.

The sampling of items should be representative.The audio-lingual pattern drills themselves oftenserve as good test focuses for specific structuralpoints. In the larger tests, it is wise to select froma broad stock of structural items. This is not todeny, however, that the relative weights ofquestions should be distributed relative to theimportance of the skill or knowledge being mea-sured. Economy is achieved in selecting test itemsby choosing those which represent the most effi-cient evaluation per unit of pupil time spent. Thecomplaint about "unfair testing" is often motivatedby a failure to match the testing emphases with

the rnc.jor language-learning activities in the class-room. If, let us say, we are in the phase of instruc-tion in which a majority of the time is spent onoral drill, dialogue memorization and adaptation,and the like, then the aural and oral skills arethose which should figure most prominently inthe tests and around which the tests should beconstructed.

Pupils should always have experience withquestion types before being tested. If a test ques-tion type is to be used which the students do notknow from their daily class work, practice shouldbe conducted in class prior to the test to acquaintthem with the operation.

In the discussion that follows, we shall considerseven skills which are commonly tested as a partof the audio-lingual program.

I. Testing the Listening SkillsIn testing listening skills it is imperative that

the teacher clearly distinguish, in the preparationof the test, between the testing of the sound pat-terns of the language and the testing of meaningsassociated with the sounds. While these twoaspects will be fused into one skill as the learneradvances, it is best that they be treated separatelyat the beginning levels since the effective com-prehension of meanings is dependent upon a thor-ough training in recognition of contrastive sounds.

A. Recognition of sounds. The general techniquein the testing of this skill is simple: the teacher(or tape) reads aloud one or more utterances andchecks the students, who may respond in a varietyof ways, to see if they have recognized the problemsound or contrast. This type of test is ideal for thelanguage laboratory, in which the high fidelity ofreproduction and the comparative isolation of thestudent in each booth are aids to better perform-ance. There are a number of ways to accomplishthis, some of which are discussed by Robert Ladoin Language Testing.2

I. Sound to sound, in which the student is askedto compare one sound with another sound and toindicate if they are the same or different. Onemethod commonly used is that in watch theteacher reads minimal pairs (e.g., ihre/irre,Heer/Herr) and the student indicates S for "same"and D for "different" on his answer sheet. Anotherhas the teacher read groups of 3 or 4 words and thestudents indicate (by writing 1, 2, etc.) which ofthe words have the same initial phoneme, i.e.,(1) Bein (2) Balm (3) Pein (4) Boot. It is alsopossible to ask the student to indicate that heperceives the difference between a sound in thetarget language and a similar sound in the sourcelanguage (e.g., English boat vs. German Boot). Forthis exercise, preprinted answer sheets, containingcolumns of letters or numbers, may be provided.esama...4

'Cf. Rejoinders in the Listening Comprehension Tests 'Robert Lado, Language Testing, New York, McGraw-in A-LM Teacher's Manuals. Hill, 1961, pp. 46-63; 123-133.

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Often the student is provided with an answersheet which has the words listed under each itemand he is asked to mark the written word or phrasethat matches what the model will say. For ex-ample, the stimulus schreibe is given by the model,

with the following written choices on the student'sanswer sheet: schreiben, Schrift, schreibe, schreib.As we have already pointed out, however, thistechnique is not advisable in the very early stagesof language learning, since the student is beingasked to make a quick and accurate transitionfrom sounds to graphic symbols, thereby involv-ing, in a small but meaningful way, the additionalskills of reading and writing.

Intonation patterns can also be tested in theways suggested above. Here the student is askedto distinguish between contrastive patterns withinthe target language. For example, he is askedto indicate, by writing 1, 2, or 3 on his paper,which of the utterances he hears is a question:

1. Gehen Sie jetzt nach Hause?

2. Gehen Sie jetzt nach Hansel

Or the student may be asked to tell Which of thefollowing is an incomplete utterance:

1. Sie fahren heute in die Stadt.l

2. Sie fahren heute in die Stadt .

3. Sie fahren heute in die Stadt?

B. Recognition of meanings. It is important torepeat that testing for listening comprehensionat the beginning stages must not be made todepend upon the co-functioning of another skill.The student must not be expected to produce anoral response to an item on a comprehension test,for he is then faced with the double task of under-standing the item and producing a response; hemay, through nervousness, be unable to respondwell, even though he has understood the stimulus.In other words, testing for comprehension is nottesting for production of the language. (This cri-terion invalidates such tests as those in whichthe teacher reads a series of questions which thestudents are to take down as a dictation, theninstructs the students to write answers to thesequestions. The resulting confusion frequentlymeans that the student is doubly penalized, forif he cannot accurately associate graphic symbolswith the sounds of the stimulus, then it is im-possible to write a correct response!)

Some of the more common ways of testingrecognition are:

a) True-false test. The teacher reads a numberof true-false statements based on a passage which

the students have heard twice. The studentsrespond by circling Ja or Nein which are providedon the answer sheets. A variation of this test isone in which the statement is not based on anyparticular narrative, but merely general informa-tion (based on specific vocabulary), such as 'Esschneit im Sommer,' Wenn man krank ist, bleibtman zu Hause,' and 'Um Mitternacht gliiht dieSonne,' with the first and third eliciting the Neinresponse, the second the Ja.

b) Multiple-choice tests: Rejoinders. Tests in-

volving suitable rejoinders (Cf. Teacher's Manual,A-LM German, Level I, pp. 56-57) are familiar tomost teachers. The teacher reads a statement twice(not always a question); three or four possiblereplies or rejoinders are read and the studentindicates (by circling A, B, C, D, on his answersheet) which is most suitable. For example:

Wie kalt ist es heute!(a) Gut, dass es so heiss 1st!(b) Wo brennt es?(c) Deswegen bleibe ich zu Hause.(d) Ich weiss nicht. Was machst du heute?

c) Multiple-choice tests: Completion. A state-ment is read, which is not complete, with theteacher indicating by some gesture where the"blank" in the statement is. Three or four possibleshort completions are then read and the studentindicates his choice. For example:

Man isst(a) einen Film(b) Fleisch(c) das Benzin(d) Wein

In composing the last two types of tests, caremust be taken not to make the alternatives struc-turally impossible or ridiculous in meaning sothat the student is able to isolate the correctcompletion by process of elimination only.

After reading and writing skills have become amore significant part of the course, these samemultiple-choice tests may be used to measureaural comprehension through visual recognitionof the correct answer to an oral stimulus. In thiscase the student is provided with an answer sheetcontaining the four alternatives for each item.He hears the stimulus, then marks on his sheetthe rejoinder or completion of his choice.

d) Student performs in response to a cue. Whenthe student's vocabulary is adequate to permit avariety of command cues, a test may be composedin which he is given a series of rapid fire instruc-tions to which he must react on his paper. Forexample, he has before him a drawing of severalanimals and is instructed to circle the dog; or heis asked to draw a house containing six rooms anda staircase.IL Testing Speaking Skill: Production Tests.

As we mentioned in our discussion of the lan-guage laboratory, more experimenting has beendone with the problem encountered in the speak-

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ing tests than with any other. This has led to theestablishment of a fairly uniform set of goals ingiving speaking tests. First, we test the pupils'ability to reproduce the individual allophones ofthe foreign language, as well as longer sequencesand relevant intonation patterns. Second, we testtheir ability to express their thoughts in theforeign language in response either to a questionor to some other stimulus. Third, we test theiroral control of one or several of the structurepatterns or of the vocabulary of the foreign lan-guage through appropriate questions or patterndrills. Although the teacher may choose to testfor one or another aspect of the speaking skill,it is also possible to combine all three.

The simplest of all speaking tests is the echotest. The pupil simply repeats as accurately as hecan whatever the teacher (or tape) says. A varia-tion on this is the "build-up" echo test in whichpupils repeat sentences whose length is progres-sively increased. Such tests are difficult to score.The teacher should prepare in advance a check-listof the specific phonological problems he wishesto measure, limiting the number of different itemsto be measured on a given test. The teacher thengives a rating for each focus. This type of scoringhas two major advantages: it may be used just aseasily for other types of speaking tests to measuresound production, and it also allows the teacherto keep a cumulative chart to measure achieve-ment and progress in phonological reproductionfor each pupil. A sample of this type of scoringsheet is given at the end of this chapter.

As the course progresses, some variations oftesting become suitable. Some of the types usedfor testing comprehension may now be adapted,such as that involving completion (i.e., `Zu Hauseessen wir .'' The student may, ofcourse, respond in several ways: 'urn sieben Uhr,'`im Esszimmer,"sehr wenig,' etc.). The free-re-joinder type may be used to give the student somechoice within the limits of his ability. For ex-ample, to the cue: 'Fritz ist sehr krank,' the stu-dent could reply correctly: `Schade!', Was ist ihmpassiert?', 'Er hat sich das Bein gebrochen,' etc.

No mention need be made of the validity of thetraditional question-and-answer type test here. Avariation of this, however somewhat more diffi-cult, is that test in which the student is given astatement and instructed to phrase a questionfor which that statement is a possible answer.

Other techniques of testing speaking productionare: student discussion of a picture, retelling a nar-rative which he has just heard, summarizing astory he has read, composing a dialogue about asituation or a picture presented to him, and thedirected dialogue.

III. Testing Grammatical Structure.The testing criterion here is the student's ability

to formulate a specific pattern in situational con-texts. The older test types in which we focusedour attention on translation from one language tothe other, or in which we required forms to beidentified with regard to grammatical nomencla-ture, do not perform this function and are, conse-quently, no longer useful to us.

Many of the standard audio-lingual drill formsmay be used as test items, thus minimizing ourdependence upon special "test" types. Some pat-tern drill types actually began as test types,especially the integration (combination) forms.(Cf. also Chapter 5.) In these the students arerequired to combine two relative forms and adver-bial phrases. Thus to the cue 'Luise ist habsch.Gisela ist auch hilbsch.', the student responds withthe combined form: 'Gisela ist ebenso hilbsch wieLuise.' Similarly, 'Da kommt unser Freund. Erbringt die Bucher mit.', are combined into 'Dakommt unser Freund, der die Bucher mitbringt.'

The "directed dialogue" type of drill can alsobe useful in testing grammatical structure. Forexample, in testing command forms, the cue`Sagen Sie ihm, er sollte gehen.' will elicit theresponse: `Gehen Sie!' To the statement TragenSie ihn, ob er immer ein Buch dabei hat!' the stu-dent will reply: Saben Sie immer ein Buchdabei?'

Professor Lado discusses the use of pictureswith specific content and instructions which pre-determine the structure to be used and tested.3For example, a series of pictures could presenta girl eating various things, playing with her dog,talking with her teacher, etc. Some of the possibleinstructions which could elicit responses with spe-cific structural items are: a) "Tell me what yousee" (to test complete sentences with presenttense) ; b) "This happened yesterday. Tell mewhat happened" (for the use of the past tenses);c) "This was happening yesterday. Tell me whatwas happening" (to test use of the progressiveforms); d) "What happened to the girl?" (for theuse of the passive voice, i.e., "She was bitten bythe dog.")

Responses of could, would, might could be testedwith a more complex picture showing a fenceand a tree, with a cat on one side of the fence, arat on the other. The instruction is: "Describe allthe possibilities for the rat if the cat were to jumpover the fence." Possible responses would includeremarks such as: "If the cat jumped over thefence, he would eat the rat; . . ., the rat wouldclimb the tree; . . ., the rat would run around thefence," etc.

A picture might contain several images in asituation and the student is instructed to repro-duce the conversation which presumably takesplace.

Language Testing, pp. 171-175.

60- --

With a bit of imagination and possibly the helpof the art teacher, the German teacher can developa series of pictures which may be used for severalyears for a variety of purposes, since the samepicture will often serve to test various structures,vocabulary, etc., at different times in the testingprogram.IV. Testing Vocabulary and Idioms.

Testing for mastery of vocabulary and idiomaticexpressions may be accomplished either activelyor passively. It is imperative that the use ofEnglish always be avoided in testing vocabulary.The many possibilities provided by the use ofpictures has been discussed or implied above.In addition to asking questions about the pictures,the teacher may utilize fully the question-answertype pertaining to general situations or informa-tion involving the vocabulary under study, or hemay vary the format by construction completion-type items, such as 'Das Gegenteil von gut ist

' Variety may be added by theteacher's giving a definition and asking the studentto give the word being defined, i.e., Wie heisstder, der Brot backt?' (der Backer). In more ad-vanced sections, the above procedure may bereversed, that is, the teacher gives the wordBacker and elicits a short definition from thestudent.

The most widely-used forms of tests for passivetesting of vocabulary are:

A. Associating ideas in one column with ideasin another:I. Completion

AEinen Schirm tragt man ( ) wenn es warm ist

( ) wenn es schneit( ) wenn es regnet( ) wenn es spat ist

2. Matchinga)

Anoch mal

B( ) immer wieder

b) (A passive varianttion test suggested

ADer letzte Monat des JahresDer Bruder meines Vaters

Der, der unterrichtet

) noch nicht) schon) wieder

of the active defini-above) :

B1. Lehrer2t Dezember3. Dieb4. Onkel5. Schuster6. Januar

(It is always important in this type ofmatching test that more items be givenin Column B than are necessary tocomplete the set in Column A, thusavoiding the students' responding bythe process of elimination.)

II. Associating synonymsdone with antonyms) :

Afleissig

(this could also be

B( ) tatenlos

) arbeitsscheu( ) besetzt( ) tmermiidlich

V. Testing Reading.As we have seen, reading plays a part In other

tests already mentioned, but it can also be testeddirectly through a wide variety of question types.The most frequent is the question-and-answer.Variations include supplying the students with awritten version of the reading passage, as opposedto having them hear it, and requiring them toanswer, in complete sentences, questions put tothem. The whole test is done in the foreignlanguage. Caution must be exercised so that thequestions asked will require a real understandingof the material and not just the copying of partsof the reading passage to form the answer.

A single reading passage can be the source ofseveral question types. Thus, a paragraph canform the basis for multiple-choice completionquestions, multiple-choice answering questions,sentence completion, true-false questions, andeven English equivalents. The latter makes useof equivalencies in which the meaning of a passageis given in English; we are not speaking of trans-lation here.VI. Testing of Writing.

The dictations, guided writing, and compositiontechniques discussed in Chapter VII form the basisof most measurements.

Another widely-used test type to test writingis that in which the students respond in writingto a passage read orally. The passage should beread twice. The questions should be read twice;the pupils should answer in German. The passageand questions can then be reread for checking.There are two popular variations on this passage-type of test: (A) A passage based on materialfamiliar to the students is read twice by theteacher (or tape). The pupils then restate thepassage ii4. their own words or in another personor tense. (B) Written answers to multiple-choicequestions presented orally. The question is readas an incomplete statement with four (or more)possible completions. Pupils select and then writethe proper answer, e.g., 'Die gr6ssten StadteDeutschlands sind . . . ." (a) Ulm und Regens-burg (b) Zurich und Wien (c) Berlin und Bonn(d) MUnchen und Berlin.'VII. Testing of Cultural Information.

Where this is skillfully worked into the audio-lingual text or elsewhere, it need not constitutea separate unit of study. It can be tested in botha linguistic and a situational context. This can beaccomplished in several ways, of which the twomore widely preferred are the multiple-choice

61

completion items based. on a resumptive readingselection (that is, a reading selection combiningin new ways material already learned by thepupils), and a rearranging or matching exercisein which the student reorganizes the sentences ina paragraph to demonstrate his control of thematerial.

Those teachers who have a civilization-culturecourse in the last year of their sequences woulddo well to consult books on language testing,such as that by Robert Lado, whose section ontesting of cross-cultural understanding suggestsseveral testing techniques such as the followingmultiple-choice format:

Situation: A young lady from Germany is a guest inyour home. Before dinner you are servinghors d'oeuvres and offer her a plate ofsmall sandwiches from which she is toselect. She smiles and says "Danke." Whatshe means is:

(1) Thank you, I like them very much.(2) No thank you, I don't care for any.(3) Thank you, I'll take the whole plate.4

Frequent short testing of specific skills (oneat a time), tightly linked to the lesson plan, ismore productive than widely-spaced all-encom-passing tests. Any test loses its value for thestudent unless it is corrected immediately. Imme-diate correction can sometimes be achieved by thecarbon paper technique mentioned in Chapter 7,by the use of the overhead projector, by goingover the test orally, or by giving each student acorrected copy.

When skills are mixed on a test, it is difficultto grade accurately and to weigh the parts of thetest so they are proportionate to the emphasisgiven the skill in class work. Therefore, whentests are desired which test all skills, it is betterto use those prepared (and statistically scored) bycompetent agencies such as the MLA, ETS, andCEEB, all of which have national norms. Thesetests, the use of which has been too limited inhigh schools to date, will be mentioned again inChapter 11.

Where a school is unable to obtain such preparedexaminations and seeks to devise its own, thefollowing type of examination, which has beenused successfully, may be a useful model. For suchexamination, an entirely new kind of test itemhad to be devised. It was nearly impossible tocompress even so little as a single question on eachof the 140-odd grammatical focuses of a first-levelaudio-lingual text (not to mention the pronuncia-tion drills, cultural readings, etc.) into a two- orthree-hour examination given at one time orspread over two or three days. First, it was gen-erally agreed to test the students' speaking abilityseparately in the laboratory prior to the final

4The correct answer, of course, is (2). Cf. LanguageTesting, p. 286.

examination, for reasons we have already touchedupon above.

The remaining skills, reading, writing, andcomprehension are left for the comprehensiveexamination. The test is divided into two parts,one involving the tape recorder and the other,straightforward writing. The first part is subse-quently sub-divided into two equal halves. Thefirst half consists of a series of questions readtwice at normal speed on the tape by nativespeakers (as many different dialects as possibleare represented, and male and female voices areused), for which the students are required tochoose the best of four possible answers (given intheir test booklets). The second half reverses theprocedure, and the taped portion consists of state-ments read twice. The students are to choosewhich of the four questions given in their bookletsmost likely would elicit the answer they justheard. Within each of these two halves of thefirst part of the test, the items are so constructedthat in approximately two-thirds of them the cor-rect answer differs from the incorrect ones forstructural reasons. Of course, all items are in"correct" German; three choices simply do notanswer the question. In the other third of theitems in each half, the correct answer is deter-mined by the cultural content. Thus, aural com-prehension and understanding of cultural material,and the passive recognition of structure and theability to read rapidly and accurately are testedin a single set of items.

The second part of the test is entirely written.The items are of the "pattern drill" type, in whichstudents are required to demonstrate their activecontrol of structural patterns and their ability toread the language.

For the individual high school teacher, however,such a procedure of test construction and admin-istration is ver difficult. His solution to theresumptive or c ...,prehensive testing problem liesin the judicious selection of "key" structural andcultural points to be tested. Then he may proceedto the careful construction of test items on thesepoints.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION1. Discuss what you understand by "normal lan-

guage behavior" in the following statementmade in this chapter: "Collective measurement(all four skills) gives us a practical index ofachievement for communication goals so longas that complex of skills required on theexamination is natural in normal languagebehavior.

to. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages ofshort tests of specific skills as opposed to themore comprehensive tests.

3. In Chapter 6 there is a list of "do's and don'ts"for the use of the language laboratory. Preparea list, for discussion, of the "don'ts" in thepreparation of audio-lingual tests.

62

4. Why is the immediate correction of a test inkeeping with the principles upon which theaudio-lingual approach is based?

5. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages ofthe use of standardized national tests such asthose suggested in this chapter.

6. Discuss the use of English in foreign languagetesting.

7. What testing techniques may be used to re-place the traditional translation questions?

8. What special characteristic of the structuralbehavior of dative vs. accusative case aftercertain prepositions (auf, in, etc.) makes itdifficult to test students on their active con-trol of these forms without resorting to trans-lation? Do you think the testing of the com-parative usage of these forms might beaccomplished by one or another of the vocabu-lary and idiom test patterns? Why or whynot? Construct a brief quiz dealing with the

dative vs. accusative after prepositions. Canyou think of other structural items that maybe better tested. as vocabulary items? Why?

ADDITIONAL READINGSPierre Delattre, "Testing Students' Progress in the Lan-

guage Laboratory," Automated Teaching Bulletin I(1960), 21-31.

Esther Eaton, "Evaluation and Testing in TeachingModern Foreign Languages," School Life XLIV (1962)19-22.

Robert Lado, Language Testing, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.

Karl Schevill, "Means for Evaluation of LanguageLearning," California Schools XXXI (1960), 117-121.

Wilmarth Starr, "Proficiency Tests in Modern ForeignLanguages," PMLA LXXVI (1961), 7-11.

John Carroll, et al., Modern Language Aptitude Test,1959 edition, New York: The Psychological Corp.

Paul Pimsleur, "Testing Foreign Language Learning,"in Albert Valdman (ed.), Trends in Language Teach-ing, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.




COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONCyron W. Hansfurd, Commissioner


Written by



Chapter 9

SELECTING AND ADAPTING AUDIO-LINGUAL TEXTBOOKS

Despite the fact that the first widespreadcommercial appearance of textbooks implement-ing the audio-lingual approach took place shortlyafter the war, when the intensive training textsdeveloped for the military were adapted forcollege use and released, the current deluge ofsupposedly audio-lingual texts was largely trig-gered by the experience of many teachers in theNDEA summer institute programs. The result isthat, while today's foreign language teacher hasa wider variety of modern materials to choosefrom than ever before, he is confronted with a farmore serious and complex problem of selection.'

Many teachers, after deciding to adopt theaudio-lingual approach, have selected what wastouted as an audio-lingual textbook, only to findtheir efforts and sometimes the success of theirentire programs undermined by inconsistent andfrequently unteachable texts. Upon closer exam-ination, the text is often recognized either as atraditional one, hurriedly and superficially revisedto give the appearance of implementing audio-lingual instruction, or as a new production,prepared by writers who are well-meaning, butinsufficiently experienced in audio-lingual tech-niques. Still others have found themselves in thedifficult position of having to teach along audio-lingual lines with purely traditional materials.Thus, the modern language teacher is confrontedwith a dual problem with regard to textbooks:knowing the significant points involved in select-ing one for use in the audio-lingual class, andknowing how to adapt a traditional text for suchuse when no modern text is available.

Selecting an audio-lingual textAs a matter of principle, where possible, it is

always better to acquire a text especially designed111101111..111.1111.1111M10

'Some of the more widely known audio-lingual textsare listed at the end of Chapter 2.

for audio-lingual instruction than to adapt unsuit-able ones.

The exact set of criteria by which any textbookis judged varies from school to school and fromteacher to teacher. Frequently, a major consider-ation is the number of units needed to present acertain percentage of the course, so that it may becompleted within a semester, year, or other lengthof time. Other considerations may reflect the needfor more pictures and "fun" content for juniorhigh school pupils, as opposed to a more directapproach for the high school pupil. Thus, it wouldbe impossible for us to give here a universal listof requirements a text should fulfill in order tobe useful in the audio-lingual approach. In general,we may say that the most successful text is likelyto be the one which most closely corresponds tothe organization of the audio-lingual lesson, as wehave described and discussed it in earlier chapters,The center of any audio-lingual text is its drills.Therefore, the bulk of a unit should be made upof a variety of drills covering the major gram-matical focuses in the lesson. The criteria estab-lished for meaningful syntactical drills in Chapter5 should be applied rigorously in evaluating thepattern drill sections of each unit. The two con-sistent questions must be:

1) does this drill do the job?2) are there sufficient drills to make this struc-

ture automatic in this student?At least one example of all structural types, andof new vocabulary items and idioms to be drilled,should be presented to the student in the form ofa dialogue at the beginning of the unit. Some-times, especially in more advanced stages, a proseselection is used in place of a dialogue. Althougha book which prefers the reading selection to thedialogue is not always to be discounted on thatconsideration alone, the dialogue performs spe-cific, unique functions (as we have discussed) so

of adapting such material will have to convertmany of the early reading and writing portionsof the traditional text to audio-lingual presenta-tion and practice.

In the secondary school, most foreign languageprograms never get around to considering suchmatters as style. Thus, for the purposes of adaptinga traditional text for audio-lingual use, the teachermust be certain to include the most often recur-ring structures, high-frequency vocabulary, andidioms. This task is made even more difficultby the absence of an up-to-date scientific studyindicating the range and frequency of the mostcommonly used words and structures in modernspoken German.

Of those studies which are available, the follow-ing are the most reliable: Helmut Meier, DeutscheSprachstatistik, 2 vls., Hildesheim: Olms, 1964.Helmut Meier, "Die 1000 haufigsten Wortformender deutschen Sprache," Muttersprache (1952) 88-94. F. W. Kaeding, Haufigkeitsworterbuch derdeutschen Sprache, Steglitz: Author, 1897. Her-mann Meier, The 1000 Most Frequent GermanWords, New York: Oxford, 2nd ed., 1947. WalterWaldepuhl and B. Q. Morgan, Minimum StandardGerman Vocabulary, New York: Appleton-Cen-tury-Crofts, 1934.

But it is precisely on the basis of existing studiesof range and frequency tabulations that the initialorder and presentation and subsequent reappear-ances of structures and words are determined.If, for the high school teacher who must accom-plish this tabulation quickly, this procedure istoo complicated, then the items and order ofpresentation can be taken from existing audio-lingual materials which have a similarly carefullyselected vocabulary and structure count.

Once it is decided that a given structure orvocabulary item is to be presented in an audio-lingual lesson, the teacher must select a set ofexpressions incorporating them. These expres-sions must be restricted to the important itemsof the lesson, must be presentable through patterndrills or conversational sequences that are chal-lenging to the intellectual level of the studentand therefore representative of progression inthe learning processyet, must be understandableto the student within the context of the lesson,and, of course, what has gone before. Such aselected item should then be presented in a series

generally a dialoguein accordance with prin-ciples we have already studied. Of course,important new words can be used with reviewstructures and new structures with review vocab-ulary or idioms, but always within the limitationthat the meaning of these new forms can be

inferred from known context. We shall discuss thetechniques of teaching students to infer meaningin Chapter 12.

Frequently, the more recently published tradi-tional texts utilize the dialogue form in conversa-tional sequences. (But note that the mere presenceof such dialogues is no sure indication that thebalance of the book is audio-lingually designed.)Where this is the case, the basic pattern sentencesmay generally be taken directly from the text.In general, though, traditional texts do not providea comprehensive set of pattern sentences. More-over, they often list much low-frequency vocabu-lary and dated or highly restricted regional idioms.In these instances, basic pattern sentences insituational context will have to be composed bythe teacher.

There is really no single prescribed mannerto present all structure and vocabulary audio-lingually. For structural exercise, recourse mustbe had to the various drills we discussed inChapter 5. Vocabulary and idioms from the newlessons may be presented audio-lingually whentheir meanings can be illustrated or inferred. Itis best when the teacher is able to assist suchinference by visual aids. The presentation maybe combined with the structure drills for thatparticular lesson or may take the form. of a seriesof drills, perhaps beginning with a repetition drilland followed by transformation, substitution, orcompletion drills.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION1. Discuss in detail the specific criteria you would use

to select an audio-lingual text for your school'sGerman program. Base your judgment on the earlierchapters of this book as well as the present one.If possible, bring with you an audio-lingual textof the type you would choose and illustrate yourconclusions with it.

2. If you are now using an audio-lingual text, discussthose features in it which correspond to the criteriasuggested in this chapter. Also discuss the advan-tages of those features which are not among thosedescribed here. If you now use a. traditional text,discuss the possibilities of rewriting it for audio-lingual use.

3. Discuss how the presence of a correlated tape orvisual program for a given text does not in itselfguarantee that the text is audio-lingually conceived.

4. Discuss the relative advantages of withholding theprinted text from the pupils during specific phasesof instruction at the beginning levels.

5. Discuss how the authors of audio-lingual bookssystematically add new vocabulary and idioms tocorrespond to the linguistic needs of each successiveunit, while at the same time building toward thebroad active and passive vocabulary required forfree conversation, free composition, and extensivereading.


AN INSERVICE STUDY GUIL.i FOR MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS

10


Byron W. Hansford, CommissionerDenverSeptember, 1967

Written by

Kof. David M.FeldmanProf. Walter D. Kline


44,44. #.....r,r,.,4,041

Chapter 10

THE CULTURAL FOCUS IN THE AUDIO-LINGUAL APPROACH

Although speaking a foreign language fluentlyis our major goal in the foreign language program,it is still not all we aim to teach. In addition, thepupil needs to know something of the way of lifeand the intellectual and artistic products of theculture whose language he is studying. Thisshould be one of the results of the pupils' ex-perience in the foreign language course. It isimportant to tell the student clearly that notonly do the phonology, morphology, and syntaxof the language he is studying differ from hisown, but also that the images which these formscall up for the native speaker are totally different.This is one of the most important functions ofthe total language program.

Does the audio-lingual approach minimize cul-tural information in the classroom, as is sometimesclaimed, and, therefore, fail to fulfill this largerfunction of language teaching? The conflict ismore apparent than real. It is based on a mis-interpretation of the phrase "total language pro-gram." The audio-lingual approach teaches usthat the hearing, speaking, reading, and writingskills must be perfected before the student mayturn his attention from manipulating forms toreading and discussion of cultural concepts. Wehave learned that in the complex matter of lan-guage it is essential to divide language intoseparate parts, or "skills," so as to teach eachone thoroughly, yet not lose sight of the innaterelationship among them and of the overridingfact that people talk and write in order to com-municate ideas.

The modern approach recognizes that a genuineunderstanding of German culturea sympatheticcomprehension of the problem of its people, anda familiarity with their cultural patterns, basedupan a background of factual informationis anintegral part of the total language program, butthat pedagogical emphases vary at different pointswithin that total program. Thus, our very first

concern is to teach the language skills. We neverlose sight of the social context in which the formsare presented and drilled, but our major emphasisat the outset must be on the skills themselves.Then, to an ever-increasing degree, as the studentacquires greater fluency, our emphasis shifts tothe cultural background of what the studentspeaks, reads, and writes about.

In the audio-lingual approach, the language it-self, from the very first lesson, is an intimatemanifestation of culture, since it is, at once, themeans of communication among the people whospeak it and the fabric of which their verythoughts are formed. Thus, in equal degrees, thelinguistic elements of the culture are taught asa part of language learning and nonlinguisticelements of culture are used as vehicles for lan-guage learning. What we shall be discussing inthis chapter is how we may most successfullyand efficiently integrate "language" and "culture"for the ultimate purpose of teaching the studentthe total language, or as much of it as the finitelimits of the learning situation in the secondaryschool will permit.

As we have said, the emphasis during the firsttwo or three years of language instruction natur-ally and inevitably falls on acquiring the funda-mental language skills in an inductive approach.Consistent with this approach, we make use ofthe same inductive learning mode in introducingpupils to cultural material.

The first step in this inductive presentation ofculture is achieved through the classroom environ-ment itself. The Spanish, German, or Frenchclassroom should set the stage for the seriousbusiness of language learning by focusing thestudent's attention as far as possible on thingsSpanish, German, or French. Pictures, posters,objects d'art and other visual material and realiaappropriate to the course (including particularlythe visual aids which accompany many audio-

69

lingual texts) help to achieve this purpose. Thesevisual aids and realia should represent both his-torical and contemporary features of Spanish andSpanish-American, Germanic, or French culture.Pupils who have collected or made materials ofthis sort should be encouraged to display them.In this way, an atmosphere conducive to a Spanish,German, or French "frame of mind" is created,and a small but undeniably significant opportunityto begin an inductive approach to culture is given,without taking time from the beginning class inits basic work of acquiring the language skills.If it is at all possible, classrooms should be setaside exclusively for use by foreign languageclasses, preferably for use only by classes inspecific languages. A congenial atmosphere forlanguage learning seems best to be achieved whenlanguage classes are not required to migrate fromone end of the building to another or to sharethe scenery with the periodic table or dead frogs.

Second, the well-designed audio-lingual text-book is, from the first lesson on, an experience inboth language and culture. The basic dialogue,as we have already seen, is a lesson in cultureas well as in language because it is an, authenticexample of the foreign language in context. Suchcontext is, by definition, an authentic culturepattern. Any dialogue picked from a good audio-lingual text will illustrate this point. For example,let us consider dialogue 14 from Moderne DeutscheSprachlehre.1 The grammatical focuses are certainirregular verbs and the passive voice. But thecultural content is no less significant. Here, thepupil is introduced to one of the specific contem-porary problems arsing from the separation ofEast and West Germany. Berlin, in East Germany,still an important international city and a majordestination of both tourists and German businessand professional people, is most accessible fromWest Germany by air. Yet only the planes of oneairline each from England, France, and the UnitedStates are permitted to fly over the German Dem-ocratic Republic (East Germany) along the aircorridors which link it to West Germany. Curious-ly, the West German national airline, Lufthansa,is not permitted to fly this important route. Bymemorizing this dialogue for language learningpurposes, the student is simultaneously introducedto a pertinent feature of contemporary Germanlife. Few pupils fail to have their imaginationsstimulated by such material and they seem tohave few difficulties in retaining the information.Naturally, over the many dialogues which com-prise a year's work, many cultural features canbe presented in this way, combining contemporaryand historical matters, as well as social, intellec-tual, artistic, and economic problems. Books de-

T. A. Du Val, et ca., Moderne deutsche Sprach!clue,New York: Random House, 1967.

signed for the secondary school exclusively, quitenaturally limit themselves to presenting culturalsituations within the grasp of the age-group repre-sented among the pupils.

The answer to the charge of a supposed "anti-cultural bias" in the audio-lingual approach isthat the cultural focus is by no means "incidental,"as we have seen. The dialogues areor should beplanned from the outset with the cultural aspectclearly in mind.

A set of appropriate cultural footnotes (e.g. thedialogue cited above and our own Chapter II, pp.7-13) fo:lows the presentation of the basic dia-logue, so that the cultural focuses need not bediscussed in class if the teacher so chooses. Thecultural "point" of the dialogue is still obvious.Should the teacher care to make a more pointedlesson of these notes, three or four minutes maybe spent either during the situational presentationof the dialogue, at the end of the dialogue, orduring the "check-up" on the cultural notes.

The third step in the cultural presentationcomes after the pupil has memorized the dialogue.When the teacher conducts the "check-up" of thememorization and recitation of the dialogue, sev-eral questions relative to the cultural content ofthe dialogue should be included. The questionsmust, of course, be kept within the linguisticgrasp of the student at the particular point inthe instructional program; yet they should beto the point and should help him to isolate thesignificant features of Hispanic, German, orFrench culture contained in the dialogue. Anoccasional brief remark in English is also possible.Here, the well-informed teacher can make useof linguistic cues from the dialogue itself. Theuse of "formal" vs. the "informal" and thirdperson forms of address reveals a culturally sig-nificant feature of Hispanic, German, and Frenchsociety and one which merits attention from thebeginning. Forms of greeting, farewell, presenta-tion, and the like, are equally significant.

Organization is most important. The mere men-tion of facts that happen to be related to a currentclass activity or assignment is generally ineffec-tive as a device for teaching culture. Culturalmatters should form a specific body of informationwithin which knowledge, attitude, and apprecia-tion are incorporated. Here, again, the traditionaltextbook fails us. It either concentrates on onecultural feature to the detriment of all othervalues, or it is inconsistent in its cultural approach.

Many textbooks, both traditional and modern,present distorted views of the culture of the targetlanguage country, focusing undue attention on"colorful" or "picturesque" folkways which, inurban centers, are regarded even by the nativeresidents as "quaint" and which are, even fromthe urban native's point of view, as strange tohim as to the American student learning the

-- 70

language. industrialization, complex economic de-velopment, housing, transportation, public health,immigration, and education are far more seriouspreoccupation in the German-speaking worldtoday than the idyllic or touristic stereotypes ofGermany which have for so long been a chiefcultural concern of German textbooks. The so-called traditional German Wanderlust as repre-sented by endless bicycle tours, youth hostels,

hikes in the Schwarzwald, and the inevitablescenes set in the Biergarten are not at all accuratein their portrayal of modern German life. While

it is of course true that these situations are easierto describe in terms of fa--,e vocabulary and struc-ture of beginning German instrutttion, just as itis true that a complex and penetrating study of

modern German social and political problemscannot be in,,,luded in the normal high school lan-guage curriculum as it now stands, it is urgentthat those cultural focuses which it is possible forus to present be scrupulously accurate and repre-sentative.

The carefully planned audio-lingual text is assystematically organized in its treatment of cul-ture as in its treatment of language. If it appearsto devote comparatively fewer pages to culturalphenomena, it is only because at the beginninglevel, as we have said, the primary emphasis isnecessarily on the language skills.

During the first two years, it is possible to pre-sent cultural material in German as a part of theregular program of language learning. But, aspupils develop, their own cultural interests (music,art, government, literature, science, etc.) transcendtheir linguistic facility and widening breach be-comes evident between their real interests andtheir ability to learn about them and discuss themin German.

get let 2nd 2nd 3rd 4thdays Sem. Sem. year year year

Linguistic eompotenee _Cultural Interest--

In the foregoing diagram, we see a cross sectionshowing the ability to handle cultural material inGerman. The first bulge shows the first broaden-ing of linguistic skill before the cultural interestbegins to grow. The narrow section correspondingroughly to the end of the second semester repre-sents the relative burst of cultural interest whichoverloads the linguistic ability. The final continu-ing rise of both lines shows the steady increasein cultural interest and in the linguistic abilityto handle it.

5th -6thYearn

71

By the third and fourth years of language study,the pupils' linguistic competence gradually catchesup with their cultural interests, making it possibleto introduce significant doses of cultural materialin German in the classroom, laboratory, and home-work program. Educationally, of course, we donot want to limit the pupils' field of inquiry andyet, because the chief objective of the first twoyears is to teach communication skills, the bestmethod of developing these skills may not alwaysinclude a primary concentration on cultural con-tent.

It is at this point that many of our colleaguespermit the use of English for outside readingson cultural topics. Essentially, there can be nocomplaint about such projects during the firsttwo years, so long as we are always careful todevote class time first and foremost to audio-lingual drill. Probably, English-language culturalactivities are best treated as outside projects,graded or not, withat the very mostan occa-sional summary in class. If a summary can simplybe in the form of a map, chart, or picture to beposted in class, so much the better. The pupils'cultural awareness will be enriched and theoverall "Germanic" look of the room itself will beenhanced at no cost of precious class time.

The map is conceded to be the best stimulus tosuch outside cultural activities at the beginninglevels. Students can use desk outline maps ormake their own. On them they can draw boun-daries, outline countries where German is theofficial language, show principal products ofGerman-speaking nations, or illustrate the geo-graphical spread of ethnic groups. Such informa-tion is readily found in encyclopedias, geographies,and other books generally 9vailable in schoollibraries. Both the research and actual drawingmay be done at home, scheduled so as not tointerfere with dialogue memorization and otherlinguistic activities.

Celebration of holidays is another exercisewhich is popular and not too time-consuming. Stillother activities include hunting for Gamer, wordsor expressions used in newspapers, radio, tele-vision, books and magazines; gathering names ofGerman foods, identifying them, finding when andwhere they are eaten; learning songs; collectingprints or pictures of famous paintings, statues,monuments or buildings, and preparing brief de-scriptions of them in German.

Professor roward Mostrand has suggested thefollowing as valuable cultural experiences withinthe context of the language-learning sequence.2

1. Situation dialoguescontrolled, for elementaryinstruction, and candid for more advancedteaching, but all preferably on film. Existingmaterials well illustrate the kinds of situations

21n the Florida FL Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 2.

that are worth presentingbetween age mates,host and guest, neighbors, persons of unequalsocial status. Students need more guidance,however, in formulating what each situationillustrates of the foreign behavior patterns.

2. Programmed audio materials, designed for self-instruction, expounding aspects of the culture,social system, or history of a country.

3. Spoken descriptions of museum materials, suchas paintings, handicrafts, model villages, toaccompany pictures of the objects. Before visit-ing a temporary exhibit at a museum, studentscan listen to the `acoustiguides' commentaryin the language lab, looking meanwhile ata printed catalog of the materials.

4. Literature taught in its relation to the cultureand society. Recitations of poems, brief prosenarratives, and monologues, accompanied bycultural commentary to be read by the students,or listened to in the language laboratory, orpresented by the teacher in the class discussion.Recitations by contempovary or recent authorsof selections from their writings.

5. Songs significant of a way of life. Film canshow how work songs, festival songs, etc., areused in the country; a booklet can present tothe teacher or students the generalizations thatconfer significance upon the example.

6. The motion picture as art form and social docu-ment. Margaret Mead suggests that studentssee half of a 'movie' film and test their under-standing of the foreign culture's art forms byguessing how the story will end. A check sheetof types of behavior pattern to look for, withsome preliminary instruction, enables studentsto discover in a motion picture (or documentaryfilm) a wealth of paralinguistic, kinetic, andsocial patterns which open up a new world forobservations.

7. Filmed or taped interviews of social typessignificant in the country, and excerpts fromtalks given by political and other leaders, couldwell be more extensively used at a more ad-vanced stage of language learning when longworks of literature cannot yet be read at afast enough pace to become engaging.

8. Testing understanding and the ability to com-municate. The language laboratory can present,on film or tape, excerpts of such materials ashave been suggested, calling for a response thatwill indicate the student's understanding and/or his ability to react acceptably. The learner'sability to follow an informal conversation withease, for example, gives one indication of hisacquaintance with the foreign way of life. Hisnearness to native proficiency in understandingdiscourse could be measured still more exactlyby refinements such as the 'doze procedure' inwhich words are blanked out at regular orrandom intervals.

A certain amount of outside reading is implicitin the activities we have mentioned. Formal read-ing assignments, however, present a more complexproblem. Extensive reading in English has noplace in the German language curriculum, yet itmay become necessary for students to do someoutside cultural reading in English. To make suchreading a meaningful linguistic experience as well,it is necessary to insist that students summarizeor dramatize in German the content of what theyread in English. At all events, it is best to avoidsuch English reading as much as possible. Music,art, and other cultural activities should be in-dulged in only when they do not take time fromthe audio-lingual practice, which is the heart ofthe first two years.

Some teachers have found that devoting thefirst five minutes of the hour to the singing ofGerman songs "limbers up" the voice for intensiveoral drill, relaxes the students, puts them in amore "German" frame of mind, and is time wellspent. Furthermore, some teachers maintain thatthe effort of memorizing the lyrics has a beneficiallinguistic effects as well. There can be no seriousobjection to such activities when the teacher findsthat better language learning takes place becauseof them and when the time devoted to them isstrictly limited.

In most schools, teachers in charge of advancedcourses have fulfilled this cultural need mostlythrough reading. In Chapter VII, we discussed thegeneral position of reading in the audio-lingualapproach. Now, we shall discuss in more detailthe things to be read and the goals to be set.Too often, we tend to think that cultural reading

advanced courses must be literary (generallyplays-or novels). Actually, literature is only onesubdivision of the total possible cultural emphasesin our advanced courses. The following generaloutline shows that a wide variety of cultural topicsis suitable. So long as the works being read arewritten by native speakers, are carefully edited,and are accurate in what they say, they are gristfor the mill.

I. THE GERMAN-SPEAKING WORLD TODAYA. The German languageB. German and Germany in Austria, Switzer-

land, and other areasC. German influences in the United StatesD. Relations between the United States and

GermanyII. AREA INFORMATION

A. GeographyB. TopographyC. EthnographyD. Products and trade

III. CULTURAL PATTERNSA. Family lifeB. DietC. DressD. RecreationE. Music and the arts

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F. Holidays and festivalsG. ReligionH. Customs and folkwaysI. Occupations and professionsJ. Educationetc.

IV. GERMAN HISTORYA. Germany before the RomansB. Germany and RomeC. The Germanic peoplesD. The German presence in southern EuropeE. Eastern vs. Western Germanic, the period

of TheodoricF. Germany of the epic literatureG. Carolingian GermanyH. The "Holy Roman Empire", the period of

King Otto the GreatI. The Council of WormsJ. The Middle Ages: 1150-1450K. Reform and CounterreformL. The "Baroque" periodM. The age of enlightenmentN. Frederick the Great and his period0. The Napoleonic AgeP. German NationalismQ. BismarckR. The Nazi PeriodS. Germany since 1945

V. CONTRIBUTIONS OF GERMANY TOWESTERN CIVILIZATIONA. Intellectual traditionsB. LiteratureC. MusicD. Painting, Sculpture and ArchitectureE. Science

To limit the pupil's cultural exposure to literaryexpression alone is to cheat him of the generaloverview of German culture and civilization weshould like him to have. The audio-lingual ex-perience has taught us that, as example of thewritten language and culture, a history book ora biography written by a native speakerespe-cially with a flavorful styleis as valuable to thelanguage learner as a novel, and perhaps evenmore so. Thus, we are no longer limited to theliterary reader in our search fqr adequate culturalreading material in the advance:I. courses. Insteadof a synthetic novel written by d- non-native, oreditions of short stories which have bv,,n, cut andedited beyond recognition, we are free to -c,43oose

for the more advanced German student a bosAt

on, say, the geography of Austria written forGerman-speaking students of roughly the sameage in Europe. When it comes time to choose anovel or a play to illustrate German literature,the pupils will be better prepared to appreciateits historical and cultural context than previously.

Now, let us consider a typical sequence ofcultural topics. Of course, there may not be timeto cover all the areas on our outline, even in asix-year sequence. How the cultural informationis to be covered must be left to the discretion ofthe teachers and supervisors in the individualdistricts. We need not worry about occasionalopposition that may be encountered, because someof the material is touched on in social studies

classes. In the context of language learning, thematerial has a totally different effect: there is aspecial intimacy, insight, and understanding as areward of the pupils' identification of themselveswith the language of other peoples in the sympa-thetic atmosphere of the German class.

Sections I, II, III, and IV of the outline givenabove are the most suitable for early presentation(in the third and fourth years of the six-yearsequence or in the third year of the four-yearsequence). Much of the basic factual informationabout these areas will have been presented alreadyin the context of the dialogues in the first twoyears (as we already mentioned earlier in thechapter). The most appropriate text will vary,depending upon pupils' abilities and the coursesof study in individual schools. For some, one oranother of the recently published surveys ofGerman culture and civilization will be satisfac-tory, or perhaps a reader made up of contemporaryGerman essays on today's problems. For others,books on these specific topics prepared for Germanschoolchildren of the same age will be more useful.It is hoped that current research will soon producea series of graded readers on these topics. Until itdoes, the teacher still must choose from a widefield.

Section V of the outline is best presented in thefinal year of the four-year sequence, and in thelast two years of the six-year sequence. Hereoccurs the desired correlation between audio-lingual experience (which has continued through-out the program) and the study of culture. Thegoal is the ability to converse fluently in Germanwith a native speaker on several important topicsof contemporary life. And this final stage is theone in which the student is best equipped to readand appreciate a novel in all its social and historicalcontexts.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION1. Discuss how the cultural focus is integrated

into the various levels of audio-lingual lan-guage instruction.

2. Discuss how the "inductive" approach to cul-ture is achieved in the beginning levels of in-struction.

3. Which cultural features of German civilizationshould be emphasized in the language program?

4. How it is possible to avoid the traditional anderroneous equation of culture and literaturein language instruction.

5. By which means can pupils' attention be drawnto the cultural content of the linguistic materialof the language lesson Without consuming valu-able skill-learning time?

6. Discuss the best means of and materials forachieving a realistic and up-to-date view ofGerman culture in the secondary school FL

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curriculum, both from the teacher's and pupils'viewpoints.

7. Discuss the most productive uses of audio-visual presentation in the teaching of culture.Tie these in wherever possible with concomi-tant language-teaching objectives, for culture

and language learning are not separate, unre-lated goals in the integrated or "total" languageprogram.

8. Discuss how viewing a German-language mo-tion picture can be developed into a meaningfulcultural and linguistic learning experience.

ADDITIONAL READINGS

Culture in Language Learning, in Reports of the Work-ing Committees of the 1960 Northeast Conference onthe Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Charles F. Hockett, "Relationships Between Develop-ment of Language Skills and Cultural Attitudes,"California Schools XXXI (1960),, 112-116.

Harry Hoijer, ed., Language and Culture, Chicago: Uni-versity of Chicago Press, 1954.

Howard L. Nostrand, "Describing and Teaching theSociocultural Content of a Foreign Language andLiterature" in Albert Valdman (ed.) Trends in Lan-guage Teaching, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965.



11




Written by



Chapter 11

PLANNING THE FOUR- AND SIX-YEAR SEQUENCES

The solid foundation we lay in the beginningyears through the audio-lingual approach mayeasily be undone by reverting to the familiaralternation between review grammars and readersduring the following years. At one time, whenenrollments in advanced courses were small andgenerally made up of especially-interested stu-dents, the dangers of poorly-coordinated classeswere limited. Now that a steadily growing numberof pupils is enrolling in advanced courses, it hasbecome important to consider the continuitywithin our advanced courses of the approach withwhich we began in the first years.

As we have mentioned in preceding chapters,the four- or six-year sequence constitutes a "totallanguage program" in which the skills of hearing,speaking, reading, and writing are not only pre-sented, but perfected throughout the entire se-quence. This means that however much theemphases may change from skill to skill in a givensemester or year, no skill is ever absent from theprogram. Thus, the integrity of the total languageprogram is never lost, although the percentageof time and attention devoted to one or another

skill may vary.Before we can sensibly proceed to a consider-

ation of what kind of audio-lingual drill is mostprofitable in the advanced years and of how it canbe integrated with the extensive cultural contentof advanced courses, we must first consider therelative balance of time allotted to each phaseof language instruction throughout the four- orsix-year sequence.

Because the exact percentages of time devotedto each aspect of language instruction will varyaccording to the requirements of each school dis-trict, the following figures are intended merely tosuggest relative percentages of time to be allottedto each skill. Cultural material, because its prep-aration most often involves reading and writing,is considered in the following diagrams to be apart of the reading and writing phases.

From the following diagrams, we can observethat, although there is a steadily increasing ordecreasing degree of emphasis placed upon eachskill at a specific level, all four skills have animportant place in the total program at any givenlevel.

THE SIX-YEAR PROGRAM

Instructional focus Year 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Hearing 1

2. Speaking f80% 63% 43% 37% 23% 17%

3. Reading 17% 23% 37% 43% 50% 50%

4. Writing 3% 14% 20% 20% 27% 33%

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THE FOUR-YEAR PROGRAM

Instructional focus Year: 1 2 3 4

1. Hearing )2. Speaking c 63% 43% 30% 23%

3. Reading 23% 37% 50% 50%

4. Writing 14% 20% 20% 27%

We have already observed that at the beginninglevels of language instruction, a wide variety ofsyntactic drills (cf. Chapter 5) can be employed toteach the student how to manipulate the structuresthat he first encountered in the pattern dialogue.The purpose was to drill, one by one, each of thenew structures that the pupil met. By the end ofthe first two years, using scientifically-designedmaterials and the audio-lingual approach, mostpupils have met and learned to use the funda-mental structures of the language. During thethird year and beyond, however, the purpose ofaudio-lingual drill is to perfect the pupil's controlof the structures he has already met and topresent and drill for the first time some of theless frequent structures in the language or option-al constructions, i.e., such as the choice betweenclause or infinitive after lassen and machen.

During the first two years, we presented thenew forms to be studied in the pattern dialogue.The dialogue had to be carefully created to focusattention on the new patterns and to include acontrolled quantity of new vocabulary, unusualverb forms, idioms, and the like. From the thirdyear on, however, the pupil has a sufficient con-trol of the basic constructions of the language toread standard prose and not to be so confused bythe presence of new forms that he cannot makesense out of it. Many textbook writers hold, more-over, that the abandonment of the dialogue infavor of prose selections at the advanced levelaids in achieving the transition to reading andprovides for a variety of more "colorful" uses ofthe language than could be possible in a realisticand believable dialogue. For the purposes of audio-lingual drill at advanced levels, there is littlesignificant difference between pattern dialoguesand literary or other cultural readings as a presen-tation device; therefore, in the advanced courses,we generally make use of cultural reading materialsuch as we discussed in Chapters 7 and 10, insteadof a pattern dialogue. In the advanced course,the reading material is the "corpus" from whichthe pupil will expand his recognition and workingvocabulary and in which he will observe newvariations in structural usage. In this way, the

very reading material which forms the centralpart of the advanced course acts as did the patterndialogue in the early years to present in contextthe structures to be learned.

The syntactic drill patterns we discussed inChapter 5 are just as useful for advanced drillsas they are for elementary exercises and no newprototypes need be created to achieve the desiredresults.

Once it has been decided, for example, that ina given advanced class approximately 25 percentof total class time will be devoted to audio-lingualpractice, the teacher faces four immediate prob-lems:

1. How shall the 25 percent of class time bedivided? One class per week? Fifteen minuteseach day? One week per month? etc.

2. Shall audio-lingual practice be performed inclass only, or can the laboratory be used? Ifso, should it be used during the class houror as reinforcement in addition to the class-room drill?

3. How shall the appropriate material be drawnfrom the readings?

4. How can the most effective grammaticalgeneralization be made after the drills arecompleted?

First, let us consider how best to divide classtime. The 25 percent figure refers not only to anamount of classroom time, but also to the samerelative percentage of homework time. Thus,audio-lingual experiences in the fourth year of afour-year program should take up approximatelyone quarter of all time (classroom, laboratory, andhomework) devoted to the course. Here we noteagain how the language laboratory remains a keyinstructional device even at the advanced level.Its use in the cultural, literary, and testing phasesof the advanced program is perhaps the area inwhich the language laboratory is least understood.Because, at the advanced level, it is just asnecessary as at the beginning level to drill newstructures as soon after encountering them aspossible, approximately one quarter of each classhour should be devoted to audio-lingual drill. Themanner of presentation does not differ from the

76

sample lesson formula presented in Chapter 2(cf. pp. 7-13) : (1) present pattern, (2) drill pat-tern, (3) generalization. Because the end of anaudio-lingual drill is reached only when fluentresponses are received from all pupils, it maywell be that no more than one structure can besatisfactorily drilled in a given class period. Thisneed not be alarming, however, since pupils aresupposed to have mastered the high-frequencystructure and vocabulary in the first years, sothat there is less urgency in the advanced coursesabout the number of structures to be drilled ina given class hour.

It would be unrealistic, however, to assume thatall students in an advanced class have masteredthe fundamental language structures presented inearlier courses. This is due in part to a lackof uniformity among districts, schools, and evenindividual teachers in the way in which givenlevels of the language sequence are taught, andin part to the different learning abilities and reten-tion potentials of each student. Therefore, theteacher must not be surprised if students stumbleover an advanced structural drill because ofincomplete mastery of the fundamental drills onthe same structure presented one or two semestersbefore. It often happens that a student has con-siderable difficulty with a lesson on the uses ofthe imperfect subjunctive because he did notcompletely master the lesson on the forms of theimperfect subjunctive in previous semesters. Forthis reason, many teachers index their copies ofthe first level materials by structural focus andthen bring these first-level books to their third-and fourth-level classes. When a student, such asthe one referred to above in the subjunctiveproblem, stumbles in his performance of a drillbecause of faulty recall of the earlier lesson, theteacher may send him to the laboratory for addi-tional practice by assigning him the taped drillfrom the earlier lesson. If several students fail inthe same drill for a similar reason, the earlierdrill can be done on the 'spot before continuing.

Second, should audio-lingual drill at the ad-vanced level be a classroom exercise only? No.As we have come to appreciate the value of audio-lingual drill beyond the first level class, we havediscovered that the language laboratory, too, hasa significant place in advanced audio-lingual drill.Just as we use the laboratory for reinforcement inthe fundamental classes, so should laboratorypractice be required in advanced classes to rein-force and overlearn advanced patterns. Each pupil,of course, will have different time requirementsfor mastery of a given structure, so no averagelaboratory time figure will be equally applicablefor all. Generally, at the advanced level, 30minutes of laboratory drill for each 15 minutes ofaudio-lingual practice in class will serve toreinforce the structures. Of course, where it is notpossible to insist on daily sessions of 30 minutes

each in the language laboratory, such drill timeas is possible will have to suffice. Ideally, thelibrary-style laboratory is the most advantageousfor these purposes. In no case, however, shouldstudents be required to practice at home withoutan authentic German model. Here, the tape-loanprogram mentioned in Chapter 6 may help easethe load on the laboratory and permit pupils todo their reinforcement exercises at home withtheir own tape recorder. Of course, those advancedtexts which have their structure drills on take-home tapes and records provide an opportunityfor such practice.

Third, how do we select advanced audio-lingualmaterial? Some textbooks, such as A-LM, Ver-stehen and Sprechen, and others, now providesequential audio-lingual instructional materialssufficient to cover the entire secondary-schoollanguage sequence. The teacher's manuals whichaccompany these texts describe in some detail howthe advanced units are to be used. But manyschools prefer texts which do not yet have follow-up units for a complete four-year sequence.Teachers in these schools are usually obliged to usea combination of readers and review grammars(in the main not audio-lingual in design) in theadvanced semesters. The dangers inherent in theuse of many such readers have already been com-mented on in Chapter 10. The reference or reviewgrammar usually fails to carry the student muchbeyond the vocabulary and structure he was tohave learned in the first level of audio-lingualinstruction, provides little well-designed structuredrill, and offers little opportunity for oral practice.If the teacher is to achieve results with the ad-vanced class without the aid of sequential texts,then the following procedure should be followed:

The teacher must first scan the reading materialfor the semester.' The object of this scanning isto make a list of constructions which were notstudied during the first two years. These construc-tions, then, will form the basis of the semester'saudio-lingual drill. A quick comparison of thescanning list and the topical index of the textbookused during the first two years will quickly yielda final list of constructions which will be new tothe advanced student and which will, consequent-ly, be the forms to be drilled. The exact list ofconstructions will depend upon which book wasused in the first two years and which is beingused in the advanced course.

Among the most frequently encountered "new"structures are: indirect discourse, subjunctive ofunreal passive, future perfect-past probability par-ticipial constructions, infinitive constructions, im-personal verbs, etc.

Examining a sample advanced drill may giveus a clue as to what is expected. The use ofindirect discourse or the quotational forms may

'Cf. Chapter 7 regarding selection of reading materials.

77

be a problem and is therefore a likely subject foradvanced audio-lingual drill. If a suitable drillcannot be found already prepared in an audio-lingual textbook, one must be created. Most up-to-date reference grammars will tell us that thereare two sets of subjunctive forms in German: oneto express something that is unreal, doubtful oruncertain, and a second form which is used toexpress an indirect quotation. This latter form isderived from the present-tense stem of the verbwithout corresponding vowel changes in the sec-ond and third persons singular. Since it is usedoften in literature and in newspapers (althoughnot' so often in informal spoken language), thestudent should be taught to recognize and handlethese forms.

To begin a drill session on the subjunctive ofindirect discourse, the teacher should reviewsecond- and third-person forms of the verb in thepresent tense, including an example of an Ablaut-wechsel (er liiuftsie laufen). Then the corre-sponding quotational forms are introduced througha repetition drill. The next step would be to usethese verbs in a sentence: Sie sagt, sie kommesofort. Sie sagt, sie gebe sofort. A drill changinga direct statement to an indirect could then bepresented: Sie sagt "Ich gehe nach Hause."Siesagt, sie gehe nach Hause.

A further drill could include the subordinatingconjunction dass, so that the student practices thechange in word order in the dependent clauseintroduced by dass. Examples of such drills maybe found in A-LM German, Level III, pp. 300-304.

The generalization which follows these drillsshould emphasize the familiar parts the studenthas already learned. The statement that indirectdiscourse is simply relating what someone elsesaid, asked or thought, and indicating at the sametime that the speaker does not commit himself tothe response in any way, should be sufficient toexplain this situation.

Audio-lingual drill is not limited to these usesalone, however. If a play is being read, manyteachers have the roles acted out, once the contentand structure of the acts are understood anddrilled. Then, using a form similar to the sampleecho evaluation in Chapter 8, the pupils areevaluated on their oral production. Classroom drillon their errors then follows along the lines wesuggested in Chapter 4. Because many of the bestGerman plays are recorded, many teachers selecta play on the basis of the availability of a goodrecording of it. Students are then assigned toprepare the lessons on the play in the languagelaboratory while listening to the recording.

Reading aloud from texts other than plays isalso useful, although less representative of thespoken language. In this way, the same readingsare used for cultural, structural, and phonologicalpurposes, resulting in a far more economical and

I

profitable use of class time. If a school has fundsto acquire, or personnel to create, tapes of thereadings used in class, pupils may then be requiredto reinforce their classroom exercises in pronunci-ation by using the tapes as models in the languagelaboratory. Where a laboratory has adequatedubbing facilities and personnel, the master tapeof the reading selection can be redubbed, brokeninto phrases for repetition by the pupils. Other-wise, pupils may be taught to manipulate thepause control2 on their laboratory equipment andgiven a marked manuscript of the work to indicatewhere they should stop the tape in order to repeatthe phrase they have just heard.

Some teachers prefer to test pupils in the lan-guage laboratory for their understanding of whatthey have read. To do this, three or four passages(generally of 100 words each) are selected andapproximately 10 multiple-choice questions oneach passage are devised. Pupils have before themonly an answer sheet with letters or numberscorresponding to the various choices. They seeneither the text of the passage nor the questionsand answer choices. Through their earphones inthe laboratory (or from a high-fidelity taperecorder in the classroom, if a laboratory is notavailable), the pupils hear the passage read twice,at normal speed. The questions are then read twice,each time followed by the answer choices. Throughthis approach to testing for comprehension, manyteachers feel that the pupil has not only profitedfrom the reading material itself, but also hasgained more auditory proficiency. Of course, thereare many variations on this activity. Some teachersprefer to allow students to choose from writtenquestions and answers after they have heard thepassage. Others present the passage and questionsorally, but permit pupils to choose from amongwritten answers. There are disadvantages, how-ever, in these variations and there is some questionas to their validity as testing procedures. Askingthe student to master the content of a passagepresented orally, but to respond to the writtenlanguage for his test questions on the passage isan unsound and confusing mixture of skills. Oralcomprehension is best tested by having the stu-dents respond, either orally or in writing, to anoral stimulus. We are, of course, in no way limitedto the multiple-choice answer here. Almost anyof the comprehension tests mentioned in Chapters7 and 8 are adaptable for this activity and goodresults have been obtained in experiments withthem.

Now that we have an idea of what kinds ofadvanced audio-lingual experiences are possible,we can begin to formulate a broad outline for thesix- and four-year sequences.

First, the six-year sequence. The audio-lingual

'Ct. Chapter 6

78

phase (observing the appropriate time distribu-tion discussed at the beginning of this chapter)in grades 7 and 8 consists of the memorizationof pattern dialogues; oral drill on pronunciationand structure; and an admixture of simple poems,songs, and recitations to stimulate interest andparticipation. The reading phase consists of learn-ing to read the dialogues which have been mem-orized and of recombination narratives based onthe vocabulary and structure already learnedaudio-lingually from the dialogues. In the finalsemester of the eighth grade, depending upon thegeneral progress of the class, reading materialnot previously presented in class may be usedin small quantities. During both these years, allwriting activity is guided. It begins by havingpupils learn to write, both from memory and fromdictation, the material they have already drilledaudio-lingually in class. During the final semesterof the eighth grade, however, simple transforma-tions of audio-lingual material may be given.Pupils may be asked, during this final semester,to write out brief answers to dialogue questionswhich have already been drilled audio-linguallyand read. Many state curriculum plans suggestthat vocabulary building exercises may be in-cluded, in small doses, within this writing phase,through labeling familiar objects and makingpicture dictionaries. Again, the inherent danger ofwasting too much class time on such activitiesmilitates against making more than very occa-sional use of them. At this stage, the culturalcontent must be developed almost exclusivelythrough the dialogues. Some of the most elemen-tary cultural activities suggested in Chapter 10may be employed only if the class has demon-strated its proficiency in the other skills and, ofcourse, must be limited to a small percentage ofthe total course time.

In grades 9 and 10, audio-lingual experiencesremain the prime objective. All structures arepresented and drilled audio-lingually. Vocabularyand idioms are also presented and drilled orally.Because a general increase in reading activitybegins in this phase, a gradual coordination ofreading experiences and audio-lingual practice isbegun, as suggested earlier in this chapter. In the10th grade, oral reporting on topics from thereadings, followed by pronunciation drill, is avaluable activity. During this period, extensivereading is introduced and then expanded. It hasbeen found that, as mentioned in Chapters 7 and10, the reading experience is much more profitablewhen a wide variety of printed forms (literaryworks, geography and history books, and news-papers and periodicals) is used as the basis for theselection of reading materials. The writing phasecontinues to represent what pupils can already sayand read. As the audio-lingual and reading activi-ties increase, so does the scope of the writing phase.Dictations, recombinations of already learned

patterns, answers to questions, writing of all drillpatterns, and, if progress is satisfactory, someletter writing on familiar topics are used (cf.Chapter 7).

In grades 11 and 12, the audio-lingual phase isintegrated with all course activities along thelines discussed earlier. The reading phase is essen-tially extensive and produces best results whenreading selections are chosen from a wide varietyof printed sources. Toward the end of the 12thgrade, however, intensive reading of literaryworks in different forms is suggested. The authorsselected should provide the student with materialfor a minimum understanding of an epoch inGerman literary development. Attention may bepaid to style, historical context, etc. Audio-lingualactivity should accompany the reading programthroughout. The writing phase is expanded to in-clude both controlled and free composition (cf.Chapter 7). Toward the end of the 12th grade,summarizing and paraphrasing of lectures, tapes,and books should be encouraged and note-takingin German practiced.

Although German has not been emphasized inelementary school foreign language (FLES) pro-grams, the success of such programs in Spanishand French augurs well for the future of Germanat lower levels. The introduction of German in theelementary school curriculum would have impor-tant repercussions in the curriculum planning forthe secondary school. While it is not our intent todiscuss the FLES programs, the number of stu-dents entering the secondary schools with previousexposure to German will steadily grow with theincreased nationwide emphasis on FLES. Thiswill necessitate a modification of the proposedsix- or four-year sequence discussed here, sincewhat is proposed for 8th grade may be accom-plished in the 7th, and so on. The obvious resultis the opportunity to effect a truly advancedcourse in civilization and culture in the 12th gradein which a wide variety of materialshistorical,literary, and artisticmay be used for reading anddiscussion, and supplemented with a generousamount of films, reports, etc. Those schools whichare located in the area of a college or university,and are fortunate enough to have a televisionhook-up with the college, may well be able toallow the students to observe the lectures of thecollege class in civilization and culture, via TV,for three days of the week, keeping the remainingtwo days for discussion and other activities in thehigh school classroom. In some cases the highschool seniors may be allowed to attend the classesat the college during this year and while they arereceiving credit for the course as part of theirhigh school career, they are also profiting by thefact that this credit may be used for an AdvancedPlacement program when they enter college.

It cannot be overemphasized that in those dis-tricts having a good program of foreign language

instruction in the elementary and junior highschools, it is very necessary and profitable for thesecondary teachers to hold periodic meetings withthe teachers in the lower schools for purposes ofarticulation in order to assure the smooth transi-tion of the students progressing through thevarious stages of the sequence, to guard againstwaste of effort on part of the teachers at variouslevels in the program, and to assure the studentthe maximum of achievement in the givennumber of years in the sequence.

The same general lines of development areobserved in the four-year sequence: grade 9corresponds roughly to the activities of grades 7

and 8 in the six-year sequence; grade 10 corre-sponds roughly to grades 9 and 10 in the six-yearsequence; grades 11 and 12 correspond generallyto their counterparts in the six-year sequence.This implies that the intensity and single-minded-ness of objectives in the first two years of thefour-year sequence must be greater than in thelonger program. This is partly mitigated by thegreater maturity of the ninth-grade student whomay be more ready to accept an intensive pro-gram than is his seventh-grade counterpart.

A recent development in some progressive dis-tricts has produced programs, tailored to theabilities and motivations of the students, elimi-nating the current system of semester courses,with a passing grade in first semester guaranteeingpromotion to the second semester, etc. In its place,the courses are offered by level. Regardless of thegrade received in Level I, admission to Level IIdepends on a certain minimum score of a diagnos-tic examination (preferably the MLA tests or somesuch instrument of measurement which hasnational norms and/or norms established in thelocal situation). This means, of course, that the

more gifted student could be allowed to progressto Level II within the same semester or year,while the slow learner may be required to takeone extra semester to finish the prescribed workbefore passing the test required for promotion.

Eventually, and ideally, one could even havea two-semester course for slow learners doing onesemester's regular work, and a one-semester coursefor fast learners doing two-semesters' work. Thechart below suggests a pattern which might befollowed in programs which allow some flexibilityof this type.

Such a program must, of course, have the provi-sion that any student may move in either directionto join another group at the level for which he isprepared after successfully completing the re-quired test. A slow learner may be so motivatedas to join the average group, or the average studentmay move up to the pace of the fast learner andthereby be able to work toward the advancedplacement course.

The division into grades which we have observedin our discussion corresponds to the standardsemester divisions in most school systems. It wouldbe most satisfactory, of course, to permit pupilsto progress to the succeeding phase just as soonas they demonstrate genuine proficiency. Someschools have used the MLA proficiency test inGerman skills3 to determine whether or not pupilsare ready to be advanced by skipping a semester.This can be only partly satisfactory, however,since the end of the semester in a given schoolsystem may not totally coincide with the acquisi-tion of proficiency in a given skill sufficient towarrant omission of the following semester.

3MLA Cooperative Foreign Language Tests: German,Princeton: Educational Testing Service, 1963.

Traditional pattern:Average Learners Fast Learners Slow Learners

1st Year: Level I Level ILevel II

Level I

2nd Year: Level II Level III Level I

3rd Year: Level III Level IV Level II

4th Year: Level IV Advanced civilization/culture course

Level II

Summary:8 semesters with4 units of credit

Summary:8 semesters with4 units of creditplus 1 year of collegecredit (advancedplacement)

Summary:8 semesters with2 units of credit

80--

TOPICS FOR

1. The chart presented in this chapter suggestingpercentages of time to be devoted to variousskills shows a marked decrease from 80 percentto 17 percent between the first and sixth yearsin the emphasis on listening comprehensionand speaking. Discuss this apparent "abandon-ment" of the teaching of oral skills as thesequence progresses.

2. What is the comparative value of using, inadvanced courses, :% its from lower levelcourses as opposed to new drills on materialslearned in previous semesters?

3. There has been some suggestion that audio-lingual procedures cannot profitably be main-tained beyond the second year in the secondaryschool program. Is this true? Why or why not?What evidence can you present for and againstthe suggestion?

4. Would it be possible and plausible to introducefree composition, prepared oral reports, etc.,earlier than the last year of a four-year se-quence? Why or why not?

5. Is there a place for readings, reports, films,etc., in English in a course devoted to Germanculture and civilization in the final year cf thesix-year sequence?

6. Discuss the possibility of initiating and admin-istering a program for slow learners separate

DISCUSSION

from fast learners at your school, along linessuggested in this chapter.

7. A twelfth-grade German class is assigned anovel and a play as required textbooks. Inaddition, one hour per week is devoted to"current event reports" in German. Songs areoccasionally learned and time is taken for thecelebration of German holidays. The homeworkassignments consist of "understanding 10 pagesof the text." In class, the teacher double checksthe assignment by asking pupils questionsabout the content and to, translate selectedpassages. Comment in detail on the positiveand negative aspects of this program. Mentionthe probable results of this approach on thevarious phases of pupils' proficiency in lin-guistic skills and cultural awareness and sug-gest modifications for the expansion of thecourse to cover all the necessary focuses youbelieve it should contain.

ADDITIONAL READINGSCurricular Change in the Foreign Languages, 1963 Col-

loquium on Curricular Change, Princeton: CollegeEntrance Examination Board, 1963.

Foreign Languages, Grades 1-12, Curriculum BulletinSeries V, State of Connecticut Advisory Committee onForeign Language Instruction, Hartford, 1958.

Advanced Placement Program: Course Description,Princeton: College Entrance Examination Board, 1964.



12


COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONByron W. Hamiford, Commissioner


Written by



Chapter 12

INFERRING MEANING AND VOCABULARY BUILDING

Many times throughout preceding chapters, ithas been repeated that language learning activitieswhich present forms for "memorization" out ofcontext are contrary to the principles of languagepedagogy as we have been discussing them.Admittedly, there is a point beyond which lack oftime makes it impractical to present new vocabu-lary items in pattern dialogue and to drill them,one by one, in contextual structure drills untilthey become habitual, regardless of the obviousadvantages. For this reason, we must look brieflyat techniques for vocabulary building by inferringmeanings.

Our concern throughout, except for our remarksconcerning reading and culture, has been orientedtoward the development of the pupil's activelinguistic abilities, i.e., his ability to reproduceand recombine linguistic patterns according to thestructure of the language. We have discussedteaching him to express himself intelligibly, albeitsimply, in spoken and written form. In this chap-ter, we shall turn our attention to what is anessentially passive aguistic experience: graspingmeaning, even whe . some element is unknown.We have discussed extensive reading, of course,in which the pupil is expected to come acrosswords and structures he does not know and whichhe must "look up" and "learn." Here, we shallconsider building the pupil's intuition about thetarget language that will serve him when it is notconvenient to look up items.

Some methodologists suggest that this is a "self-solving" problem in that, as their cultural interestsgrow, pupils will repeat the fundamental vocabu-lary relating to their interests so often that theywill add these words to their automatic activevocabularies without further drill. Any otherterms must be looked up in the dictionary. Afterall, they maintain, no one ever fully outgrows hisneed for the dictionary. Others disagree. Thelatter do not deny that everyone who is not a

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native speaker will have to refer to the dictionary',and perhaps frequently. They do maintain, how-ever, that pupils can be shown a systematic wayin which to increase their passive (recognition)vocabulary and, at the same time, to increase theirlinguistic intuitiona prime factor in fluency.

Classroom teachers have not ignored the prob-lem. Since most pupils who complete the four- orsix-year sequences do so in order to gain, collegeadmission, some way must be found to expandvocabulary if they are to succeed in their coursesin culture and civilization, literature, and advancedlanguage structure. Thus, most teachers recognizethe need for some kind of vocabulary-buildingactivity, especially in the final year of high school,but are handicapped by a lack of prepared ma-terials. Yet this is such an important activity thatwe cannot afford to overlook it or leave it to thepupil to do on his own.

We can begin most easily by recognizing thatvocabulary building can be systematized into aseries of carefully constructed drills, not unlikethose we have discussed, in order to achieve speci-fic results. The goal of this sort of classroom drillis to teach the pupil what is involved in applyingall he knows about the target language and hisown life experiences to guessing the meaning ofwords by inferring from context. But is this notsomething the pupil has been doing, perhaps un-consciously, since he began his language studies?Of course it is, but on a hit-or-miss basis.

We can say, obviously, that the memorizationof each basic dialogue from the very first lessonwas an inductive exercise in vocabulary build-ing. The introduction of a systematic effort toincrease vocabulary, however, belongs most prop-erly to the reading phase as we discussed it inChapter 7. Two of the most popular vocabulary-building techniques based on readings have beenused by a majority of teachers from the beginningsemester on. First, we have long taught students

to associate words and expressions with specificvisual or experimental stimuli. The idea here is tofix the "vision" of the tangible experience firmlyin the pupil's mind in such a way that the thoughtof the object or experience calls up the appropriateway of expressing it in German, without referenceto English. The obvious limitations of this tech-niqueabove all, its comparative uselessness inteaching forms other than substantivesusuallyprevent its continued use as an intensive drilldevice in the advanced years. Second, we havealso made use of cognates by calling our pupils'attention to the many exact and near cognates inEnglish and German. This activity is generally avaluable one, but caution must be exercised towarn pupils about what the French call faux .arms,

that is, apparent cognates which differ in meaningfrom language to language, such as English lustas opposed to German Lust, with the idea of inter-est, desire, inclination.

But to stop here, as many teachers have feltthey must for lack of materials, is wrong. First,there are many limits to these cognate-type exer-cises which make additional practice of differenttypes necessary to complete the task. Most of theeasily recognizable cognates are not words forwhich the student is apt to have much use. Theytend to be infrequent, scientific, or technical.Furthermore, students tend to think of cognatesas simply "Germanified" English words, and re-vert to English phonological habits when tryingto learn these new items. Thus, while cognateexercises often instill an air of confidence in thepupil (for he apparently recognizes a thousand orso German forms immediately, through his knowl-edge of English), his increased fluency and easeof comprehension will ultimately still dependupon his ability to deal with German on its ownterms, inferring the meaning of each German formfrom the context of the German phrase itself,without regard for possible similarities to English.Proof of this is that we have all heard our studentspronounce Glas as /glees /, Nation as inagown/, orPost as /powst/.

As pupils advance, we carry our exercises yetone step further by illustrating the great numberof English and German forms which differ fromone another by suffix or prefix. This process isknown as derivation and most modern textbooksmake some attempt at providing systematic exer-cises on derivation, although none exploits thepossibilities of this type of lesson fully.1 Derivationis the name given to the grammatical process of1.=......'Some excellent sources for developing materials on thematters discussed in this chapter include Ronald Taylorand Walter Gottschalk, A German-English Dictionaryof Idioms (Munich: Hueber, 1960); Karl Engeroff andCecily Laufer, An English - German Dictionary o! Idioms(Munich: Hueber, 1960); Hugo Wehrle and Hans Eggers,Deutscher Wortschatz (Stuttgart: Klett, 1961); and DoraSculz and Heinz Griessbach, 1000 Idiomatlsehe Redens-arten Deutsche (Berlin: Langerischeidt, 1964).

composing new forms with new meanings by theaddition of prefixes or suffixes to already existing"root" or "base" forms, such at atomic from atom,or hardness from hard. We can meaningfully in-crease both the pupils' active and passive vocabu-laries by teaching them to recognize the meaningsof the various derivational affixes. Here, of course,we must assume that the pupil already controlsthe "root" or "base" form.

But many teachers feel that their emphasis onknown roots or stems restricts their early lessonson derivation to the small known vocabulary.They either then hesitate to introduce the matterat all, or, if they do introduce it, they are temptedto drop it before it really has the opportunity toproduce :results. When this happens, it is all toofrequently that the teacher fails to take thematter up again when the pupil's vocabulary hasexpanded to the necessary degree. This is a highlyuneconomical procedure since the greater the stu-dent's vocabulary, the greater the number of rootforms he will recognize.

As we mentioned above, although many well-designed textbooks include some drill on deriva-tion, they do not normally pursue the topic to adegree sufficient to make the feeling for theprocess an automatic pattern of behavior in thestudent. Such exercise material is not, however,difficult to construct. We might begin a lesson onderivation with the following examples:

Verb Nounheilenverbessern

HeilungVerbesserung

tanzenarbeitenspielen

TansArbeitSpiel

Noun AdjectiveNation nationalEmotion emotionalZentrum zentral

I Affirmative Negative I

lordentlichsicherschuldigmodern

'unordentlichunsicherunschuldigunmodern

Adjective Noungesundkranksicher

GesundheitKrankheitSicherheit

We might follow this up, subsequently, with exer-cises in which the students are instructed tosubstitute the items listed for the word empha-sized.

1. UnordontEch wird von ordentlich abgeleitet.sicherschuldigmodernweitlich

2. Gesundheit wird von gesund abgeleitet.kranksicherschondumm

3. National wird von Nation abgeleitet.ZentrumEmotionFunktion

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4. Arbeit wird von arbeiten abgeleitet.tanzenspielenbeweisen

5. Lustig wird von Lust abgeleitet.SchuldDurstEifer

6. Kii lte wird von kalt abgeleitet.grossguthoch

7. Lehrer wird von lehren abgeleitet.fiihrenspielenarbeiten

8. Das Wissen wird von wissen abgeleitet.essensingentrinken

Yet neither cognate nor derivation exercisesbegin to exhaust the possibilities for inferenceof meaning drills. For this reason it is neces-sary to devise yet other ways in which to dupli-cate as closely as possible in th target lan-guage the means by which the native speakerexpands his own understanding. The best wayin which to start the pupil on this is to showhim how accurately and instinctively he does itin English. This can be done by selecting a stretchof English prose with a considerable number oftechnical or dialectal terms, or by inventing astretch of standard prose and adding words ofyour own invention at frequent intervals. Ex-amples of such invented phrases are, "Give mea fryx to sweep the room" or "Give me a broomto plyod the room." The pupils are then asked toguess the meaning of the underlined words. Ifthey cannot find an exact equivalent, then theymay give a brie definition or description of theterm. They must be cautioned, however, to replacegiven grammatical forms with forms of the sameclass, i.e., a verbal expression for a verbal expres-sion, an adjective for an adjective, etc. Most pupilswill do surprisingly well from the very first. Ofcourse, there will be terms which will be impos-sible to guess because of inconclusive contextualclues, but this should not be cause for discourage-ment.

Despite the high percentage of correct guessing,most pupils do not know by what process theyinferred the correct meanings. The purpose of theexercise is to introduce them to some of the morefrequent clues to meaning and how to spot them.

We know that, in most cases, word meaningsare guessed correctly because the phrase in whichthey are framed serves to define them in someway. Returning to the example, "Give me a fryxto sweep the room with," the reader infers that a

fryx must be something used to sweep with, hencea broom or something similar to a broom. Alongthese same lines, some of the unknown forms areso closely associated with the surrounding contextthat their meaning could easily be inferred evenif they were omitted entirely, e.g., "We heard therain on the roof." In this phrase, thereader will almost unerringly choose the term"patter" or a close synonym, since the fundamentalmeaning is almost predetermined by the surround-ing context. Thus, if the same phrase appeared as,"We heard the rain kadder on the roof," we shouldexpect a similar degree of intuitive correctness inthe guessed meaning.

The next step involves phrases containing formswhich can be:, derived by deduction from relation-ships implied within the phrases. In these cases,the pupils infer the meanings by associating thephrases with their own life-experience with "howthings act." In a phrase of the type, "He krodedthe fire with a bucket of sand," the pupil cangenerally rightly infer that kroded must meansomething like "put out" or "doused," since heknows from his own experience that a bucket ofsand thrown on a fire extinguishes it.

The pupils rapidly become aware that theirguesses can be only approximate. Some of themore advanced pupils feel "cheated" because theyhave not looked up a "precise dictionary defini-tion." They must be reminded that the inferenceof the general idea of what is being said is fre-quently more helpful than a precise definition,and, of course, that the whole idea of the exerciseis to learn to understand what is being said orread "on the spot." Of course, the simple inferenceof general meaning is admittedly insufficientwhen dealing with scientific literature or conver-sation which must be understood exactly. Forpurposes of general conversation, however, it issometimes of no help at all to know the exactmeaning of a word. In the phrase, "I zorred thefurniture with a cloth," we cannot be sure if themeaning of zorred is cleaned, wiped, dusted, pol-ished, or something synonymous; but it is rela-tively certain that, if the student infers the ideaof "cleaning," further refinements will add signifi-cantly to his understanding only if it is importantto distinguish among various types of cleaning,e.g., if one were giving specific instructions to amaid. In the phrase, "The wheat was no good thisyear, for it ackerspired and sprouted in the ear,it being a very wet season," Seibert and Crockercall attention to the Welsh term ackerspire.

From the sentence we gather that whenthe wheat "ackerspires" it is no good, andthat this condition is caused by too muchrain; but unless we know . . . what effectan excess of rain has on wheat we will notknow exactly the meaning of . . . "acker-

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should we find its technicaltranslation in a dictionary.2

The student must content himself, even with thehelp of a dictionary, with knowing that whenwheat "ackerspires," it is spoiled in some way.Thus, these exercises provide the student withtechniques and tools useful to him even when hedoes have access to reference books.

Not infrequently, the juxtaposition of synonymsor antonyms in a written phrase gives a clue as tothe meaning of a form. In a phrase of the type,"He stood there brasted, at a loss for words onemight say", the pupil may assume that brastedand "at a loss for words" describe approximatelythe same attitude. In phrases of the type, "Thoughthe leaves were still green then, soon they wouldsnig," snig is assur,.ed to represent a conditionopposed in some way to green. The student wouldprobably guess without difficulty, that snig wasan antonym of green in this sense and suggestsbrown, wither, fall, or die, etc.

The final step in the initial presentation of in-ference in English is to give the pupil longercontexts, in. which he is required to check andcompare his early guesses with reoccurrences of

the same forms in other contexts later on. In thisway, he learns to follow discussions, making intel-ligent guesses as he goes along, and then to amendautomatically what he has guessed as more contextis revealed.

Now the pupil is ready to advance to target-language texts. He now has a general idea of whathis inferential process is in English and is readyto apply it to target-language problems. The initialpresentation in English which we have alreadydiscussed may have taken only one or two classhours. The target-language expansion will natur-ally require considerably more time. On the timedistribution diagram presented in Chapter 11,inference of meaning activities belong to the ex-tensive reading portion of the block of timerecommended for reading. Thus, if inference exer-cises are to be done regularly during an entireacademic year, then one class hour in ten (orproportionately in that ratio) should prove anacceptable amount.

A reader designed for fourth-year use (orsecond-year college) should be used as a corpusfor the drills. This assumes a basic vocabulary ofsome 2,500 words, although studies have showna vocabulary of 2,000 words to be sufficient forsuccessful exercises in inferring meaning. Theteacher can then extract sections three or fourpages long, underlining apt target items. Thepupils, who should do no prior preparation, arethen required to give a synonym, equivalent, or

2Seibert, L., and L. C. Crocker, Skills and Techniquesof Reading French, Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hop-kins Press, n.d.

descriptive definition in the target language ofeach item. Following this, in class discussion, ajustification for each choice should be given inorder to point up the process of inference thathas taken place. It is unwise to select contextsfrom literary materials and the like, since studentsslow themselves down by trying to rememberclues from foregoing chapters, the plot, character-ization, and the like.

In cases where no guess approximates themeaning of a form, the teacher should supply thecorrect definition. There should be no translationinto English. The exercise is meant to developthe pupil's ability to infer in the target language.Where English is introduced in this activity, ittends to produce an effect counter to the purpose.Some teachers have attempted to use editions ofdaily newspapers in German for these exercises,but have found that contexts in journalistic styleare unusually difficult, except for the most promis-ing students.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION1. Why must the powers of inference be developed

in our pupils, even when they have access todictionaries and reference grammars?

2. How does the inference of meaning, as we havesuggested here, parallel features of "natural"language learning, i.e., the way in which onelearns one's native language?

3. Why do we suggest that an introduction tothe inference of structrual meaning (meaningconveyed by the position, inflection, and rela-tionship of words) should precede stylisticmeaning (meaning conveyed by the "sense" ofthe utterance)?

4. How important is the precise dictionary defini-tion of passive vocabulary items in the learningof a second language?

5. Discuss the negative values implicit in thestudents' use of bilingual dictionaries.

6. Select an appropriate reading passage anddevelop a lesson of the type described in thepenultimate paragraph of this chapter.

ADDITIONAL READINGSJ. Allen Pfeffer, Basic Spoken German Word List,

Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1964.Bildworterbuch der deutschen Sprache, Mannheim:

Dudenverlag, 1958.R. B. Farrell, A Dictionary of German Synonyms, Cam-

bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961.

R. Taylor and W. Gottschalk, Dictionary of Idioms,Miinchen: Max Hueber Verlag, 1960.

W. Wadepuhi and B. Q. Morgan, Minimum StandardGerman Vocabulary, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1934.

H. Kiipper, Worterbuch der deutschen Umgangssprache,Hamburg: Claassen Verlag, 1955.

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