Abstract
The present concern over the state of modern-language teaching in the schools and colleges of the United States has been aired in the press, in learned and professional meetings, in language journals.* The teachers of modern language are criticized by one group because their students do not master the language taught. Others think that we fail to give an adequate knowledge of the culture of the country in which the language is spoken. We are overwhelmed with suggestions as to how to vitalize our teaching. Now the problem arises as to how to integrate literature and language courses into the general humanities programs which are being organized throughout the country. It is obvious that European literatures have much to contribute to them. The panel discussion at the December 1952 Annual Meeting of the AATSP took up the question of what Spanish and Portuguese literatures have to offer and in what way they might be reoriented toward such a plan.1 But language courses? Why has the question arisen? Is modern language so much on the defensive that it has to take part in these new courses to justify its existence in our curricula? Apropos of that, let me quote pertinent remarks from Halfdan Gregersen's letter to the New York Times of May 10:
Published Version
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