Humanism

Humanism in Language Teaching
A critical perspective

Earl W. Stevick

Oxford University Press 1990

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Acknowledgements
Thepublishers would like to thank the following for their permission to use copyright material: Academic Press Ltd., a subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, and E. Perecman, for extracts from ‘Spontaneous translation and language mixing in a polyglot aphasic’ by E. Perecman published in Brain and Language 1984, Vol. 23; Cambridge University Press for extracts from Communicating Naturally in a SecondLanguage by Wilga M. Rivers, CUP 1983, and Images and Options in the Language Classroom by E.W. Stevick, CUP 1986; Educational Solutions Inc., for extracts from The Adolescent and His Self(c) 1962 by C. Gattegno, In the Beginning There Were No Words: The Universe of Babies (c) 1976 by C. Gattegno, The Common Sense of Teaching Foreign Languages (c) 1976 by C. Gattegno, and On Being Freer (c) 1988by C. Gattegno; Faber and Faber Ltd., and Random House Inc., for an extract from ‘Horae Canonicae: vespers’ from Selected Poems of W.H. Auden (c) 1955 W.H. Auden; Houghton Mifflin & Co. for an extract from Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers (c) 1961 by Houghton Mifflin & Co.; Newbury House Publishers, a division of Harper & Row Publishers Inc., for a short extract from Methods that Work by J. Ollerand P. Richard-Amato (c) 1983 by Newbury House Publishers, and an extract from Memory, Meaning and Method by E.W. Stevick (c) 1976 by Newbury House Publishers; PrenticeHall Publishers for an extract from Principles of Language Learning and Language Teaching by H.D. Brown (c) by Prentice-Hall: R.C. Roberts for extracts from his article ‘Therapy for the Saints’ published in Christianity Today, Vol.29, no. 16, 1985; Sheed and Ward Inc., for extracts from Counseling and Psychotherapy: the Pursuit of Values by Charles A. Curran (c) 1968 by Sheed and Ward Inc.; Sir Karl Popper for extracts from his book Unended Quest, 1974 Glasgow: Collins.

At the author’s request, the royalties from this book are being divided between TESOL and IATEFL.

Contents
Author and series editor Foreword Preface1 3 4

1

Karl Popper and the power of words
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Why start with Popper? Popper’s scientific approach Comments on Popper’s approach Language teaching in Popper’s worlds 7 8 13 19 21 21 21 24 28 31 35 35 39 45 54 55 55 62 68

2 Humanism
2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 A semantic thicket ‘Humanism’ outside language education ‘Humanism’ in the writings of language teachers A tentative map ofthe humanisms The ‘stance of despair’, and three remedies for it

3

Using words: metaphor
3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Metaphor: what it is and how it works Three general metaphors in the study of language Four ‘humanistic’ metaphors Summary

4

Other aspects of the discussion of ‘humanism’
4. I Matters of form 4.2 Matters of substance 4.3 Summary

5

The ‘humanism’of Charles A. Curran
5.1...