L I E) R.ARY OF THE UN IVER.SITY or ILLINOIS 405 Ul Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/universityofilli1719univ ^^-^^-'^'^ s l""/'-^ ^^'^^^.f''^^4"^^^ UriIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS .^^ ^6 ]Q ^ Modern Foreign Language ^S/Tu ^6 NEWSLETTER Vol. XVII. No. 1 October, 1963 Dear Colleagues: As a prelude to writing this word of greeting to begin a new school year, I had the curiosity to look again at what I wrote five years ago, in 1958, which was the last time it fell to the Department of French to do so. The return to favor of foreign language study was already under way, and Ilr. Conant was urging that every high school make available to capable students an adequate offering in languages, as well as in science and mathematics. The National Defense Educa- tion Act had just been passed, offering the means of additional train- ing for language teachers and providing subsidies for the acquisition of equipment such as language laboratories. In these last five years the number of students getting language train- ing in the high schools and colleges has continued to increase, some- times steadily, sometimes by leaps and bounds. The number of language teachers in training has been rising sharply as well, but not enough to keep up with the demand. New teachers as well as experienced ones have had five summers of opportunity to improve their competence at NDEA summer language institutes or other schools for additional train- ing. There is more and more realization that oral competence in a foreign language is a major goal and that it demands a high degree of skill and perseverance in the teacher. There is now attached to the office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Springfield a team of Foreign Language Consultants, initially financed by the NDEA, and giving reality to a recommendation made in 1957 in the report "Language Teaching in Illinois" prepared by the Foreign Language Study Group of the Allerton House Conferences on Education, held at the invitation of the University of Illinois. This is not, of course, a time for complacency, or for anyone's claim- ing credit for progress that has come about, in part due to chance events, like the first Sputnik, and part through the exercise, by hundreds and thousands of people, of will and good-will. But it is a time for assessment and for consolidation. We should be asking, not how many students are engaged in language study, but how well are they learning the languages they are studying? It is far easier to ask that question than to give a valid reply to it. One should begin by saying that the amount of training given in most schools is woefully inadequate. Two years of the study of a language does no more than scratch the surface, and we must look with envy across the border at our Canadian colleagues where five years of language study are expected of those going on to college. Most teach- ers now in service among us received their training before much stress was placed on the skills of aural comprehension and oral expression. The NDEA offers a few of these a few weeks of additional training in its summer institutes, but this is still too little, and in many cases too late. And in how many cases is language being taught by teachers whose sole preparation for it was a grossly inadequate minor in the language in college, often no few years distant in the past? Even with the best of teachers and with the best of methods and mate- rials there will always be those students whose language learning will be sub-standard, not to say deplorably bad, because of lack of apti- tude and lack of work. It is our job to keep this segment of the stu- dent body as small as possible, while realizing that its existence is the teacher's burden, and not the teacher's fault. The nearest we can get to a broad view of the quality of language learning in the schools is to observe the competence of the students who carry on with language study in college. Here at the University of Illinois we receive a large enough segment of the college-bound school population to make some qualitative and statistical observations, and the picture is not nearly as bright as it should be. While we get many excellent students of language from the schools, the general aver- age of competence is unquestionably too low. There is a time-honored if rather rough yardstick used for college placement in language: two years of high-school study is equal to one year in college. But the fact of our experience is that in well over half of the students who come to us, it isn't. Our placement tests and procedures show that most of the students coming up with two years of high-school language are not qualified to go into our second-year classes,, and must be sent back for an additional semester or more of training at the elementary level. Many things have contributed to this wasteful and undesirable state of affairs. In many cases the students are two years removed from their high-school language experience when they enter college. In many cases the teachers, through no fault of their own, had not received adequate training in audio-lingual work, to use the current terra for listening and speaking. For all too many high-school teachers (and all too many college teachers, too, alas!) language is a written thing first of all and the road to Heaven ( per aspera ad astra ) is paved with a good mas- tery of French spelling (to take an instance from the language I teach), including such bits of relatively useless knowledge as the plurals in -x and the agreement of the past participle. If we are to work our way to a better state of affairs, it is going to take a great effort of consultation and collaboration among the col- leges and schools for the setting up of standards, for the evaluation of methods and materials, for improvement in pre-service and in-service teacher-training. These needs are now being acutely felt, and there is a fair consensus as to the goals to be sought. V/hat is needed now is the improvement of communications within the State to harness for useful ends the treasures of good will and the high enthusiasm for language study we see on all sides, Charles A. Knudson Head, Department of French 7 IMLTA MEETING. The Illinois Modern Foreign Language Teachers Associa- tion cordially invites all teachers of modern foreign languages in the state to the annual meeting to be held Saturday, November 2, at Chicago Teachers College North, 5500 North St. Louis Avenue. Notice ; The Executive Council of Officers and the chairmen of the lan- guage sections will meet at 7:30 P.M. on Friday, November 1, in the A- Bldg. Lounge, CTCN. Parking : All participants should park their cars in the College west parking lot, located on the west side of the campus with entrance from Bryn Mawr Avenue. Cars should not be parked on the streets. Motels: Tip Top Motel (6060 N. Lincoln), Edens Motel (Cicero and Peterson), Stars Motel (6100 N. Lincoln). In requesting reservations be sure to mention that you are a member of IMLTA in order to receive special rates. Program for Saturday, November 2 9:00-10:00 Registration.„ ^ ^ 1:00-2:00 10:00-10:20 Announcements; Address of welcome. Dr. Jerome M. Sachs, Dean, CTCN. 10:20-10:40 Business Meeting; Election of Officers. 10:40-11:30 The MLA Cooperative Foreign Language Tests, Nelson Brooks, Yale Univ. 11:30-12:30 Demonstration of Telemation in FL Teaching, Rosalyn O'Cherony, CTCN. 12:30-1:30 Luncheon. 2:00-4:00 Sectional meetings: French : Room A-109-111 Lucie T. Horner, Roosevelt Univ. President, AATF (Chicago Chapter) James H. Labadie, New Trier HS Secretary-Treasurer Business meeting. Report by Rene Allewaert, French Cultural Attache in Chicago. "Report on the Advanced Institute in Tours", Edwin Cudecki , V/endell Phillips HS , Chicago. "A Year of Study in France", Bonnie Relli, senior stu- dent at Mundelein College. German : Room A-113-115 Elizabeth Teichmann, Univ. of 111-, Navy Pier President, AATG (Chicago Chapter) Rosemarie Lapertosa, Thornton Twp. HS Secretary-Treasurer Business meeting. - 4 - "Pedagogical Elements in. the \Vork of Stefan George", Peter Lutz Lehman, Northwestern Univ. "Brecht and the Problem of 'Alienation'", S.S, Prawer, Visiting Professor, Univ. of Chicago. Panel Discussion; "Language Laboratory Problems Facing the High School Teacher Today", David D. Bathrick, Univ. of Chicago Laboratory School, Moderator; Rosemary Beil, Niles Twp, HS , V/est; Harold Grothen, Elmwood Park HS; Don lodice, Hinsdale HS; Marion D. Schultz, Glenbrook HS, South; I'irs. Zimmerman, iVest Leyden Twp. HS. Italian ; Room A-121-123 Charlotte lOiiazzeh, Chicago Teachers College South Chairman, Italian Section Breve discorso di un rappresentante del Consolato Generale d'ltalia, Mario Scialoja, Vice Consul, Chicago. "The Development of the Italian Program at DePaul Univer- sity", Frank Naccarato, J. Sterling Morton Jr. Coll. Conferenza sopra Guide Gozzano, Luciana Stefani, Roosevelt Univ. Conferenza sopra il premio Strega 1963: Ginsburg, Lessico familiare , Valeria Sestieri, Univ. of 111. Slavic ; Room A-125-127 Rado L. Lencek, Univ. of 111. Chairman, Slavic Section D. Stanley Moore, Rich Twp. HS Secretary Business meeting. "Another Look at Bunin", Norman Luxemburg, 111. State Normal Univ. "Discussion of the Reform of Russian Orthography", Kurt Klein, Univ.