| CONTENTS | ||
|---|---|---|
| PART ONE -- First Principles | ||
| PART TWO -- Teaching Problems -- The Basic Approach | ||
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| 6 . | ENGLISH -- TEACHING-MEDIUM OR SECOND LANGUAGE | 145 |
| 7 . | AIM -- UNDERSTANDING OR EXPRESSION | 156 |
| 8 . | METHOD -- DIRECT OR INDIRECT? | 162 |
| English through English or English through the Vernacular? Is translation necessary? | ||
| 9 . | BALANCE -- SHAKESPEARE OR SHOP? | 189 |
| What sort of English do Burmese children need? Must culture be sacrificed to earning-capacity? | ||
| 10. | PRONUNCIATION -- SOUND OR SENSE? | 195 |
| 11. | GRAMMAR -- CONSCIOUS OR UNCONSCIOUS? | 201 |
| 12. | GRAMMAR -- FORMAL OR FUNCTIONAL? | 212 |
| 13. | READING -- AMUSEMENT OR INSTRUCTIONS? | 219 |
| 14. | READING -- WORD-MAGIC OR WORD-CONTROL? | 230 |
| 15. | COMPOSITION -- LICENCE OR LIBERTY? | 244 |
| 16. | POETRY -- APATHY OR AFFECTATION? | 250 |
| 17. | SCIENCE -- THOUGHT OR LANGUAGE ? | 258 |
| PART THREE -- Conclusion | ||
| APPENDIX | 341 | |
| INDEX | 373 | |
| ILLUSTRATIONS | ||
CHAPTER 8
METHOD -- DIRECT or INDIRECT ?
If Dr. West's contentions had been correct we might have expected that children brought up on the New Method system would at least be fluent and enthusiastic readers. They might have the feeling that something was lacking, that they had deprived of an opportunity to compete on equal terms with other children in the matter of examinations and careers. But they should at least have cause to thank him for their ability to read and for the joy they experience in reading. But do they ?
The New Method system may still be in use in a large number of schools, but any Inspector will testify that it has failed to achieve any marked success ; progress is not so very much more rapid than it was before : the results are not so very much more permanent. Why ?
Because in the first place, most teachers agree with Champion and not with West with regard to the aims of English teaching. With them it is not merely a question of theory or belief. Committees examiners, inspectors, parents and children -- all demand an active knowledge of English, and they, the teachers, have to supply that demand. They may have accepted the New Method books but, whether they have been conscious of the inconsistency or not, they have tried to use them as a basis for speaking and writing. The result of rejecting the theory and accepting the books has been -- chaos ; and this brings us to the question of method. For just as it has been commonly (though unjustifiably) accepted that it is easier, at all stages, to learn to understand a language than it is to get command of it, so it has been commonly (though unjustifiably) accepted that the technique best employed, at all stages, for the teaching of understanding differs fundamentally form the technique best employed for the teaching of expression.
How does the technique differ or rather how is it held to differ ?
DO and Say
It is agreed hat the pupil can learn to speak only by speaking. If the aim, therefore, is speaking, then every Burmese word used in an English lesson, whether by teacher or pupil is a second wasted. Every English word used, by teacher or pupil, is a step forward.
How can the teacher ensure that most of the words used in lesson-time are English words ? By doing what he would have to do if he did not know the vernacular, namely,
- (1) point to things and give their names.
(2) point to pictures and give the names of the things they picture.
(3) carry out actions and say what he is doing.
(4) explain all other English words using only the English words he has taught by methods 1, 2, and 3.
Obviously we can. We can say, for example, that the words we choose to teach in the first few lessons, or all our lessons, will be words that can in fact be taught by pointing (to things or pictures), by explanation in English.
We can, that is to say, dramatize our lessons by basing them on actual experiences in the class-room, by keeping close to reality, by doing and saying nothing which cannot be related to the pupil's five sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Whether we are talking about a plate on the table or a cloud in the sky every season can be a drama, with every character saying his part. Only through such ' living experience ' can we make the lesson, and the language, live.
Method and Material
Now there is no doubt as to which method most teachers prefer. Most of them are practical enough to know that what their pupils need is what they want ; most of them are sensible enough to realize that ' learn to speak by speaking ', as an injunction, is fatuous, because there is no other way in which the pupil can learn to speak ; most of them are human enough to prefer teaching a living language as a living language.
So that when they were offered a series of ' new method ' readers they took new to mean direct and overlooked the fact that the books were primarily meant to be books for the teaching not of speaking but of reading. They did not realize, as many have now been forced by bitter experience to realize, that in order to use the direct method you must have special ' direct-method ' words and ' direct—method ' presentation, that is, concrete words that call be related to the pupil's classroom experience. Nor did the word-counters (West, Fancett, Palmer, etc.), make it sufficiently clear, in my opinion, that their courses were not suited to ' direct-method ' treatment.
For what sort of words did in fact emerge from the ' word-counting laboratory ? In the first place we saw that they tended to be reading—words, not speaking words at all.
The authors of The Interim Vocabulary Report do indeed say, in their introduction to the Report :
It was recognized that the results of such counts, which were based on the reading rather than the speaking vocabulary, might require some modification if they were to be useful for purposes of language-production (i.e.., speaking and writing) as well as for language-reception (i.e.., reading and hearing).But the point is that so far they have not been modified —- and not one teacher in ten thousand, I suppose, has read the Report !
Hence the pathetic attempts -— foredoomed to failure -— of ' dramatization ' based on words and expressions which are seldom used on the stage of English life itself !
Secondly we saw that wherever we ' drew the line ' we found, above it, a large number of synonyms. Now we may or may not agree that ' shut ' should come before ' close or ' go in ' before ' enter '. But we will all agree that whereas both ' shut ' and 'close ' may be taught through action and command the difference in meaning between them cannot be so easily demonstrated. We can hold up a thick book and a thin book and teach ' thick ' and ' thin ' without resort to the vernacular. 'We cannot hold up a large book and a big book and explain the distinction between them (if any) without resort to the vernacular. And so, for example, with ' say' 'speak ', ' tell ', ' state', ' express' and ' mention'.
Thirdly we decided, because word-counting is arbitrary and unscientific. that wherever we drew the line we should not find above it all the words needed to explain or define those below it. In explaining or defining therefore we are again forced back either on unsatisfactory explanations or on the vernacular.
In general it my be said that, in early sages of English teaching, every reading-word, every synonym, every word chosen haphazardly, will force is back on the vernacular, however devoted we may be to the direct method in theory.
Had the word-counters realized fully, at the outset, that teachers would persist in trying to use the direct method, not realizing that the material was not suitable, they might perhaps have modified their results immediately, or at least have attempted to make the best use of their material. But that they did not realize these things is only too evident from the books they have produced.
The Ant in the Shoe
Let us compare a page from a New Method Reader with a corresponding page from a Basic Way book. Each is the eighth lesson from the first book of their respective courses. Two learners each pursuing one of the two courses would have given about the same time to English, and would have learnt about fifty words. The new words in the New Method lesson are 'shoot ', 'shoot at', 'noon' 'shoe' and 'shoes '.
The Basic Way lesson is reproduced on page 169. Which lesson, do you think, lends itself most easily to ' dramatization '? Is it possible to ' point and say ' or ' do and say ' anything at all on the basis of the material in the New Method lesson ? Is it possible, let alone desirable, to shoot or even to shoot at a hen or an ass, or to put an ant in somebody's shoe?
And as for ' keeping close to reality ' how many Englishmen do in fact go about shooting or even shooting at hens or donkeys, and putting ants in people's shoes ? How many go about shooting anything. From the material of the first seven lessons it may be taken for granted that the learner has not yet learned to make the simplest statement, or to express the simplest need, with reference to the things around him. Yet th author considers it essential at this stage, to fall back on the vernacular, for a considerable part of the lesson, in order to explain the distinction between ' shooting ' an ass and 'shooting at' an ass, because it is quite certain the teacher will not be able to explain the note at the bottom of the page in English. The note reads as follows"
'He shot the hen ' means he hit it and killed it.
'He shot at the hen ' means he aimed at it and fired in the direction of ; perhaps he hit it, perhaps not.
This is not a ' freak ' lesson, selected to put the New Method in the worst possible light. any reader who cares t go through the New Method books will find instances in plenty. Is it any wonder that, after four or five years of English, children following this method find themselves hopelessly muddled?
Now look at the Basic lesson. Is there anything here which cannot be ' dramatized '? Is there anybody, in real life, who does not, at one time or another, have to put things on plates, or in pots, or into their mouths ? Is there a single ' unessential ' words ? Is there any necessity to fall back on the vernacular for something which is not vital to freedom of expression at this state ?
This 'closeness to reality ', this ' concreteness ', is not as we have seen, an incidental or super-added advantage of the Basic vocabulary. It is inherent in the structure of the system : it is a logical result of the methods employed in selecting the words. In Chapter 3 I showed that the first words to be eliminated were the ' shorthand ' words that are twice removed from reality ('accelerate ' for ' go more quickly ') : then the fictions (' liberty ' for ' free ' in relation to a person or thing) : and then the ' suggestion ' words, those that express feelings as well as make a statement (' modesty ', ' diffidence ', etc.). What then could the word-residue be if not concrete and close to reality ? . . .
. . . (more) . . . p 170 - 176 . . .
'Reading' and 'Conversation'
The 'New Method' Technique
I . The Teaching of Reading
II. The Teaching of Speech
III. The Teaching of Writing
The Basic Technique
1 . The Teaching of Speech
"The teacher may point to his head, his neck, his arm, his hand, his leg and his foot, and, as he points, say ' head ', 'neck ', ' arm ', etc. He may then invite a learner to come in front of the class and point to the different parts of his body, naming them as he does so.
"He may then point to the learner's head and as other learners in turn to say ' head ', and pointing in turn to the learner's neck, arm, etc., get different learners to say 'neck', 'arm', etc. He may then reverse the process, saying the words and getting the learners to point to the parts named.
2 . The Teaching of Reading
"The learners may next be told to look at the book. They should read aloud he words ' body', ' head', ' neck', etc. after the teacher and point to the body, head, neck, etc., in the picture as they read. Then different learners may be asked to read the names of the parts of the body in turn.
3 . The Teaching of Writing
"Next the learners may write the names in the order in which they appear in the book."
- The order of work is therefore
1 . Speaking by the teacher (pupils learning to understand the spoken word)
2 . Speaking by the pupil (learning to use the spoken word)
3 . Reading by the teacher
4 . Reading by the pupil
5 . Writing (copying)
6 . Writing (dictation and exercises)
The suggestion is that before the pupil sees any word in print or attempts to write it he should first hear it used by the teacher in a number of different contexts and himself learn to use it in similar contexts. Suppose, for example, the teacher is going to take Book 1, Lesson 8 (See page 169). He comes into the classroom armed with an apple, a berry, an egg, a nut, an orange, a pot and some sugar. He arranges them on his table. He orders that all books should be closed. Then, holding up the egg, he begins :
- Teacher . This is an egg (Repeats 'egg' several times).
- What is this?
T . Where is the egg?
L . The egg is in your hand.
T . Where is the egg? (Puts it on the table)
L . The egg is on the table.
T . What is the egg on?
L . The egg is on the table.
T . You (name), put the egg in the box. What do you do?
L . I put the egg in the box.
The pupils are now in the same position, with regard to the words in this lesson, as an English child who has not yet learned how to read, he knows the words ; he has heard them and used them many times but he has not learned how to read them. The first task of the infants teacher in the English school is to teach his pupils to recognize in print the words they already use in 'speaking. And that is now the task of our ' apple and orange ' teacher.
Having assured himself, by question and answer (the children putting questions as well), that the words are understood and can be used without hesitation he orders books to be opened. Then, with the children following carefully, he reads out the lesson, slowly and distinctly, so that the clildren can correlate the sound of the words and sentences they have learned with their appearance in the printed page. Then the children, individually and collectively. read the lesson after him, sentence by sentence, and he checks the pronunciation until mistakes are eliminated. That is the end of the second stage.
The third, writing, stage begins, again as in an English classroom, with a review of the words, the teacher stressing any idiosyncrasies (e.g. ' appul ' has two ' P 's, ' ul ' is spelled with ' le ' ; shugar is spelled with an ' s ', etc.). The children first copy the lesson, and, then come dictation, exercises, written answers to oral questions and so on.
This is the direct method as it was intended to be used, and with the help of real objects, card-board models, or pictures it can he successfully employed to teach a large proportion of the Basic words. The use of the vernacular is confined to explanation of grammatical difficulties (' my ' and ' your ', ' a ' and ' the ' etc.) and to drive home the points picked tip unconsciously in conversation. No learning of lists, no translation, and above all no muttering!
The New Method Lesson
Actual experience in the classroom has proved over and over again that children enjoy the Basic type of lesson, but are bored by the New Method type of lesson. Every advance in modern educational technique is based on the ' interest ' principle —- that the child learns much more easily and quickly when his interest is aroused. Now I have watched many an ass being shot (in theory) and many a note being sent to a tent at noon. And never have I seen anything like the stir and bustle that one would expect such happenings to occasion. All I have heard is something like this :
- Teacher : Shoot !
Learners: Shoot !
Teacher : What does it mean ?
(Silence)
- . . . (more) . . . p 180 . . .
For these reasons I have come to the conclusion that even if the New Method Readers had been given a fair chance by the teachers handling them the progress would not have been so rapid, nor the gain as considerable, as their author contemplated. Apart from the defects of word-counting as such the method recommended is entirely out of accord with modern educational theory. Indeed, so ' unreal ' is Dr. West's aim, and so unsound is his method, that one cannot help I feeling that both have been largely determined by his material. It is possible that having worked out a vocabulary which is predominantly a reading vocabulary he was led to make reading the aim of English teaching and to adopt translation as the method of achieving it.
But this is by the way. The points we have to bear in mind are:
1 . That under normal circumstances, whether the aim is reading or writing or both, the best method of teaching English in the early stages is the direct method, because it is the most natural and interesting, and
2 . That Basic English, because it is predominantly a speaking vocabulary of concrete picturable words, is the only introductory course that really does lend itself to direct methods of teaching.
Basic English, that is to say, is easier to teach by the direct method.
Basic by Indirect Method
Having said that it remains to show that under circumstances which make the use of the direct method impossible or unnecessary or undesirable the disadvantages of the translation method are in any case almost entirely eliminated by the Basic approach. That is to say, Basic is easier to teach by the direct method, but with Basic the direct method is not so essential. Why ? Because the teaching of Basic includes the one-level practice period, and the number and variety of books provided for the one-level practice period enable the teacher to prolong it indefinitely, until, in fact, the pupil has learned to think in Basic English, that is, in English.
The initial disadvantage of the translation method is that the learner does not think directly in English ; he thinks first in his native language and then translates his thought into English. He does not associate the English word with the object which it symbolizes ; he associates it with the vernacular symbol of the same object.
But the theory of the translation method is that after a time, by force of constant repetition of hte English word, the vernacular symbol fades into the background, and a direct relationship between English word and object is achieved. We might represent ahat process as in Figuare 30 (opposite).
If a French learner, for example, who has learned a list of words in the New Method way, is asked to name the object B the word which at once jumps into his mind is CHAISE (C) which he then translates into CHAIR (A). At first it may take him some time to recollect the English translation. But each time h reads it the time needed to recall is deminished ; the connection become less and less indirect until, through repetition, the word has become so familiar that a direct connection, the word has become so familiar that a direct connection between object and ' chair ' is established and the line ACB is flattened out into AB. In the diagram I have asumed that a word has to be met forty times before direct connection is established, but obviously in practice the number will depend on many factors -- the ability of the learner, the frequency of repetition in relation to the total number of words learned and read, and so on.
But the principle is clear — the establishing of a direct connection depends on repetition. Why, then, has the translation method failed ? Because it has not, as a rule, provided sufficient opportunities for repetition ; the learner is confronted with so many ACB situations in such rapid succession and over such a long period of time that with a few exceptions (' the ', ' and', ' in ' etc.) he is unable to flatten out the lines in any of them. And so till the end of his course he continues to translate, instead of learning to think directly. The distortions of grammar and idiom that result from this are too well known to need mentioning.
Now suppose the teacher is confronted, at the beginning of a new school year, with a ' catching-up ' problem. More than half his class have reached a certain standard ; the rest are new boys who have learned no English at all. He cannot spare the time to go over the whole course again for their sake. So he does a very daring and most unpedagogic thing. He gives each of the new boys a list of the Basic words with their vernacular equivalents and tells them the meanings have to be learned by heart, parrot-fashion, in a month -— 28 Words a day. Having duly learned the words the new boys are allowed to take part in the lesson. The class happen to be reading The Trader of Venice. The new boys can barely follow. They know all the words, but there are many other things they do not know -— extensions, idioms, grammar -— things that have been thoroughly taught in the Basic Way books. The Trader of Venice is definitely a sore ' trial ' for them. But the teacher explains a few things here and there ; others they pick up as they go along, and so they come to the end. Then the class turns to Robinson Crusoe, also in Basic. A few more points are explained ; a few more points are picked up. The words themselves have become more familiar ; understanding has become easier. It becomes easier still with The Gold Insect ; Guiliver's Travels prove quite entertaining ; Schoolboys of Early Times can be read at home at a sitting ; and thus, by the time they have read twenty or thirty or forty books, all in Basic, the new boys have caught up, the gap has been wiped out, and the whole class is ready to go on to ' expansion'.
The one-level practice period has done its work of repetition so thoroughly that the initial disadvantages of the translation method have been overcome, and the fatigue and boredom involved in learning a dull list of words (that would have been avoided under normal conditions) have become but a memory which will in its turn soon be effaced. That is why I say that in the teaching of Basic, if that teaching is made to comprise, as it should, the one-level practice period, the direct method is not so essential. The method of the New Method Readers is feasible, though not desirable, with Basic ; it is not feasible for the New Method Readers themselves !
Now experience has shown that a class of average size and intelligence, with the average age about nine, need not take more than a year or a year-and-a-half to get through the Basic Way Books I—IV. In these books they will learn the 850 words and their uses, the 250 idioms and all the grammar that is considered necessary in an introductory stage. The length of the one-level practice period will depend on the thoroughness with which the Basic Way books have been taught, and the amount of time that can be devoted to reading and to conversation and exercises based on the reading. But it may safely be assumed that if, by the end of the third year, after some thirty or forty books have been tackled, the class is not reading and conversing fluently and correctly, then there must be something seriously wrong either with the teacher or with the class itself. The class should be talking as easily and correctly, though not of course with the same range of vocabulary and idiom, as an English class of the same age.
Return to Essentials
Clearly, if the English in the average Anglo-vernacular school in Burma is judged by this standard, the need for catching up is not confined to certain sections of certain classes in certain departments it extends to all sections of all classes of all departments. For I have been in no school where English is taught as a second language and found the English even in the high school approaching perfection. On the contrary, the list of mistakes on page 130 is typical of the sort of English that passes for ' fairly good '.
What ' fairly good ' means after six years of English may be judged from the remarks made by the High School Final Examiner in his report of the answers in the 1938 Examination — taken after ten years of English. Some common mistakes, he says. are:
reached at, died with, dead with, did not afraid, did not satisfy with, stock for stork, patience for patients, safe for save, save for safe, prevent for protect, ask that, ask to Jupiter,Rustom sword for Rustom's sword, cholera broke up, decease for disease, chased at, the another bear, strucked. . . The uses of ' shoot', ' fire', ' gun' and ' charge ' were confusing indeed. . . . the usual mistakes in tenses, lack of agreement between subject and verb in number and person, the wrong use of prepositions, etc., occur far too often. . . . It would appear that much more systematic drill in the use of tenses is necessary.It follows then that the need for the one-level practice period is not confined to new learners. However advanced the class may be there is still need, and it is still not too late, for a return to a simpler level, for a period of drill in the essential words and constructions through reading and more reading and still more reading.
I am often asked whether a knowledge of normal English does not preclude the possibility of such a return. Will not the non-Basic words and constructions already acquired interfere ? That is like asking : Is it possible for one who is learning to sail a boat on the open sea, and is finding the conditions too much for him, to make a fresh start in the calm waters of an inland lake ? Would it he beneficial ?
After many years spent in teaching English I did in fact come to look upon the language, with its half-million words, its infinite capacity for the coining of new words and expressions, its bizarre spellings and other difficulties, as a vast, uncharted and unbounded ocean full of submerged rocks and treacherous currents.
Across this ocean the teacher attempts to pilot his little crew of learners. Navigation is so difficult and repairs so numerous that there is no time or possibility to enjoy the trip, and it is hardly to be wondered at that every pilot, sooner or later, loses hear, and that most of the crew lose interest.
Now, for the first time in history, language scientists have succeeded in constructing a little artificial lake of language, artificial in the sense that, while the water is the same natural sea water, the boundaries are well—defined, the further shore is well in view the whole time, the worst of the rocks have been removed, and navigation has been made easy, rapid and enjoyable.
Naturally the learner who ' returns ' from the open sea will bring with him memories of the dangers and difficulties experienced there, of half-learned unnecessary tricks that he will attempt to employ on the lake. It is for the teacher to point out that they are unnecessary, that they cause more trouble to the novice than they are worth, and that there are simpler alternative ways of getting the boat along. And if he concentrates on making his crew expert in the simpler alternative ways the memories will begin to fade and the crew will navigate the boat as he wishes them to. Then, when they have become quite expert, he can venture forth to the open sea again, subjecting his charges to gradually increasing difficulties, which he meets one by one, until there is no further need for his guidance.
But I have not yet fully explained my view that Basic is the best approach even to a passive knowledge of the language as a whole, and that in order to develop reading ability it is neither necessary nor desirable to withhold an active command of the language from the pupil.
This takes us on to the question of — Balance.
CHAPTER 9
BALANCE -- SHAKESPEARE or SHOP ?
The aim laid down by Dr. West for the teaching of English had two distinct aspects.
That the general policy, for any
- 1 . That the general policy, for any one school or for any one class taken as a whole should be to emphasize reading ability rather than ability to speak and write.
2 . That in any one school or in any one class whatever speaking and writing is permitted should be reserved for the more gifted pupils.
- 1 . That it is easier to learn to read than to speak and write.
2 . That it is easier to teach reading because the method (translation) is simpler.
3 . That reading is the best foundation for all purposes.
- 1 . That the most interesting and natural way of learning to read is through speaking.
2 . That the really alive and up-to-date teacher will not care to teach a living language more or less as a dead one.
3 . That reading is not the best foundation if it is based on reading (word-counting and therefore unlimited) vocabulary.
. . .
. . . (more) . . . p 190-193 . . .
Culture and Earning Capacity
. . .
. . . The problem of ' balance ' arises only when there is no sound and self-sufficient foundation. Given such a foundation the rest is only a question of time -- less time, less Shakespare ; more time, more Shakespeare -- for all ! Given such a foundation there wuld be no need even to consider, as is suggested by the High School Final Examiner, whether the text for detailed study should not be dropped altogether and the examination be based on Pure Composition and questions on a fairly large number of books prescribed for general study.
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