Gives a history of traditional and audiolingual methods of language teaching. Reports on one Swedish and two U.S. long-term experiments. The two methods are found to be of about equal value. The most recent publications reveal a tendency to synthesize the two. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

The pedagogue is caught between the qualitative and quantitative or regularized aspects of his work, a situation not automatically conducive to scientific study. The article refreshes the instructor on the elementary principles of experimentation: observation, systematization, elaboration of hypothesis, and startegies of comparison. (Text is in…

Based on a paper given at the Third Annual Conference of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, London, England, December 30, 1969 to January 2, 1970. (VM)

See FL 502 554 for companion article. (RS)

Describes a study designed to challenge the theory that the initial phase of instruction in foreign language should be based on intensive oral practice. (PMP)

This article addresses the question, "Does the introduction of a language laboratory improve the functioning of a given teaching method?" Four experiments with the language laboratory are described and analyzed: the Keating and Lorge experiments in New York, the Jalling experiment in Sweden, and the Freedman experiment in Great Britain. These…

An experiment is reported involving the teaching of the agreement of the past participle without an auxiliary verb, with "avoir" and with "etre," patterned after the studies of S. Roller in 1952-53 in this area. The initial experimentation is updated and involves the use of a Skinnerian model of programed instruction. The objectives, operational…

An experiment in language instruction undertaken in Canadian junior high schools during the 1960-61 school year is reported in this study. The pilot project: (1) examines the phenomena of learning to comprehend and speak French through two different but direct modes of instruction; (2) compares by achievement tests the results of the two modes of…

Advocates that information on student aptitude for foreign language learning be used not, as in the past, for determining the best general method for language teaching but rather for determining the best teaching method for particular kinds of students. (FB)

Describes an experiment at Birkbeck College, University of London, designed to encourage the spontaneous, uninhibited use of French by students. (PMP)

Criticizes the philosophy and management of several research projects of the 1960's. The procedures employed by second language learners unconstrained by group arrangements, teacher presentation, or other major interventions in their learning opportunity need to be studied. Only then can a theory of second language learning be constructed.…

Tells of an experiment introducing the Montessori system (which is described), stressing individualized approach, in a junior high school. Good results were obtained with good and poor students. It is concluded that the system could be relevant for beginning English classes in other types of schools. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Revised version of a paper presented at the TESOL Convention, March 1971, New Orleans, La. (VM)