The Teaching of Foreign Languages

THE TEACHING OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES IIlya Galperin In the Soviet Union, foreign languages are taught in the secondary schools and in the colleges and universities. They are a regular part of the curriculum. The number of hours devoted to them varies according to the type of school. They are a compulsory subject; if a student fails his foreign language examination he is not granted a diploma. Besides the secondary and higher schools, there is a broad network of courses, organized by the district boards of education, which give instruction in foreign languages. In addition, there are many language study groups at factories and offices in the larger towns. The study of foreign languages in the secondary schools begins in the fifth grade and ends in the tenth, or last, grade. The aim in the secondary schools is to teach pupils to read and understand original texts of moderate difficulty and to pave the way for the attainment of speaking skills. However, we can hardly expect students to attain oral fluency at this stage in view of the relatively large classes and the increased stress on vocational training in the secondary schools. The secondary school syllabus provides for a thorough command of a vocabulary of approximately 2,600 words (lexical units) in the foreign language. During the course of many years this vocabulary has been subjected to a detailed analysis as regards the frequency of use of the words, the possibility of combining them easily with other words, and their occurrence in topics related to the daily life of the school and Soviet society as a whole. As a result of studies conducted by the Academy of Education, so-called minimum vocabularies were drawn up for English, German, and French, the three Western languages that are taught in the secondary schools of the Soviet Union. The stndy of vocabulary is not limited solely to the practical assimilation of separate words. It also includes a certain degree of theory to give pupils a systematized idea of the vocabulary of the language. Naturally, the age of the pupils is taken into account, and the theory does not go 4 ILYA GALPERIN beyond the fundamental linguistic concepts: polysemants, synonyms, phraseology, word formation, and a number of other concepts essential for an intelligent approach to language study. Grammar in the secondary school is not an end in itself. The purpose of teaching grammar is to develop correct speech habits and an understanding of the structure of a language. The grammar section of the syllabus is arranged on a concentric principle, that is, topics are repeated on a broader scale at subsequent stages of instruction. Grammar rules are explained in the pupils' mother tongue. Special attention is paid to aspects of the foreigu language that differ from the corresponding aspects of the native language, or which do not exist in the native language at all. Owing to the relatively small number of hours devoted to foreign language study in the secondary school not much attention can be devoted to phonetics. However, the syllabus does stipulate that the student should acquire the habit of correct pronunciation of the words and phrases in the minimum vocabulary, know the rules of reading letters and syllables, and be able to give the correct intonation to a sentence in reading aloud or speaking. The teaching of vocabulary, grammar, and phonetics is divided into the following types of work: reading, writing, speaking, and translation. In reading, the aim is to teach students to divide the text smoothly, with sufficient speed and proper expression, into short units of words that make up an entity as regards meaning and rhythm. Naturally, this aim can be achieved only if the text is fully understood. Therefore, such reading is preceded by a line for line study of the text, sometimes called analytical reading. Practice in writing occupies a very small place in the teaching of foreign languages in the secondary schools. It usually takes the form of short dictation exercises, written exercises, and, sometimes, the writing of a precis of a text that has been read out to the class. A rather prominent place is given to translation. It is not, however, an independent form of...