Pages 28-29 teachers, administrators, supervisors, psychologists, and social workers confronting new problems resulting from changes in our society. For example, one of the pressing problems facing urban schools is the changing nature of the school population resulting from population mobility. Because the cultural background of children profoundly influences their language development, teachers in many areas confront new or unfamiliar problems in helping the children acquire basic language facility. Special conferences could be called to study such pressing problems and to recommend specially designed programs in English for these areas. 8. Encouraging conferences to develop ways and means of improving English teaching at all schools, independent as well as public. The need for improving the quality of education extends to all of the nation's schools and colleges, whether private or public. Ways need to be found to improve the training and background of English teachers in independent schools and colleges as well as of those in public schools and colleges. Special conferences might be needed to assure that all programs for improvement are educationally comprehensive. E. Provisions to Obtain Services and Supplies for Teachers of English 1. Assisting in the establishment of regional centers for English instruction. Development of regional centers for study and demonstration of English instruction could be encouraged were special financial assistance available. To serve a national purpose, such centers would necessarily have to be developed cooperatively by selected school districts, key universities, and state departments of education. Such centers could prepare and distribute sample teaching aids, provide consultant help for teachers, and supplement services available in local school districts. 2. Providing special financial inducements to encourage advanced study by English teachers with demonstrated leadership potential. A program of scholarships or grants could encourage outstanding teachers to prepare themselves for exercising leadership in local school districts in improving the English curriculum. Colleges and universities could be encouraged to offer doctoral programs in the teaching of English. The present John Hay Whitney scholarship program is already providing a limited number of teachers with the opportunity to live for a year in a cultural climate for the purpose of restimulating their imaginations and their minds. More programs of this type are needed. 3. Advising school architects and school administrators concerning the special building requirements needed for English teaching. Composition, literature, and language are taught more effectively in rooms which 9 Pages 134-135 Pages 100-104 permit the storage of books and papers, as well as the use of recordings, tape recorders, and other audio-visual aids. Teachers and students require conference space and work space. Too many architects plan classrooms without considering how the rooms will be used. At the national and state levels, the special room needs of English teaching should be made known to school architects, perhaps by presentation of sample plans. Similar suggestions should be made to assure adequate, wellplanned school libraries. 4. Experimenting with using electronic and audio-visual aids in teaching English. Provisions in Title VII of the National Defense Education Act of 1958 encourage experimentation in use of the media but not specifically in using the media to teach subject matter. Teachers of English need to find whether there are sound ways to teach English through the use of teaching machines, tape recordings, educational television, and other such devices and media. Great progress in using these aids in teaching English and the humanities is more likely to occur if emphasis in research can be placed on the teaching of English through these media, rather than on the media alone. Assistance in installing language laboratories, educational television equipment, listening rooms, and other special aids in the nation's schools and colleges would encourage the experimentation likely to lead to the successful exploitation of electronic and audiovisual aids in the teaching of English. 5. Assisting in developing adequate library facilities. Few objects are as necessary to education as adequate books. Increased library resources are needed at elementary, secondary, and college levels. A national program to ensure development of adequate library facilities and books for all American youth, possibly supplemented by an expansion of state library services to local school districts, would strengthen instruction in every area and at every instructional level. Special financial assistance (perhaps on a matching fund basis) may be needed to develop needed facilities in impoverished school districts. F. Projects to Assist in Encouraging Research and Scholarship Pages 1. Supporting research basic to the teaching of English. Funds are 133-135 needed to support and encourage research related to many basic problems in English. For example, vitally needed is a study of classroom applications of recent research in language by psychologists, linguists, and specialists in methodology. Pages 2. Supporting research related to teaching conditions and to the 89.100 utilization of the teacher's time. Impartial and controlled studies are 10 Page 33 Pages 21-22,38 Page 37 needed now to assess the effects on student learning of new proposals for utilizing the teacher's time or for modifying teaching loads, school schedules, e.g., the effects of team teaching, large group lecturing, use of lay readers, inter-age grouping, schedule modification, etc. Such studies should be both initiated and encouraged by the United States Office of Education. Among the important problems needing deeper investigation are the relationship between the size of the class and student learning; the nature of the development of language abilities in children and youth; the factors and conditions which influence the selection of textbooks used in the schools. G. Projects to Assist in Recruiting More Teachers of English 1. Offering special inducements to liberal arts graduates. Recent experimentation in many colleges and universities has demonstrated the success of fifth-year programs of teacher preparation for liberal arts graduates who have little or no course work in professional education. Recruitment may be encouraged by offering such graduates special financial inducements or by underwriting some of the costs of expensive, experimental teaching internship programs, e.g., "earn-while-you-learn" programs in which graduates engage in part time paid teaching along with part time graduate studies under the close supervision of specialists at a teacher training institution. Especially needed are fellowships or stipends to assist highly qualified liberal arts graduates to undertake graduate studies in preparation for teaching English. States and institutions will interest more liberal arts graduates in entering elementary or secondary teaching by permitting qualified applicants to substitute valid experience or special examinations for some of the required courses. The current inflexibility of many credential regulations often prevents a mature student from embarking on a teacher training program. Such substitution should be encouraged, however, only when a candidate provides substantial proof of his competence in the necessary phases of English or education. 2. Expanding scholarship and loan programs for students planning to teach English and the humanities. An increase in presently available scholarships and loans will encourage students of English and the humanities to prepare to teach. Title II of the National Defense Education Act of 1958 now offers a priority in obtaining loan funds to students in science, mathematics, and the foreign languages. This discriminating priority system should be extended to include students in English and the humanities. 11 Pages 133-135 Page 65 Page 132 3. Distributing more comprehensive career information on the demand for English specialists. Some national agency or institution should provide accurate, comprehensive information on the nation's need for specialists in English and the humanities with the aim of recruiting future teachers in the nation's colleges. Such a campaign will require financial support. At present, information reaches college and high school counselors only sporadically. A well-planned, long-range program of research, fact finding, and reporting should be conducted by a division of the United States Office of Education or some similar agency. 4. Developing a "Visiting Scholar Program" directed at enlisting undergraduate liberal arts students in teaching and interesting high school teachers in advanced study. Many undergraduates in liberal arts colleges and junior colleges throughout the country could be attracted to graduate study in English and ultimately to teaching in schools and colleges if an intensive program of recruitment were undertaken by college specialists. The effective Visiting Scholar Program of the American Mathematics Association could well serve as a model. A similar program might be introduced to acquaint high school teachers with developments in linguistics and literature as well as the opportunities for advanced study. 5. Offering special summer programs in the humanities for the academically talented in high school. Only if a reasonable percentage of able high school students continue study of English and the humanities in college will these fields be assured of a continuing supply of competent teachers for tomorrow's classrooms. Those high school students who demonstrate high interest and proficiency in English and in related fields need special encouragement. A series of national summer programs in the humanities, especially designed for high school students, would do much to encourage interest. Programs might promote the study and discussion of great works of literature under the supervision of distinguished college teachers, or they might provide for study of the English language through a series of especially designed lectures and study groups. PART II The National . The teaching of English plays a vital role in preserving human values in our technological society. • Our democratic institutions depend upon intelligent, informed communication. • Competence in using English is essential in every subject. • English is taught more extensively to more pupils than is any other subject. The demand for English teachers has increased faster than the number adequately trained. The old and essential obligations of the English teacher have not changed, but new obligations make his task increasingly difficult. • English and its teachers should focus on the study of language, literature, and composition. • Poorly prepared teachers of English have created a serious national problem. Probably the greatest single weakness is the lack of articulation in the teaching of English. • National concern about the deficiencies of English instruction has become almost commonplace. • Coordinated national and state efforts are needed to improve the teaching of English. 13 |