English Grammar and Foreign Language Failures ERNEST R. CAVERLY, HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, SENIOR AND JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS, I TE NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS T has frequently been suggested that a major cause for the failure of pupils in beginning the study of a foreign language is the lack of knowledge of English grammar. Conversely, preparation for the study of foreign languages is generally given as a reason for the study of English grammar in the upper grammar grades. Whether teachers of English are so successful in teaching the mother tongue that they have time for drilling in information needed for success in a foreign tongue is certainly subject to challenge; but has it been proved that a knowledge of English grammar is a guarantee of success in a foreign language, or the lack of such knowledge assurance of failure? If it is true that a knowledge of English grammar is necessary to success in a foreign language, failures in the foreign languages can be avoided by requiring a satisfactory accomplishment in English grammar before the foreign language study can be begun. If there is no close relation between the two accomplishments, foreign language failures cannot be charged to ignorance of English grammar, nor can the study of English grammar be justified on the ground that foreign language study requires it. In an effort to solve this perplexing problem in one high school, a careful study was made of the English grammar ability of pupils beginning the study of French and Latin and the success of those pupils in the foreign language. It was easy to do this because the scores of the pupils in the Pressey standardized grammar test were available as were the teachers' marks in the foreign languages. For this study, the marks of the second two-month period of the year were used on the ground that these marks were probably more reliable than those of the first two-month period. Did those who had the high English grammar scores generally do the best work in the foreign language? Did those who had low scores generally fail? Practically all of those beginning the study of a foreign language were ninth- or tenth-grade pupils. Using the country norms for the Pressey test, scores from 16 to 20 can be regarded as the median scores for the group under consideration. A score of 21 or more would indicate superior ability in English grammar and a score of 15 or less would indicate an ability less than that of the ordinary ninth-grade pupil. On this basis, the following tables are presented. Table Showing the Relation between Ability in English Grammar and Success in First-Year French Table Showing the Relation between Ability in English Grammar and Success in First-Year Latin Composite Table Showing the Relation between Ability in English Grammar and Success in First-Year French and Latin (575 cases) Marks in First-Year French and Latin It is interesting and probably significant that although two entirely different groups of pupils were beginning Latin and French, their percentage distribution according to ability is exactly the same. Sixty-four per cent of those who were beginning the study of each language showed superior ability in their standardized English grammar tests, twenty-three per cent were of average ability, and thirteen per cent of inferior ability. Of the pupils with superior grammar ability, more than half (fifty-two per cent) received honor marks. On the other hand, thirteen per cent of these superior pupils failed. Of the pupils with inferior grammar ability, only thirty-five per cent failed and nineteen per cent received honor marks. To state the results in another way: more than six out of every ten who begin a foreign language are of superior grammar ability, and five out of six of these pass. Less than two out of ten who begin a foreign language are of inferior grammar ability, and of this small group more than one out of two pass. As would be expected, the superior pupils in English grammar have a much better chance of passing in a foreign language than have those of inferior ability; but since more than half of the inferior pupils in English grammar pass in their foreign language, their inferiority cannot be regarded as evidence of certain failure. All that can be said of them is that they have a fifty-fifty chance of passing, whereas the pupils of superior grammar ability have five chances out of six of passing. There is almost no evidence of close correlation between ability in English grammar and success in beginning the study of a foreign language. There are too many failures among the superior pupils and too many successes among the inferior pupils to justify a conclusion that a knowledge of or ability in English grammar is essential to success in a foreign language. Likewise, it is impossible to justify a conclusion that the cause of pupils' failures in foreign languages is lack of knowledge or ability in English grammar, for more than half of such inferior pupils who begin a foreign language succeed in passing it. I do not know how foreign language teachers are going to account for a rather large percentage of failures, but I am satisfied that when more than eight out of ten pupils in foreign language classes are of average or superior ability in English grammar and more than one out of two of the small inferior group pass, lack of English grammar cannot justly be given as an important reason for foreign language failures. Some may be unfamiliar with the Pressey grammar test, or may question its validity in a study of this kind. The Pressey test consists of thirty groups of sentences, illustrating thirty common grammatical problems. Each group contains four sentences, one of which is grammatically incorrect. The pupil is required to indicate the incorrect sentences in each group. These groups of sentences are a practical test of English grammar in use: they are not a test of ability to analyze sentences or apply grammatical nomenclature. Doubtless some knowledge of these formalities of grammar is obtained in the process of mastering grammar in practice, but, as far as English expression is concerned, formal grammar is merely incidental to functional grammar. If a more exacting or extensive knowledge of the formal side of grammar is deemed necessary in foreign language study, time should be taken for this in the foreign language classes. This kind of grammar should be taught to those who need it, when they need it. My Class I learned to love my class when I FAY HARTMANN NEWLAND, |