Memory, Meaning & Method

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The book is the sort of thing I'd recommend to a foreign language teacher to read curled up by the fire on a rainy day, for meditation, entertainment, and renewal. ff I were teaching courses in foreign language education, I'd want all my students to read it as a source of inspiration. I think this book could become a classic. -John B. Carroll

Kenan Professor of Psychology and Director, L.L. Thurs tone Psychometric Laboratory University of North Carolina

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EARL W.. S'TEVICK Professor, School of Language Studies Foreign Service Institute

NEWBURY HOUSE PUBLISHERS, Inc. I Rowley I Massachusetts

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Stevick, Earl W Memory, meaning & method. Bibi iography: p. I. Language and languages--Study and teaching-Psychological aspects. 2. Memory. I. Title. P53.S84 153.1 '5 76-2032 ISBN 0-88377-053-9

NEWBURY HOUSE PUBLISHERS, Inc. Language Science • Language Teac ing h Language Learnmg L-7 ROWLEY, MASSACHUSETTS O 1969 Copyright© 1976 by Newbury House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informa­ tion storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Printed in the U.S.A.

First printing: April 1976 5 4

Acknowledgments

The following have read and/or made significant direct contributions to earlier versions of this book: Marianne Adams, Carol and Nobuo Akiyama, Ann Beusch, Janet Bing, Ray Clark, Laetitia Combrinck, J. R. Frith, R. A. C. Goodison, A. Z. Guiora, John Harvey, Virginia Hodge, Edward and Jean Houghton, A. A. Koski, Edna C. Lennox, Frances Li, Edwin W. Martin, Jr., Peter O'Connell, Sirarpi Ohannessian, Margaret Omar, Ted Plaister, Jennybelle Rardin, Robert Rebert, J. Richard Reid, Elaine Rhymers, Panagiotis Sapountzis, Eileen Scott, James A. Snow, James W. Stone, Lloyd Swift, Dan Tranel, Wm. Van Buskirk, Allen Weinstein; Members of the Psychology Depart­ ment of Colby College; Russell Campbell and many staff members and students at the American University in Cairo; the students and staff of the Master of Arts Program at the School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont, who have listened to me, responded to me, and helped me every autumn for a long time; the staff of the Language Training Mission in Provo, Utah; participants in many staff seminars in the School of Language Studies of the Foreign Service Institute.

V

Contents

Acknowledgments Preface PART 1

V xi

MEMORY

Biological Bases for Memory Monkeys and Food Rats and Footshock Goldfish, Flatworms, and Others And Catfish Some Ah, Buts 11 Verbal Memory Three Common Aspects of Verbal Learning Experiments Some Relatively Static Aspects of Verbal Memory Some Relatively Dynamic Aspects of Verbal Memory Time "Depth" Conclusion 111 Memory and the Whole Person vii

3 4 4 5 5 6 11 11 12 23 26 30 32 33

vi ii

Contents

PART 2

MEANING

IV Inside the Student: Some Meanings of Pronunciation and Fluency

Some Meanings of Pronunciation Some Meanings of Fluency Conclusion

47 48 49 51 59 64

V The Meaning of Drills and Exercises

65

Motivation Maslow's Hierarchy

VI Between Teacher and Student: The Class as a Small Group

PART 3

85

METHOD

VII A General View of Method An Autobiographical Statement The Riddle An Obiter Dictum on Research Performance: "Productive" or "Reflective" Learning: "Defensive" or "Receptive" A Psychodynamic Interpretation Conclusion

VI11 Community Language Learning

103

104 104 105 107 109 119 123 125

A Description of Community Language Learning Community Language Learning and the

126

Principles of Chapter VII Other Observations on Community Language Learning

128 132

IX The Silent Way Some Basic Facts About the Silent Way The First Lessons "Teach, Then Test ... " Some General Questions Conclusion

135

136 138 144 144 145

Contents

X Some Other Methods The Saint-Cloud Method Language Teaching as Applied Linguistics Audiolingualism The Work of Georgi Lozanov Summary: What I Hope For in a Classroom

Bibliography

ix

149

149 152 154 155 159 161

Preface

One reader of the manuscript of this book said that "it looks like a report on the liter:•ture." That has not been my intent. True, there are frequent references to outside sources. But what I have written here is a personal credo-a statement of beliefs which existed in embryo before I went to the library, but which have become clearer, stronger, and in some respects quite different dur,ng four years of reading and experience. I said in the preface to Adapting and Writing Language Lessons (1971) that language study is a "total human experience," and not just an oral-aural or a cognitive one. fhat intuition was, I believe, a correct one, for which the pages that follow provide documentation and further development. Earl W. Stevick Arlington, Virginia September 30, 197 5

xi

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