THE LINGUISTIC REPORTER BULLETIN OF THE CENTER FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS 1346 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Washington 6, D. C. in profit Onsen zat U. S. POSTAGE PAID WASHINGTUN D. WLS-from page 3 mation on the educational system and language teaching in the educational system, as well as any other second language teaching and teacher training activities, including those by foreign groups. In addition, a few reports cover areas, e.g. Latin America, French-speaking Africa and English-speaking Africa. The resource reports, covering countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada, describe university, government agency, and private organization programs in linguistics and second language teaching both at home and overseas. Availability of Information These various reports have already proven useful as reference material and as the basis for the preparation of special NCTE Issues Statement on English as Second Language Emphasizes TESL Role in the National Interest The National Council of Teachers of English recently published a statement entitled "The National Interest and the Teaching of English as a Second Language". The pamphlet, a supplement to the 140-page report the National Interest and the Teaching of English, emphasizes the fact that national interest demands that the United States exercise leadership in this important area and proceeds to give important facts about the teaching of English as a second language in this country and abroad. The statement closes by bringing into relief the need for national support and leadership. Members of the NCTE committee, which prepared the report, include H. B. Allen, G. H. Henry, J. N. Hook, A. H. Marckwardt, R. A. Meade, J. Mersand, E. E. Slaughter, G. W. Stone, Jr., Ruth G. Strickland and J. R. Squire, chairman. Cooperating in the preparation of the statement were G. Dykstra, C. A. Ferguson and Felicia E. Harben. Copies of this pamphlet may be obtained from: The National Council of Teachers of English, 508 South Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois. NDEA Offers Institute for Chinese and Russian A new NDEA Summer Institute has just been announced for high school teachers of Chinese and Russian at San Francisco State College. Sixty-four teachers of Russian and ten teachers of Chinese will be accepted for eight weeks of intensive study. Any teacher interested in beginning a class in Chinese (or Russian) next year should contact Dr. Joseph Axelrod, Director, San Francisco State College, 1600 Hollywood Avenue, San Francisco 27, California. Linguists Work on Various Projects Are Reported Recent research on the automatic analysis of texts, aimed at the mechanical translation of works in foreign languages, automatic compilation of indexes and abstracts, and other similar objectives, is reported in a recent issue of Science. Among the projects with the greatest linguistic interest is the attempt at the University of Pennsylvania to develop a program for automatic phrase-structure analysis, or parsing, of sentences, as a first step toward abstracting, indexing, and retrieval of information. At a later stage. computer programs may be developed for "transforming" sentences into simpler. more uniform "kernel" constructions (for example, passive constructions will be converted into simple, declarative statements). MIT A different type of project at MIT is interested in the construction of a "natural language" with rules so explicit that machines can be instructed to use it for information storage and retrieval. Machine translation proper is receiving much attention now in twelve countries, and many of the projects are concerned with syntactic analysis as an important step in the translation process. The technique of "predictive analysis," developed at the National Bureau of Standards and adopted also at Harvard, is achieving gratifying results in the syntactic analysis of English and Russian. Recently, however, machine translation has come to be considered primarily as one aspect of the larger field of automatic processing of natural language for a variety of purposes. 8 Robert A. Bennett, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Public Schools Muriel Crosby, Wilmington, Delaware, Public Schools James R. Squire, University of Illinois, Chairman Enid Olson, Publications Associate, NCTE Copyright 1961 THE NATIONAL INTEREST AND THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE "In terms of the numbers of pupils and teachers, of timetable hours and of geographic extent, the teaching of English as a second language is the biggest educational undertaking in the world today." So states the London Times, which also points out that although the expressed aims of English teaching vary from place to place, no language has ever before had so many teachers and pupils of many linguistic, racial, cultural, and social backgrounds nor has any been required "to act as an international lingua franca at such a diversity of levels." English is taught as a subject in secondary schools throughout Europe, Central America, South America, and in many parts of Asia. It is used as the medium of instruction, usually beginning in the upper elementary grades, in parts of Asia and many parts of Africa. According to one informed estimate, almost 300 million people now speak English as a first or second language. The teaching of English as a second language is a major educational undertaking within the United States as well. Hundreds of thousands of students throughout our several states and territories are learning English as a second tongue. Our public and private schools provide untold numbers of Americanization classes for adults or special English instruction for the children of immigrants; our colleges provide special facilities for foreign students. In addition, four major agencies of the United States government are concerned with the teaching of English both in this country and overseas. All of these programs draw upon a slim cadre of properly prepared teachers. The heritage of the English-speaking peoples is inseparable from the language through which it is transmitted; to encourage the teachings of our language, both abroad and at home, is to broaden and improve understanding of the United States and the English-speaking peoples. Moreover, such teaching must frequently be coordinated with programs of cultural and technical assistance to non-English-speaking countries since an inadequate knowledge of English can be an obstacle to study and research in many subject fields. Clearly the national interest demands that the United States exercise leadership in this important area. Yet despite greatly intensified activity in all phases of language. teaching during recent years, our country is faced with a serious shortage of qualified teachers of English as a second language. Needed as an intelligent first step is an extension of the National Defense Education. • G. E. Perren, "Babel at Arm's Length," The London Times Educational Supplement, #2354 (July 1, 1960), p. 10. Act of 1958 to include the teaching of English as a second language within all titles that apply to language teaching. The data presented in this brief report indicate the extent of activity in this country and abroad; the compelling need for effective national leadership in this important area is manifest. FACTS ABOUT THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE IN THIS COUNTRY 1. English is taught as a second language throughout Puerto Rico as well as to all Puerto Ricans who have migrated to the continental United States. • The present population of Puerto Rico is about 2,500,000, and most speak Spanish as their native language. • The New York City schools alone face the task of teaching English to a Spanish-speaking populace of 800,000, including 700,000 Puerto Ricans. According to the New York Times, one out of every ten persons in New York City speaks Spanish. 2. English is taught as a second language to children in schools administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. • An estimated 108,000 Indians live in non-English-speaking homes. Of the 45,000 Indian children in federal elementary and secondary schools, an estimated 80 per cent come from full-blood families where English is not the native language. 3. English is taught as a second language in Americanization classes offered by local school boards throughout the country. During 1960, in New York State alone, Americanization programs were conducted in 364 separate communities. • The Americanization School of the District of Columbia regularly enrolls an average of 1,500 students. • Americanization programs are offered in virtually all metropolitan centers. Directors of these programs repeatedly experience difficulty in finding and attracting qualified teachers of English as a second language. 4. English is taught as a second language in many regular school programs. In certain metropolitan centers the need for such teaching is a crucial educational problem. 4 |