The Teaching of Structural Words and Sentence Patterns 1. [antikvár]

introduction In recent years education authorities in many countries have compiled and published syllabuses for the teaching of English as a foreign language^ In these syllabuses there is more emphasis upon the teaching of structural words, and upon phrase and sentence patterns, than upon the teaching of vocabulary. Problems of vocabulary control received attention in the early part of this century The Interim Report on Vocahulary Selection (P. S. King Son, Ltd., London, 1936) was accepted as a reliable guide by textbook writers in many countries. In its revised form, A General Service List of English Words (Longmans, London, 1953), it is an even more valuable reference book, because the editor, Dr. Michael West, has added semantic frequencies. When questions of vocabulary control had been dealt with there was a shift in emphasis. It was recognized that the learning of words was not the most difficult aspect of learning a language. Not enough was known, however, about methods of presenting other aspects. There was, as there still is, a large number of 'Methods', and in these the order in which structural w^ords, patterns, and tenses shoujd be presented varied widely. The majority of courses started with finites of be and statements of identification ('This is a pen', etc.). Courses that gave prominence to reading presented the Simple Tenses (essential for narrative) early, but those that claimed to use a 'Direct-Oral Method' presented the Present Progressive (or Continuous) Tense first and postponed the Simple Tenses. Work on patterns was undertaken by the Institute for Research in English Teaching. Departn^nt of Education. Tokyo, in the years before the Second World War. Some of the results of this work may be found in Dr. H. E. Palmer's