Word: firsts
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...first part of the equation is Boylston Hall. This building, resembling the Charlestown jail more than a modern center for instruction in languages, has been completely reconstructed to give the modern language departments an opportunity to utilize the "oral-aural," "direct," method of teaching. Once a drafty museum of natural history, once the finest chemical laboratory in the United States, and once the headquarters of the Yen-Ching Institute Boylston has undergone another complete transmutation...
...find a better way to teach esoteric languages, such as Mongolian or Hindi. With a paucity of teachers understanding these tongues, the Council hit upon the use of tape recorders and a direct approach to the language: Submerge the student in an atmosphere of the language from the very first by use of a recorded master voice and let him absorb the language gradually as does a child. This experiment rapidly expanded, however, with the start of the war. The Armed Services had to teach foreign languages--both well and quickly. Thus, the Army Specialized Training Program was established...
Upon entering the basement room for the first time, one is struck by the bee-like buzzing on muted voices. Students, capped with Buck Rogers earphones, listen intently and then murmur into microphones which they hold before them. At the front of the room, tape recorders whirl; an instructor watches them and occasionally twists dials to discover how his proteges are fairing in their strange new world of a foreign tongue. The entire scene contrasts with the grim, grey exterior of the building; the lab itself is bright, cheering, and more like 1984 than 1859. And, at last, language teaching...
Repetition forms the key to the oral-aural method, the new and better way to teach foreign languages which Harvard has finally adopted. Instead of studying grammar per se, students pick up grammar implicitly; instead of learning rules for pronunciation, they first learn to say many words and later discover the rules...
...modern method views speech as a means to comprehension. "The student must first acquire a new set of speaking habits," Stein says, "and acquire a sense for the language." In turn, this knowledge leads to an understanding of a new culture--an aim to which the entire Division of Modern Languages directs its efforts. After all, Geary points out, language is but one manifestation of a culture; and language itself cannot be segmented artificially into reading and speaking skills. By emphasizing the basic mechanics of speech, rather than the secondary rules of grammar, students acquire, far more quickly and much...