Category Archives: Fremdsprache

Na, dann Prost!

Posted on 15. January 2013 by schaefew

Frank Meyer, der Trierer Stadtschreiber 2012, erzählt am Rande einer Autorenlesung folgende Episode aus seiner Studentenzeit: Er hatte in Oxford Walisisch gelernt und eine ganz gute Lesefertigkeit erworben, und beim Sprechen reichte es immerhin für die elementaren Funktionen wie Grüßen, … Continue reading →

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Wohin geht die Reise?

Posted on 11. January 2013 by schaefew

Im Flugzeug habe ich dieser Tage mitgehört, wie ein Kubaner, der kein Deutsch sprach, und ein Deutscher, der kein Spanisch sprach, sich vor dem Abflug “unterhielten”. Der Kubaner wollte wissen, was das Reiseziel des Deutschen war, und konnte nicht verstehen, … Continue reading →

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Naturally artificial

Posted on 8. December 2012 by schaefew

The success of informal learning, and especially of the child acquiring its mother-tongue, has always impressed language teachers, and attempts to reproduce the same effect by creating the same conditions have been a regular feature of language teaching history. Locke’s … Continue reading →

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Learning to use vs. using to learn

Posted on 8. December 2012 by schaefew

There is, in a sense, a ‘strong’ version of communicative language teaching, much closer to the original proposals than the ‘weak’ version now largely accepted by teachers and textbook writers. In the ‘weak’ version, communicative activities have been accepted as … Continue reading →

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Vitale Stadt

Posted on 5. December 2012 by schaefew

In einer Fernsehsendung wurde von einer weniger bekannten dritten Rede berichtet, die Kennedy 1963 in Berlin hielt, eine Rede an die in Berlin stationierten amerikanischen Soldaten.  Er sagte, die Zahl der amerikanischen Soldaten sei nicht sehr groß, aber es sei … Continue reading →

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Babbling away in Latin

Posted on 2. December 2012 by schaefew

Montaigne was brought up as a native speaker of Latin! His father, determined that his son should have every advantage in life, and in particular a perfect education, put him in charge of a German who was totally ignorant of … Continue reading →

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Magical beginnings

Posted on 1. December 2012 by schaefew

One of the most ardent advocates of a natural method of language learning was Lambert Sauveur (1826-1907), a French emigrant to the United States. In Sauveur’s school in Boston, students spent at least one month entirely on intensive oral work, … Continue reading →

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Naturally invented texts?

Posted on 26. November 2012 by schaefew

Henry Sweet, the man who ‘taught phonetics to Europe’, is less well known as the author of  The Practical Study of Languages, a book which made him the orgininator of applied linguistics to the teaching of languages. Sweet recognised one … Continue reading →

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Paedagogical natives?

Posted on 26. November 2012 by schaefew

Henry Sweet, the man who ‘taught phonetics to Europe’, in his pedagogical work made a clear point in favour of the non-native teacher. For teaching Germans English, he believed, a phonetically trained German was far superior to an untrainded Englishman, … Continue reading →

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No transcription, please!

Posted on 24. November 2012 by schaefew

When I speak about phonetics in class, or even when I talk about the teaching of pronunciation, the first thing students come up with is phonetic transcription. This has always puzzled me, transcription being – at best – a useful … Continue reading →

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No explanations, please!

Posted on 20. November 2012 by schaefew

Jean Jacques Jacotot, a Frenchman from Dijon, became, without intending it, a language teacher and, again without intending it, the inventor of the first monolingual method for the language classroom. After the defeat of Napoleon, Jacotot found himself as an … Continue reading →

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Grammar-translation without grammar?

Posted on 18. November 2012 by schaefew

The much maligned Grammar-translation method received its name from its opponents. It did not put any special emphasis on grammar, and, compared to the traditional schoolbooks had very little grammar in their courses. Actually, some of its proponents, like Ahn … Continue reading →

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Troublesome letters

Posted on 2. November 2012 by schaefew

The second wave of French-speaking language teachers, those who came to England after the Restoration, included Guy Mièges, a talented practical linguist from Switzerland. His Nouvelle Mèthode (1685) is a landmark in the development of English language teaching. Miége could … Continue reading →

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No grammar, please!

Posted on 29. October 2012 by schaefew

The early reformers in language teaching included Roger Ascham and his famous Schoolmaster (1570) and a lesser known, extraodinary writer called Joseph Webbe, best known for his Pueriles Confabulatiunculae (1627), ‘Children’s Talk’, a textbook for the teaching of Latin at … Continue reading →

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Bestseller

Posted on 29. October 2012 by schaefew

What is known as ‘Lily’s Grammar’ is probably the best-selling language teaching textbook ever written. Oddly enough, it was not written, as the title suggests, by William Lily, but by a committee (of which Lily was a member) set up … Continue reading →

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