Historiography of language education: Lessons from history
Abstract
The field of language education has ignored its history. Superficial commentary may be found concerning the eighteenth century onward, but relatively little is known of practices established before this time. As a result, commentary specific to the field's history is highly speculative, extremely biased, generally unsubstantiated, and misleading. Furthermore, available historical commentary reflects a mismatch and misunderstanding of the roles played by theory and practice. As such, this investigation fell within the parameters of a social scientific historical inquiry. Deciphering patterns in classroom practices so as to manage some type of statement of the field's European inheritance from 3,000 B. C. to 1699 A. D. was of paramount concern. To guide the investigation, a filter (serving as a heuristic device) was designed utilizing eight Lesson Planning Foci (LPF). Results suggest that vacillation in teaching practices appeared to be based upon three principal elements. For one, the composition of the student body constrained, restrained, or emancipated the use of particular techniques forcing educators into a reactive position. Additionally, the perceived utility/status/political position of a language effected the techniques employed, and finally, vacillation may be an illusion encouraged by a lack of historical data. Furthermore, it was found that both theory and practical materials are valued by practitioners in a selective sense. This suggests an answer as to why the field of language education has lacked an independent theoretical basis for teaching. Because the original focus of this historiography concentrated on patterns, the filter's synthesis did not represent a complex, unique whole. Without historical synthesis, the select evolution of language education as a product of humankind is never exposed. However, this form of synthesis was enlisted via the historical narrative. It is from this narrative that the uniqueness of evolving pedagogical practices becomes visible and inspirational. So, it is from the history itself, be it guided by the filter, that the story of language pedagogy's past reveals the evolving spirit of humankind in its quest to teach language to its youth.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Garfinkel, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Education history|Language|European history|Language arts
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