Implications of the Armed Forces' Language Program

Abstract

IT IS WITH a great deal of satisfaction that modern language teachers are seeing sensible and understanding articles about the Intensive Language Program of the American Council of Learned Societies. Although several have since appeared, the most carefully prepared and presented article is still Henry Grattan Doyle's 'Learning Languages in a Hurry'--But Not by Miracles, which appeared in the December 18, 1943, issue of School and Society. There is one new distinctive feature about the intensive language program,-the feature which has given it so much glamour in our press,--the feature which has caused so many errors, and which has even caused a fair degree of anger, resentment, and ill-will among those who lack first-hand acquaintance with the program. The new feature is not the method or the means of instruction, or even the intensity of instruction, as Dean Doyle points out. It is the so-called implementation, the securing of drill material. By means of a comparatively new insight into the nature of spoken language (See Sapir: Language [1921] and Bloomfield: Language [1933] ), it is possible for a trained linguist, with no previous knowledge of a particular tongue, to secure from a native speaker drill sentences which can then be used immediately for classroom instruction. As time goes on, the linguist naturally acquires a full grasp of the structure of the particular language; he can teach as much or as little of this theoretical grammar to his students as he thinks wise. It must be remembered, however, that this implementation-the acquisition of drill material for languages for which we in America have had no phonograph records or written texts-has nothing to do with the method of instruction. There are, it seems to me, three important implications of the intensive language program. The first is the emphasis on the oralaural side. The students are drilled by native speakers who have, of course, a natural manner of speaking. Their pronunciation, emphasis, and sentence rhythm are natural and correct. The students are introduced to the oral side of the language. They are not misled by letters and words that look something like English letters and words; consequently, they cannot fall into the unfortunate habit of being visual-minded about the foreign language. The students soon learn