The Intensive Method: An Experiment

Abstract

Modern languages, if they are to be of much use to students in this Air Age, should be taught with more stress on oral work than on written exercises. Some language teachers have felt that the subject matter could not be thoroughly mastered without having it set down on paper by students. When the authorities at the State Teachers' College at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, gave permission to offer an intensive course in French in the fall of 1948, the writer decided to find out for himself how much subject matter could be retained by students who had no written assignments and did no written work in class other than a passage of dictation from time to time. The class met twice as often as the conventional class in French. At first it was thought unnecessary to assign work to be studied out of class, but it became unavoidable, in order to cover the ground usually taken up in the course of the year, to ask for a half hour or so of preparation before coming to class. But this assignment was not to be written. The class began with an enrollment of six. Thus each student had individual attention from the start. In a few weeks three more asked to transfer to this class from other sections where the conventional treatment included written assignments. One of these students was a leader in the class in which he found himself. Was he going to fall behind in the Intensive group where the students already had a pronunciation superior to any beginning students we had yet known? He adjusted himself to the oral method and soon became the star of the class. The other two who transferred were on the verge of failure and were wondering whether they should drop the subject, but decided instead to try the Intensive Class. Their work improved at once. Not only was their work passable; they were doing what we consider average work within a month. Just what went on in this Intensive Class? During the first month new material was recited by the Instructor, using as many cognates as possible so that the words could be easily recognized. Maps, pictures, and gestures served to clarify the ideas presented. The subject was reviewed many times by means of questions, and sentences with blanks where missing words were filled in. Even before the class did any reading, they took dictation at the blackboard. Mistakes were corrected, and they were surprisingly few. Thus the ears were recognizing the sounds as they heard them. Similarities