HCUA Committee Raps Instruction of Language

The HCUA Committee on Language Instruction has released a study of first-year language courses at Harvard, criticizing five beginning courses and offering what it considers to be the "ideal foreign language course." The 38-page study has not yet been approved by the HCUA, but will be distributed to Faculty members next week.

The Committee is composed of five undergraduate language concentrators. Its report is not Intended as a survey, but "represents the opinions and experience" of the committee members.

In the report, the Committee offers a model for language instruction "to which courses could be adapted at Harvard." The "ideal course" would especially emphasize fundamental knowledge of a foreign language, including its phonetic and grammatical structures. The course would tend to de-emphasize immediate conversational instruction, especially in section meetings.

The Committee recommends that extensive use of lectures be added to first-year courses, particularly in the opening weeks. "The subject matter of the lectures would be the meaning and grammar of a set of patterns basic to the language." This would free section meetings for more personal approach, but the report emphasizes that sections should not be used for pronunciation practice and grammatical pattern drill, "which can best be done alone in language laboratory."

The Committee lists seven criteria of success by which it judges beginning courses currently offered at Harvard. An emphasis is placed on an understanding of the language, but not on a large vocabulary or an ability to converse skillfully.

German A was criticized, for example, because it does not give a "coherent presentation of grammar." The report says that "the aural-oral method should be used side-by-side" with a more suitable and rigorous text than the current grammar employed by the course.

Robert H. Spaethling, Assistant Professor of German and head of German A, disagreed with the recommendations of the report. He said that grammar cannot be taught abstractly "without knowing anything of the language beforehand." Although Spaethling did not object in principle to occasional lectures, he said that they would be "premature" if used to begin instruction.

As evidence of the success of the German A aural-oral approach, Spaethling cited the results of proficiency tests given to first-year students last week. In the standard college-board achievement test designed for students with at least two years of German, 60 per cent of German A passed with a score of 560 or above. In a similar Harvard College proficiency test, 45 per cent passed the exam.

Slavic A, the beginning course in Russian, is heavily criticized by the committee for its lack of conversational practice. The report also suggests that lectures would make the presentation of grammar more uniform, saving much of the time "wasted in sections by students not understanding the grammar."

For much the same reason, the Committee suggests that lectures in French A, which are currently given twice a week, should at first present "the basic elements of phonetics,” explaining French phonology and its differences from English. It also recommends that at least one lecture be devoted to a history of the French language.