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1500
Revival of History
The stage was set for what might have been a major educational shift away from Latin a towards the vernacular languages, but the opposite happened. There was a revival of interests in the history and culture of the ancient world led by scholars like Erasmus, Vive, and other Renaissance humanists which revitalized the study of the classical languages and encouraged a deeper knowledge of the literature of antiquity. -
1582
First Part of the Elementarie
One of the earliest champions of the vernacular in England was a teacher in Elizabethan London called Richard Mulcaster who spoke up eloquently hi audience that English was the language of our liberty and freedom -
First German School
In Europe Wolggang Ratke opened the first German mother tongue school at Kpethen in Saxony -
Joshua Poole
He said that when it comes to construing of a Latin author he Shall from the Signification of his words in construing be in some good measure able to tell distinctly what part of speech every word is. -
Joseph Aickin
He stressed the importance of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction throughout the education system. -
In Europe
Formal education in Europe consisted almost exclusively of teaching foreign languages, Latin mostly but also some Greek and Hebrew to young boys between the ages of eight and fourteen. -
Lambert and Heness
Lambert an Heness founded what became known a true Rousseau style as the natural method of language teaching, this was the fore-runner of the better known direct method associated initially with the schools of Berlitz in Rhode Island. -
Board Education
The traditionalist from private schools wanted to continue te early starts the practice of teaching foreign languages to eight years old but the reformers from the public sector argued for a late-start policy reserving languages only for the secondary schools only. -
FLES
A psychologist called William Penfield appeared to answer a call in which supported the view that pre-adolescent children were particularly well suitable to the acquisition of foreign languages since their responses were still flexible enough to cope with the demands of new speech habits. This helped to launch a series of initiatives in American Elementary schools known as FLES. Continued until mid 60's -
NFER
In Britain. An initiative of teaching french was carried by a group of teachers and later a National Foundation for Educational Research we can be enlisted to evaluate and assess the project.