LINGUIST List 21.2570
Fri Jun 11 2010
Diss: Applied Ling: Sorensen: 'Teach Yourself?: Language learning ...'
Editor for this issue: Mfon Udoinyang
<mfonlinguistlist.org>
1. Louise
Sorensen,
Teach Yourself?: Language learning through self-instruction manuals in nineteenth-century Scandinavia
Message 1: Teach Yourself?: Language learning through self-instruction manuals in nineteenth-century Scandinavia
Date: 11-Jun-2010
From: Louise Sorensen <l.sorensenshef.ac.uk>
Subject: Teach Yourself?: Language learning through self-instruction manuals in nineteenth-century Scandinavia
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Institution: University of Sheffield
Program: Department of English Language and Linguistics
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2010
Author: Louise Munch Sorensen
Dissertation Title: Teach Yourself?: Language learning through self-instruction manuals in nineteenth-century Scandinavia
Linguistic Field(s):
Applied Linguistics
Subject Language(s): Danish (dan)
English (eng)
Norwegian, Bokmål (nob)
Swedish (swe)
Dissertation Director:
Andrew R Linn
Dissertation Abstract:
To learn a foreign language from a self-instruction manual (teach-yourselfbook) is not as easy as the publishers will have us believe. Despite this,the genre has endured for many centuries. This thesis argues that therobustness of self-instruction language manuals is due to their ability toadapt to the personal circumstances of their readers. By surveying ordinarynineteenth-century Scandinavians, it is established that they turned toself-directed learning as a consequence of social and economic developmentsin the region.
At the time, early globalisation was felt in terms of increased travel andtrade. As a consequence, people needed to acquire foreign languages for thepurpose of everyday communication. Because this area of second languageacquisition was practical and took place outside formal education, it hasnot been accepted as part of the history of applied linguistics. I arguethat 'utilitarian language learning' deserves to be included as an exampleof the current theory of autonomous learning. I also draw the conclusionthat autonomy is actually one of the reasons why self-instruction manualsare not as effective as traditional language teaching, because the learnerstake charge of their own learning process and as a result often suffer fromlack of motivation and opportunities to practise the language. I do,however, maintain that the works themselves are not inherently inept. Thenineteenth-century methods were actually an improvement upon existingmethods by focusing on the spoken rather than the written language.
Finally, I investigate why abstract notions of language, culture andidentity were not present in works that could essentially disseminateelitist ideas to the general population. I argue that because the genre washighly commercialised, the authors deliberately chose to exclude topicsthat had political undertones and the potential to alienate parts of thereadership.
Page Updated: 11-Jun-2010
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