How to Teach a Foreign Language

by Otto Jespersen

Excerpt from How to Teach a Foreign Language

When, in accordance with a wish expressed by English and American friends, I determined to have my Sprag undemz'sm'ng translated into English, I found it difiicult to decide what to retain and what to leave out of the original. So much of what I had written appeared to me to apply more or less exclusively to Danish schools and Danish methods, and I had too little personal ex perience of the practice of English teachers or of English school-books to be quite sure of the advisability in each case of including or excluding this or that remark. I have. However, made my choice to the best of my ability, and if some parts of my criticism are not altogether applicable to English methods, I hope I may be excused on the plea that what is now the really important thing is less the destruction of bad old methods than a positive indication of the new ways to be followed if we are to have thoroughly efficient teaching in modern languages.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Tashateufel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good work about teaching a foreign language in a class.

[Scheherazade · Rating 3 out of 5]

After more than 120 years, it no longer seems novel.

[Linda (un)Conventional Bookworms · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always amazed when books, especially books on didactics and pedagogy, written over a hundred years ago can still be used today. Of course, some tweaking is necessary, but I can see several things I can apply to teaching English right now.

[profprofessorson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't find anything too earth-shaking. But then again, all of my foreign language instruction post-dated this book by a significant period of time.