The Teaching of Foreign Languages: Principles and Methods
Book Review
The Teaching of Foreign Languages: Principles and Methods
Reviewed by Jie Lu
University of the Pacific
The Teaching of Foreign Languages: Principles and Methods
F. B. Kirkman
Legare Street Press, 2023, 112 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-102077141 Paperback $17.95
The Teaching of Foreign Languages: Principles and Methods
Reviewed by Jie Lu
University of the Pacific
The Teaching of Foreign Languages: Principles and Methods by Frederick B. Kirkman is a good contribution to the field of foreign language instruction in terms of teaching strategies and methods. As stated in its introductory note, the book focuses on four major research questions: the best methods for teaching foreign literature, composition, pronunciation, and the application of oral method to the teaching of grammar and vocabulary. The book is divided into two parts. The first part (with five sections) is on the general principles that guide the teaching of foreign language.
Section One of Part I focuses on the objectives of learning foreign language(s): foreign language as a means to understand the literary traditions of the foreign nation under study, to communicate with the foreigners, to gain and access information including specialized information, to obtain knowledge about and understand the nation(s), their people, and achievements, and to get into the literary discipline of translation. Here the author discusses translation in detail, stressing that translation is not simply a process to convey the information, but is its own form of art.
Based on the five objectives laid out above, the second section moves to evaluating the relative importance of the types of linguistic attainment. The author prioritizes understanding of the written language, as it is foundational to all objectives, followed by spoken language, and considers writing as a training for the literary discipline. The third section recommends great French and German literary masters, various texts in history, songs, poetry, and prose, and classic children’s books as subject matters. Regarding designing the language course, Kirkman highly recommends that literary and linguistic courses should be taught separately, in two parallel series of reading books on literature. The first one includes canonical texts about the foreign country, while the second one is a linguistically oriented, teaching grammar rules, speaking, and writing in the target language. However, the two courses should be designed to mutually serve each other. In terms of the choice of topics, the author recommends topics that do not receive much attention in other disciplines, such as history and literature. He also suggests that the content course and complex linguistic matters should be taught in the native tongue. The author does not quite suggest inclusion of translation in the school’s foreign language courses, even though Section One discusses the importance of translation as a fine art relatively in details. Finally, in this part, he raises several practical issues related to the overall curriculum design, such as the correlation to the school’s other France-focused courses.
The second part (with three sections) focuses on the specific methods and strategies in foreign language instruction. Section Five covers different stages of learning, speaking, and reading. The beginner’s course in pronunciation and spelling provides very detailed lesson plans and valuable suggestions. For learning pronunciation, the author suggests following the order of the Back group of normal vowels and the Front group (in French language), and the use of the triangle diagram that shows the relative positions of the center of articulation. Considering the unfavorable influence exerted by two major traditional approaches to teaching spelling on the pronunciation the student has just acquired, he introduces different ways of practicing the sounds in association with the written words to eliminate the disturbing factors caused by the use of phonetical transcript. Here, the author favors the use of a notebook for sound-columns for the purpose of classification as well as for practicing the sounds in the context of written words. He makes some small suggestions regarding teaching tools (though outdated), seating arrangements (to assist students with hearing problem and facilitate the mutual learning among students), and pronunciations in chorus.
The author suggests, in the beginner’s course on vocabulary, that initial vocabulary instruction can begin with the classroom terms, and that vocabulary teachings can be accompanied using objects or gestures that can help the students to understand vocabulary in the linguistic context. Following the reader-centered method of teaching interpretation, Kirkman suggests three steps: reading the textual passages and understanding sentences based initially on the contextual information, followed by explanation via translation, and then in foreign language aided by various visual aids. The vocabulary retention process is a very difficult task, as it is related to factors such as the different methods of memorization, with the visual type being likely the most common method, and the interest the language learner has in the text. In the textual interpretation, he believes that definition in the target language and the use of objects are more effective ways of understanding, as translation tends to hinder direct mental association, that is, the ability to recall the foreign word without the intervention of the native word.
In Section Four on vocabulary practice, the author suggests that repetition should be done orally and in sentence format so that the learner may experience variety. Several useful examples include creating questions about the contexts of important words that can also bring out their full connotations, questioning the meaning of the words that can introduce free conversation, making up examples of words by students, and exercising the skill of grouping words that include the form-groups (based upon identity of suffix, prefix, or root) and the sense-groups (such as synonyms, proverbs, idiomatic expressions). For text-based or content questions, in Section Five, he suggests a gradual increase in levels of difficulty in terms of changes in the tenses and conjunctive pronouns.
In Section Six on grammar practice, Kirkman separates learning grammar into two processes: to study it as the knowledge and to practice it as the skill. To teach grammar rules, he recommends letting students initially draw the rules from particulars and then apply them. This can help students easily understand the abstract rules through their own efforts while also stimulating their attention. For skill training, the author proposes the direct oral method that involves revision, alteration of the inflections and constructions of the continuous answer in the forms, and the use of a particular passage associated with the forms being practiced. Here, the author provides specific suggestions and examples for teaching different aspects of French grammar, such as dative of the definite article, noun, and adjective inflections, prepositions and adverbs, verb inflections, and syntax. Some of the examples show student-centered learning strategies. For instance, in teaching prepositions, students can be asked to collect from passages the examples of given prepositions; this encourages discussion and collaborative work among students. He emphasizes the training of students’ abilities to express themselves correctly, without consciously relying on the grammar rules. This is also related to his fundamental principle of direct connection.
In Section Seven on the written work, the author makes a good recommendation for the process of correcting the students’ written work: students should first find and correct their mistakes by themselves. For the order of steps in lesson, in Section Eight, Kirkman recommends the following order: reading and interpretation of the passage; questions on the passage for continuous answers; vocabulary practice in word groups; grammar practice and written tests. Section Nine recommends that homework should be designed to be revisions of the various forms of work done in the class. The last section provides additional information and suggestions that aid teaching and stimulating students’ interests, followed by the Addendum that records an experiment in research.
The book’s strength lies in providing and summarizing a wealth of useful, detailed, carefully thought-out, and (some) commonly practiced strategies, methods, and examples to help language instructors teach different aspects and stages of the French language. Here, Kirkman underscores the principle of direct connection, and the use of oral practice in teaching all linguistic aspects. Instructors of other foreign languages can also benefit from some of these strategies. This new edition, however, could have updated some of the recommendations: the textual repertoire recommended in Part I, Section III should go beyond the traditional and canonical texts to include works by women and minority writers. It could also update its teaching tools to those provided by the state-of-art technologies. The suggestion for the curriculum design works better in the college setting rather than the K-12 school setting (at least in the United States). Frederick B. Kirkman’s foundational book on teaching French language must be preserved and reproduced for its hands-on approach with rich practical teaching methods for instructors. First published early in the 20th century, the book is also a valuable source for a more theoretical study of and research on the changing concepts/objectives and evolving practices/methodologies in foreign language teaching. For instance, the author touches the much-discussed issue of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), although he does not use this term. In general, it serves as a good handbook for teaching the French language.
