Propaedeutic value of Esperanto

The propaedeutic value of Esperanto is the benefit that using Esperanto as an introduction to foreign language study has on the teaching of subsequent foreign languages. Several studies, such as that of Helmar Frank at the University of Paderborn and the San Marino International Academy of Sciences, have concluded that one year of Esperanto in school, which produces an ability equivalent to what the average pupil reaches with European national languages after six to seven years of study, improves the ability of the pupil to learn a target language when compared to pupils who spent the entire time learning the target language. For example, studying Esperanto for one year and then French for three years results in greater proficiency in French than when someone would only study French for four years. This effect was first described by Antoni Grabowski in 1908.

Springboard… to Languages summarizes the propaedeutic case for Esperanto with these words:

Many schools used to teach children the recorder, not to produce a nation of recorder players, but as a preparation for learning other instruments. [We teach] Esperanto, not to produce a nation of Esperanto-speakers, but as a preparation for learning other languages.

Language teaching introductory effect

The preparatory teaching conducted by Institute of Pedagogic Cybernetics at the University of Paderborn in Germany prepares students to become aware of the essential characteristics of languages, using the international language Esperanto as a model, a language with a clear and simple structure, almost completely regular and, thanks to its agglutinative character, detachable into combinable morphological elements; this model is easy to assimilate and develops aptitude for the study of other languages.

Even before the experiments conducted by Prof. Helmar Frank in Germany, similar research was conducted in Hungary by I. Szerdahelyi of the University of Science in Budapest. A group of native Hungarian speakers, after having studied Esperanto for two years in the third and fourth grade of elementary school, were divided to study their learning of Russian, German, English, and French.

According to the results, preliminary Esperanto study led to a 25% improvement in acquiring Russian, 30% for German, 40% for English, and even 50% for French. In other terms, children who had received preparatory teaching obtained notably better results than their peers who had not had an analogous introduction to the study of foreign languages. This system of preparatory instruction was put into practice in Germany, with a greater number of students, but with the sole aim of finding a way of facilitating the learning of English. The results showed that after two years of linguistic orientation using the International language, the advantage was about 30%.

The experiments conducted and repeated many times at Paderborn went much further, finding that 145 hours of Esperanto is enough, for a French speaker, to reach a level about equivalent to 1500 hours in English or 2000 in German; showing Esperanto is learned 10 to 13 times faster than other languages.

Students were divided into two competing groups. One started English instruction in third grade (A), the other, instead, followed preparatory teaching through Esperanto and started English only at the fifth grade (B).
The Esperanto programme required 160 hours in all, which can seem like a great loss of time, but, according to the final results, in seventh grade group B reached group A's level of English learning and in eighth grade they exceeded it. In other words, those who benefited from the preparatory teaching gained more time than they had lost in preparation.

Some researchers who study cybernetics applied to pedagogy and foreign language instruction advise that:

  1. Language study should begin with elementary school, starting at 8 years of age and with two years of Esperanto.
  2. After the introduction of the foreign language, Esperanto should be used in teaching a determined subject, such as geography, as an interscholastic means of communication (correspondence).
  3. There should be efforts to coordinate the steps necessary in all European Community countries to ensure a simpler linguistic communication between citizens.

Examples of pedagogic experiments

It is interesting to note how many teaching experiments have been conducted over the years and in how many places. The ones which follow are the most significant.

Girls' Middle School in Bishop Auckland (GB)[1]

Years: 1918–1921
Aims: Research on the question if prior study of Esperanto facilitates later study of French and German.
Conclusions:

Bishop's Elementary School, Auckland (New Zealand)[2]

Years: 1922–1924
Aims: Compare the ease of acquisition of Esperanto with that of French.

Wellesley College, Department of Psychology (Massachusetts, USA)[3]

Year: 1924
Aims: research on the question if the constructed languages can be learned more easily and quickly than the ethnic languages. Comparison between Esperanto and Danish.
Conclusions: Esperanto students achieved better results compared to those studying Danish, in part because of Esperanto's internal structure, as well as the interest and enthusiasm aroused by Esperanto in the students' minds.

Columbia University, New York (USA)[4]

Years: 1925–1931
Aims: research on the question, if and to what degree a planned language can be more easily learned than an ethnic language.

Note: the experiment was organised on order by the IALA (International Auxiliary Language Association) by Dr. Edward Thorndike, director of the psychology section of the institute for pedagogic research at Columbia University.

Conclusions:

Public High School in New York

Years: 1934–35
Aims: research the influence of the study of Esperanto for a semester on later study of French and, in parallel, the native language, English.
Report:

Provincial Grammar School in Sheffield (GB)

Years: 1947–51
Aims: See if Esperanto is truly a useful introduction to the study of French.
Conclusions: In summary, it was concluded that, among the less intelligent students, those who devoted a year to Esperanto succeeded better in French after four years, without additional study time for that language in the three years spent studying it.

In any case, among the more intelligent students, the best success in French was among those who began it immediately. Those who began with Esperanto achieved a better "passive knowledge" and those who began with French acquired better "active use."

Reports:

Egerton Park School, Denton (Manchester, United Kingdom)

Years: 1948 and following
Aims: study of less intellectually gifted students to ascertain if prior Esperanto study facilitates French study.
Conclusions: "A child can learn as much Esperanto in about 6 months as he would French in 3–4 years... if all children studied Esperanto during the first 6–12 months of a 4–5 year French course, they would gain much and lose nothing."
Report:

Middle School in Somero (Finland)

Years: 1958–63
Aims: research the study of Esperanto and the question of whether such study is advantageous or disadvantageous for the study of German.

Note: the experiment took place under the direction of the Minister of Public Instruction.

Conclusions:
Reports:

Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest (H)

Years: 1962–63
Aims: Compare, in three middle school classes, the results obtained studying Esperanto with those obtained by studying Russian, English, and German.
Conclusions:

For the Hungarian children, the coefficients of the result, in terms of preset educational goals, turn out to be the following: 30% for Russian, 40% for German, 60% for English, and 130% for Esperanto. "Such indications perfectly confirm the initial observations made by Prof. Barczi: in scholastic language instruction circumstances, Esperanto is the only foreign language for which educational goals can be met." (Szerdahelyi, 1970, quoted in Lobin, p. 39).

Reports:

International Pedagogic Experiment

Years: 1971–74
Organiser:: International League of Esperanto Speaking Teachers (ILEI)
Aims:
Reports:

International Pedagogic Experiment

Years: 1975–77
Organiser: International League of Esperanto Speaking Teachers (ILEI)
Participating: 302 students of both sexes: 16 students in Belgium, 45 in France, 90 in Greece, 77 in West Germany, and 74 in the Netherlands. A final week united in St. Gérard (Belgium) in 1977: mathematics, geography ("Europe and Us"), drawing, sport, and music instruction in Esperanto, as well as Esperanto itself.
Aims:
Conclusions:
Report: Helmut SONNABEND, Esperanto, lerneja eksperimento.

Instruction of Linguistic Orientation, Paderborn (D)

Years: late '70s – early '80s
Description: This kind of instruction was the object of in-depth study by a group from the Institute of Pedagogic Cybernetics in Paderborn, under the direction of Dr H. Frank, well known in cybernetic circles.

It is characterised by the introduction to the study of foreign languages, uses children from 8–10 years old and is based on comparison between languages, using Esperanto as a reference. Since it is perfectly adapted to children, it turns out to be extremely effective from the pedagogic point of view. Scientifically measured, the results [5] confirm that such instruction of linguistic orientation:

An Experiment in an Italian Elementary School

In Italy, where Esperanto received positive treatment in a 1952 memo from the Minister of Public Instruction, Segni, there have been various experiments in the use of Esperanto, above all in the cities of Cesena (Gianfranca Braschi Taddei), Cagliari (Nino Pala) e Genoa. The experiment cited[6] here took place at the "Rocca" Elementary School in San Salvatore di Cogorno (province of Genoa).

Years: 1983–88
Classes: 9-11 years (study Esperanto), 11–14 years (study French)
Aims:
Conclusions:
Report: Elisabetta FORMAGGIO (Chiavari, Italy), Lerneja eksperimento pri lernfacileco kaj transfero en la fremdlingvoinstruado.

EKPAROLI project (Melbourne, Australia, 1994–2000)

From the project's summary: "In 1994 the Government of the State of Victoria proposed that every primary school (6–12 yrs) should begin to teach at least one LOTE (Language other than English) for at least 2.5 hours per week... It was clear from Esperanto experiments in Europe that Esperanto helped learners make a good, quick start in learning their second European language. However no research had been done on whether the early learning of Esperanto helped with the later learning of East-Asian Languages. The situation unfolding in Victoria seemed to offer an ideal opportunity to do some research on that idea." [7]

Years: 1994–2000
Classes: 9–11 years (study Esperanto), 11–14 years (study French)
Aims:

To see whether previous study of Esperanto would assist children in the subsequent learning of East-Asian languages (particularly Japanese).

Conclusions:

Notes

  1. ↑ Reports: Dr. Alexandra Fischer, Languages by way of Esperanto. "Eksperimento farita en Bishop Auckland (GB) en la jaroj 1918–1921" in Internacia Pedagogia Revuo, 1931.
  2. ↑ Report: Article in Enciklopedio de Esperanto, volume I, p.436, on the pedagogic value of Esperanto.
  3. ↑ Report: Christian Rudmick, The Wellesley College Danish-Esperanto experiment.
  4. ↑ Report: Edward Thorndike, Language Learning. Bureau of Publications of Teachers College, 1933. . Helen S. Eaton, "The Educational Value of an Artificial Language." The Modern Language Journal, #12, pp. 87–94 (1927).
  5. ↑ Protocols of the annual November meetings in Paderborn "Laborkonferencoj: Interlingvistiko en Scienco kaj Klerigo" (Working conference: Interlinguistics in Science and Education), which can be obtained from the Institute of Pedagogic Cybernetics in Paderborn. Also in the works by Frank, Lobin, Geisler, and Meder.
  6. ↑ Study International Language (known as Esperanto) Commission, Interministerial Decree April 29/October 5 1993, Italian ministry of public instruction.
  7. ↑ Study Monash University EKPAROLI project home page

See also

External links

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