Word: direction
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...addition to instilling better pronunciation, the oral-aural method provides better results in teaching the language as a whole, reading as well as speaking. Jack M. Stein, professor of German and director of elementary German courses, points out that students using the direct method did better last year on the language proficiency examination--a test based only on reading knowledge--than did students in a course directed toward reading and translation. The direct method, Stein unequivocally states, is "much better. I won't use any other method...
...conditions. Just before the outbreak of World War II, the American Council of Learned Societies attempted to find a better way to teach esoteric languages, such as Mongolian or Hindi. With a paucity of teachers understanding these tongues, the Council hit upon the use of tape recorders and a direct approach to the language: Submerge the student in an atmosphere of the language from the very first by use of a recorded master voice and let him absorb the language gradually as does a child. This experiment rapidly expanded, however, with the start of the war. The Armed Services...
Students in French A, French C, and German A attend class four times per week, the additional hour being devoted to practice in pronunciation in the language lab. The homework load is cut proportionally. At other colleges using the direct method, elementary languages are often run eight hours per week, in order to teach a new tongue more effectively and speedily...
...German B and one in German C, and an upper-level course; he also heads a group of five instructors and fifteen part-time assistants ("all in training to become language teachers") concerned with lower-level German instruction. Stein came to Harvard convinced of the value of the direct method of instruction, and in the last year he has made several significant changes within the department. Most important, of course, is the establishment of the oral-aural system for German sections...
...Does this preposition take the dative case? Is the definite article placed before or after the past participle? What is the gender of this noun?" Rather, he learns almost instinctively what is correct and what is not. And it is precisely this sort of semi-innate knowledge which the direct method seeks to inculate. Not to think in English: In a nutshell, this epitomizes the aim of modern teachers of the modern languages...