THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE PROGRAM OF THE ARMY JAPANESE LANGUAGE SCHOOL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN1

Abstract

HE BASIC MATERIALS AND METHODS underlying the spoken IanT guage programs given to the students of the Army Japanese Language School, the ASTP unit, and the Civil Affairs Training School at the University of Michigan were developed in 1943 and the early part of 1944. The materials used in the programs were changed from time to time in accordance with changing conditions, the chief of which was the gradual shift from training for combat intelligence to training for the work of occupation. The following is a description of the spoken language program given to Classes V, VI, and VII of the Army Japanese Language School. These were the classes that received training both for combat intelligence and for occupation, By May, 1944, when Class IV of the Army Japanese Language School had arrived in Ann Arbor, the staff had acquired enough experience with methods to adopt the oral-aural approach for beginners in the study of Japanese. The oral-aural approach means devoting the first five or six weeks to the spoken language without reference to written materials. The students memorize the spoken models with no attempt at grammatical analysis. They mimic in unison the instructor’s pronunciation of the lesson materials at the beginning of each recitation. The advantages of such a procedure are that the students imitate a good model, the teacher instantly corrects pronunciation, and the subject matter is covered just prior to discussion. In contrast with this procedure, the usual one of individual reading and correction is time-consuming and does not affect, completely, the students who are not reading. In addition, the oralaural approach means that nearly all of the work in the classroom