An Experiment with ASTP Objectives in Second-Year German at Rutgers (N. J. C. for Women)

Abstract

WHEN DISCUSSING the application of ASTP methods to peacetime teaching we should keep in mind that the language program of the army comprised two distinct groups which were not treated as such administratively but which were clearly set apart from each other by the different nature of their subject matter: To the first group belonged courses in such languages as Arabic, Hausa, Malay, Japanese, etc. The army students had no previous knowledge of these languages. The apparatus for teaching them had to be newly created, at least to a large extent. The tools were phonograph records and native informants as aids to the teacher, the method relied heavily on imitation, memorizing of whole phrases, and systematic mechanical drill. To the second group belonged courses in the conventional western languages like French, German, Italian, etc. In some cases the army students had a previous knowledge of the language in which they specialized, on the whole corresponding to the proficiency attained in a six-hour elementary college course in French, German, etc. The teaching apparatus was already there: The universities participating in the program used their own conversational methods but modified them in the direction of a large active vocabulary referring to the routines of practical daily life. These two groups did not cover every phase of the army program; there were exceptions and marginal cases; but on the whole they constituted the ASTP in languages. Now it seems that practically all attempts to adapt the ASTP experiences to the civilian teaching of German, the language in which we are interested here, are based on the prerequisities and methods of the first group, i.e. the experiments are made with classes of beginners who have no previous knowledge of German; the methods emphasize informants, records, imitation, memorizing, etc. Of course there is no reason why this should not be done. The universities which have organized intensified German elementary courses on the group one plan are doing pioneer work, and the results of their efforts are eagerly awaited. But it seems just as important to apply our ASTP experiences to