The MLA College Language Manual Project: The Spanish Textbook

Abstract

The background of the project in which I have the pleasure of taking part is by now sufficiently well known to members of the modem language teaching profession as to render unnecessary a statement here of its origin and purpose.* Suffice it to say that a Working Committee of six, consisting of Dwight L. Bolinger (coordinator), J. Donald Bowen, Agnes M. Brady, Ernest F. Haden, Lawrence Poston, and myself have since February of this year been engaged in implementing, in the form of experimental textbook in beginning Spanish at the college level, the Statement of Recommendations produced by the Conference on Criteria for a College Textbook in Beginning Spanish, which was held under MLA auspices in New York City on May 19-20, 1956. A grant by The Rockefeller Foundation has made it possible for us to hold conferences in New York, Austin, and Madison, and to spend the entire spring semester of 1958 at the University of Texas, free of teaching duties, in order to carry the project through to completion. Our project, then, has enjoyed the sponsorship of MLA, the financial support of The Rockefeller Foundation, and the active collaboration of the University of Texas. Before I present what one co-worker at least is going to refer to as an inside job, it might be well to acquaint you with the nature of the project and the Working Committee and give you some idea of the linguistic principles informing the project. At the risk of repeating or restating some of the formulations in our May 1956 Statement of Recommendations, I would like to bring to your attention the following tems: