Bulletin Special Supplement Jun 1965

regulations and syllabuses all over the world. Throughout Eastern Europe, for example, students in all faculties w i l l have studied Russian in middle schools and are required over the first three years of their course at a university to reach a high standard in Russian, both written and spoken �； in addition, for three years they must a l l learn a s e c o n d " w o r l d language" (English, French, Spanish or German) for purposes connected w i th their studies ( " t o ol of wo r k " ), and pass university examinations at a goo d standard in oral comprehension and written work. T h is creates demands on their abilities and their working-time wh i ch are no lighter than those faced by students at the Chinese University: it would be idle to pretend that the problems raised in this way have been fully solved. I n Britain there has been mu ch discussion in recent years of the need to provide language studies of a more satisfactory k i nd for students who are not aiming to be specialised linguists; in particular, recourse is had to language centres w i th recording equipment. L3.7 T he keynote in all these situations i s the need to start w i th an unambiguous job- specification. T he Committee on Teaching Methods has very properly had this nee d in m i nd. (i) R e a d i n g S p e e d . For the teaching of English over two years as a tool of work, one of the chief elements of the job specification is the Reading Speed to be aimed at by the end of two years. I n a t h i rd and f o u r th year library subject where a high proportion of the material, both primary sources and secondary criticism, may be in English, we should expect a proper objective to be around 40 pages an hour. I f this cannot be reached by any but a minority of students, the academic results w i ll fall short of what is hoped f o r; then either the course must be changed radically, or a large proportion of the secondary material must be translated and made availabl e in that form. We are aware that this latter expedient wou ld result for some teachers in a heavy extra burden in preparation of teaching material. Nevertheless , if the problem exists, it must be solved by one means or the other; and we believe that its solution would help to overcome in part a weakness emphasised by the Committee, namely that students are over-prone to rely on their own lecture-notes and do not read enough for themselves. I t would, evidently, b e a retrograde step to accept slow reading-speeds as a n inescapable circumstance and not require the student t o read for himself the articles and books that had been chosen as part of the course, if these are essential. I n some cases, to be sure, it might t u rn out that a course could be actually improved by the removal f r om it of some topics, prescribed texts, or recommended reading wh i ch are not strictly essential to a thorough grasp of the core of the discipline. We recommend that an enquiry should b e made, subject by subject, into the reading-speeds implied by the t h i rd and fourth year courses at present offered, and that, if the information disclosed diverge s too far f r om the average of what can be expected of students, those concerned should consider means to remove the anomaly. (ii) F u r t h e r S t u d y of l a n g u a g e t e a c h i n g . Foreign language teaching has in the present age become a highly professional field, in which much research is conducted, both to establish systemati c knowledge about particular tongues and to compare different ways in which this knowledge can be utilised for the benefit of different groups of learners. T he "language laboratory" greatly increases the resources of the able teacher, and also the student's opportunity to further his comprehension and develop his mastery of a language very different in structure f r om his own. Difficulties wh i ch were great a generation ago can be more rapidly overcome today, thoug h language learning remains an exercise in wh i ch thorough wo rk alone w i ll b r i ng success. I t remains a fact that "language laboratories" are in themselve s no more than rather specialised channels of communication; to get good results f r om them it is essential that they be used for good teaching, and this means expert teachers who k now what use can be made of them. Wh at remains a matter for discussion and experiment is the pedagogical use made of material selected as vital by exper t linguistic analysis. Here we are of the opinion that there is still room for experiment, and if possible c o n t r o l l e d experiment w i th matched groups: w i th a view to seeing, for example, in respect of the average student entering the University, what are the most satisfactory ways to distribute his wo rk over a period o f time, what types of exercise — and of what frequency — produce acceptable grades in comprehension tests, and similarly in respect of reading speeds. We were impressed to find that the Foundation Colleges had, each in its own way, given attention already to these matters; it appears to us that the educational research side, to bring its fullest harvest, could well be carried on to its next stage by a n intercollegiate group wh i ch would be in a position to exchange and compare the existing experience of all the Colleges. A l t hough this would be a matter in which a future Department or Institute of Education would naturally take an interest, we believe that this k i nd of investigation should be undertaken as quickly as possible by those at present engaged in teaching languages. I n any event, we consider it e s s e n t i a ! that under present arrangements each college should have on its staff at least one linguistic specialist whose duties wou ld include supervision of the course work in English wh i ch is conducted by the college; and that he should continue experiments in the most effectual way of using the college language laboratories. A t the present time, much experiment is in progress in many countries, often w i th very good results; but it is not possible t o designate any one " me t h o d" as the best and it woul d be premature to assume that the most suitable methods have already been perfected. 28