8 - Teaching English Writing in the Twentieth Century Seen through Handbooks for Mother-tongue and Foreign Speakers

Summary

Abstract

The production and consumption of handbooks for MTS and for FS have remained distinct, characterized by two different theoretical traditions. This divide has never been based upon the systematic contrastive and comparative analysis of the two types of handbooks, but purely on abstract histories of ‘method’ and origins. This work features the analysis of the prefaces and contents of six handbooks—three addressed to MTS and three to FS—covering the periods 1880–1920, 1920–1960, 1960–1990) to see whether similarities between the two text-types exist. The results of the analyses disclose interesting similarities, suggesting the need to further pursue this innovative line of research.

Keywords: English writing; natives vs. non-natives; mother-tongue speaker; foreign speaker; English handbooks; history of English teaching

Analysing Handbooks for the Teaching of English Writing

If children can learn to speak simply by listening and imitating, they cannot learn to write unless someone shows them how. Unlike speech, writing needs to be taught. This is the European-American principle that seems to be substantiated by “the tremendous investment of time and resources in writing instruction over many centuries”. It was in the Ancient Greek and Roman worlds that writing instruction became a fundamental cornerstone of education and learning. Indeed, Isocrates is considered the first literate rhetorician and the first educator to introduce writing instruction in the classical curriculum of Ancient Greece. Moreover, it is from Isocrates that Quintilian, teacher in Ancient Rome, seems to have inherited the educational program that he turned into a system, focused on fostering writing instruction at elementary, secondary, and adult levels. If the Roman Empire lasted for such a long time and extended over so many lands, it was not just owing to the strength of its army, but also to the development of formal, written Latin, which secured extensive communication and efficient coordination. Indeed, “the soldier and the grammarian proceeded in lockstep to spread the Roman way, one by conquering the world, the other by providing it with correct Latin as a medium of organization”.

Since its advent as the new Lingua Franca, being able to write clearly and correctly in English has for a long time been of paramount importance and has led to the production and consumption of a great number of teaching materials, including handbooks, especially in the twentieth century when students could be asked to buy them.