Tag: Teaching language

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This is the Army, Mister Jones- No Reading Method, but Gramophones!

clyde

This is the Army, Mister Jones- No More Reading, but Gramophones! By Clyde MacGregor Again, we find language conscripted into service for the military, much as my previous essay (which can be found at firthofclyde.home.blog) outlined. Then it was World War I, and T.E. Lawrence had used language to change the tide of war. In discussing the Reading and the Audio-Lingual Approach, we find that language is once again on the front lines. It is interesting to note that the generals who advocated the later Audio-Lingual Approach were themselves taught by the Reading Method. They were American, by and large, … Continue reading This is the Army, Mister Jones- No Reading Method, but Gramophones!

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The ‘i + 1’s Have It- Comprehension Theory and Teaching

clyde

By Clyde MacGregor Language has been on a strange journey in the past century. As a result of a few pesky steam engines, suddenly everyone was travelling everywhere, and language had to hop to attention! It was conscripted to fight on both sides of two World Wars. It was used to open the minds of an entire generation to cultural variety and spiritual growth. It was used to sell, sell, sell, manipulated to drive up product sales. It was written on protest signs. It was broadcast on the airwaves. It was used purely as a logic-oriented transmission; it was a … Continue reading The ‘i + 1’s Have It- Comprehension Theory and Teaching

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Hippies, Beatniks and Squares, Oh My

clyde

By Clyde MacGregor Didn’t everyone just have an Opinion in the Post-War Era? Cognitive behaviorists were convinced any subject could be inserted into the minds of their subjects, like magnetic tape on a reel of a computer, or a punch card into an input slot. Meanwhile, enterprising members of the counterculture were asserting that it was freedom and inclusivity, immersion and exploration that would teach people, not through rules or repetition or force. These teachers advocated learning as a pleasant by-product of a conducive classroom experience, full of creativity and right-brained activities. Noam Chomsky, a Canadian, put all those push … Continue reading Hippies, Beatniks and Squares, Oh My

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A Girl, and a Boy, and a Camel

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Thoughts on Language Acquisition and Traditional Methods In the winter of 1545, a little girl had just lost her mother. Her father had married a new wife, and this little girl was in dire danger, for her father was a king, who might decide to cast the girl out- or worse. In a desperate attempt to prove her love- and her usefulness- to her father, she translated a work on religion, penned by her new mother, Catherine Parr. This little girl had been raised with William Grindal’s grammar translation teachings of language. The girl performed three flawless, hand-written translations of … Continue reading A Girl, and a Boy, and a Camel