Value propaedeutics of Esperanto

the value Propédeutique of Esperanto comes owing to the fact that the preliminary training of the Esperanto facilitates the later study of other languages even of other disciplines. One can make the analogy of the Recorder, regarded as a good introduction to the training of another Musical instrument. Studies (since 1922-24 in England and for example also in 1995-98 in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria) and on comparative samples pupils showed that the pupils who had initially studied Esperanto, then a foreign language reached a better level in this language than the reference group which for the same length of time had studied only this foreign language. That comes from the clean aspects of Esperanto such as its logic and its analytical character which prepare the pupils effectively to approach a linguistic system which is foreign for them.

List nonexhaustive few studies

Episcopal school of the first degree of Auckland (Zealand News)

Years: 1922-1924
Objective: to compare the facility of study of Esperanto with that of the français.

Wellesley College, department of psychology (Ohio, the USA)

Year: 1924
Objective: to examine whether the languages “of synthesis” are easier and more rapids to be assimilated that ethnic languages. Comparison enters Esperanto and the danois.
Conclusions: the students in Esperanto acquired results better than the Danish students, inter alia because of the structure interns of Esperanto and because of the interest and enthusiasm, that Esperanto woke up in the spirit of the étudiants.
Rapporteur: Christian Rucmick: The Wellesley Danish-Esperanto College experiment.

Columbia University, New York (the USA)

Years: 1925-1931
Objective: to examine whether, and up to what point, a planned language is easier to learn than an ethnic language.
Note: the experiment was organized, on commission of the IALA (International Auxiliary Language Association), by Doctor Edward Thorndike, director of the section of psychology of the Institute of studies educational of Columbia University. Conclusions:

It is possible with an average student to include/understand in 20 hours written and spoken Esperanto, better than it (or it) does not include/understand French, German, Italian or Spanish after 100 hours of study.
5 hours of German study do not have practically any effect; 5 hours of study of Esperanto are enough to give a general idea of the very whole grammar of Esperanto.
In general, within 10 to 100 work hours, the results achieved in the study of a language of synthesis are 5 to 15 times superiors with those reached in the study of an ethnic language, according to the difficulty of this one… (p. 6-7 of the report/ratio of Eaton).
In the speakers of English, the results reached in the study of Latin, German and French is better, if they as a preliminary learned a language planned like propaedeutics from initiation (p. 27-30 of the same report/ratio).

Rapporteur: Helene Eaton: Language Learning. Summary…

Public Highschool, New York (the USA)

Years: 1934-1935
Objective: to examine the one six-month period influence of study of Esperanto on the later study of French, and the parallel influence on the native tongue, the anglais.
Rapporteur: Helene Eaton: Year Experiment in Language Learning.

Provincial Grammar School, Sheffield (GB)

Years: 1947-1951
Objective: to control so really Esperanto is appropriate like initiation for the study of the language française.
Conclusion: In short, one can conclude that, at the least endowed pupils, those which devoted one year to Esperanto succeeded better in French, at the end of four years, and without devoting more time than the others to French during the three years of common studies. The most gifted pupils succeeded however better in French by beginning from the start as of the first year. Those which started with Esperanto acquired a better “passive” knowledge, and those which started directly with French acquired a better “active use”.

Enerton Park School, Denton (Manchester, GB)

Years: 1948 and suivantes.
Objective: Examiner if, for less intelligent pupils, the prior study of Esperanto facilitates the study of the français.
Conclusions: a child can learn in 6 months approximately more Esperanto than of French in 3-4 years… If all the children learned Esperanto during 6 to 12 months out of the 4 to 5 years from study from French, they would gain much and would not lose rien.
Rapporteur: Norman Williams (Principal): Carryforward one the teaching off Esperanto from 1948 to 1965.

College of Somero (Finland)

Years: 1958-1963
Objective: Examiner progress in the study of Esperanto and to control if this one helps or penalizes the study of the allemand.
Note: the experimentation took place under the control of the Ministry for Enseignement.
Conclusions:

the level of knowledge reached in Esperanto was obviously such as it could not be reached in any other foreign language.
One noted, at the pupils of Esperanto, an undeniable superiority in the capacity to acquire German.
speed of acquisition of the results in Esperanto to generated on their premises courage and self-confidence.
the capacity to assimilate new forms of expression helped them in the acquisition of a new language étrangère.

Rapporteurs:
J. Vilkki, V. Setälä: The experimental teaching of Esperanto to the college of Somero (Suomi).
V. Setälä: Visit at the experimental school of Somero in Finlande.

University Eötvös Lorand, Budapest (Hungary)

Year: 1962-1963
Objective: To compare, in three classes of a school of the second degree, the results reached in the study of Esperanto, with those reached in Russian, English and allemand.
Conclusions:
For the Hungarian children, the coefficients of result, compared to the definite goal to reach, arise as follows: for Russian 30%, for German 40%, English 60%, and Esperanto 130%. “These indicators the first reports made by professor Barczi show perfectly: under the conditions of study of languages at the school, Esperanto is the only foreign language whose objectives of teaching are indeed realizable.” (Szerdahelyi, 1970, cité in Lobin, p.39).
Rapporteurs:
Szerdahelyi Istvàn, (Part-time lecturer at the University): The didactic place of the International Language in the system of the objectives scolaires.
Günter Lobin: Die Internacia Lingvo als Bildungskibernetishes Sprachmodell, p.59.

International experimentation of didactic pedagogy, first area

Years: 1971-1974
Organizing: International League of the Teachers Espérantophones (ILEI). With the collaboration of: 2 classes of Bulgaria, 9 of Hungary, 5 of Italy, 6 of Yougoslavie.
Objective:

Démontrer that, under normal conditions of teaching, Esperanto is easier to learn than the other languages.
Examiner if the study of Esperanto in general brings an enrichment of the linguistic comprehension, thanks to which one reaches a better comprehension of the native tongue.
To examine whether Esperanto, like neutral international language, has many teaching qualities usable and if, consequently, it facilitates the study of the other languages.
Démontrer that, already in the course of its study, Esperanto is usable more various ways than other languages étrangères.

Rapporteurs:
Kovacs Marta: Experiment of international didactic pedagogy with five pays.
Ingusz Johan: Experiments of teaching in classes of espéranto.

International experimentation of didactic pedagogy, second area

Years: 1975-1977
Organizing: the International League of the Teachers Espérantophones (ILEI). Y took share: 16 pupils of Belgium, 45 of France, 90 of Greece, 77 of the Federal Republic of Germany and 74 of the Netherlands.
has to note: one joint weekend with St.Gérard (B) in 1977: teaching in Esperanto of mathematics, the geography (“Europe and us”), of the drawing, sport, music and espéranto.
Objective:

To show, the best achievement of the study, with a greater saving in means.
To study the influence of Esperanto on a better study of the native tongue.
To highlight the acceleration of progress in reading and orthography in the children, in particular at those which have difficulties in these fields.
Former an aptitude for comprehension in language in such way that the children are able to learn the other foreign languages more easily.
To contribute to the European education of the children and an internationalism humaniste.

Conclusions:

Opinion of a Belgian general inspector non-esperantist: “Esperanto is the language which is appropriate as bases for those which intend to learn from other foreign languages”.
One notes a progression in the direction of an access to a complete internationalism. Moreover, Esperanto appears like a well adapted instrument of direct mutual comprehension and like an excellent intermediary in different the diciplines.

Rapporteur: Helmut Sonnabend: Esperanto, an experiment with the école.

Teaching of orientation to the languages: model of Paderborn

Years: second half of the Seventies and 80.
beginning of the year This form of teaching was the subject of an in-depth study by the team of the Institute of Pedagogy Cybernetics of Paderborn (FR of Germany), under the direction of Professor Doctor H. Frank, well-known in the cybernéticiens.
mediums It is characterized by the introduction to the study of the foreign languages, it aims children from 8 to 10 years, and it is based on the comparison of languages by using for that Esperanto like tool of reference. Owing to the fact that it is adapted perfectly to the children, it appears pedagogically extremely effective. Measured scientifically, the results confirm that this teaching of orientation to the languages:

Increases considerably the interest of the children for the diversity of the languages and the European cultures.
Requires an investment in time less important than the time-savings than it makes possible during the study of other foreign languages.
Facilitates even the teaching of the native tongue, the geography and mathematics.
very early Creates a possibility of communication interethnic adapted to the children, without limiting the horizon of those to the country of a privileged language. In this manner, it opens the way with a better communication between the people without discrimination linguistique.

Sources: Statement of the annual meetings of Paderborn in November “Conferences of work, Interlinguistic in Sciences and Education”, available to the Cybernetic Institute of Pedagogy in Paderborn.
See also the works of Frank, Lobin, Geisler, Meder (see in the bibliography).

Experimentation in an Italian elementary school

In Italy, where one finds a circular of 1952 favorable to emanating Esperanto of the Minister for the Segni Instruction, several experiments took place on the use of the international language, in particular in the towns of Cesena (Gianfranca Braschi Taddei), Cagliari (Nino Pala) and Gênes.
The experiment which is reported hereafter is that which was carried out in the province of Genoa, at the Elementary school “Rocca” with San Salvatore di Cogorno.
Years: 1983-1988
Classes: 9-11 years (learn Esperanto); 11-14 years (French learns)
Objective:

To acquire rapidemant communications tools in language for an immediate use in transnational relations (possible correspondences and meetings).
To have a model of simple and regular comparison for a more effective teaching of the native tongue.
Préparer a base practices for the later study of the foreign languages.
To be useful like enrichment of the program of instruction and education, by means of a vast use in the others disciplines.

Conclusions:

According to final controls, the capacity to be expressed reached by the children was remarkably good: they dialogued spontaneously on varied subjects; their elocution was correct; grammatical or lexical inaccuracies obstructed sometimes, but never prevented comprehension.
By comparison of the results of the same pupils in Esperanto and French, one could draw from the indications on the speed of study in the two languages.
By comparison of the French assets of the children who had learned Esperanto as a preliminary with those whose pupils had not received the same preparation, one could draw from the indications on the value of propaedeutics of the language internationale.

Rapporteur:
Elisabetta Formaggio (of Chiavari, Italy), Experiment made at the school on the facility of apprehension and its transfer in the teaching of a language étangère.

Project EKPAROLI Melbourne, (Australia)

1994-2000 Objective
: highlighted that the study of Esperanto facilitates the training of an Asian language (Japanese for example)
Résultats: the evaluations made by the teachers released a differential Net between the pupils having learned Esperanto as a preliminary and the others.
Source: Study

Linguistic teaching of orientation

“Humankybernetik”, review international for the application of the models and mathematics in social sciences, published, in its number of March 1998, the result of an experiment of linguistic teaching of orientation, financed by the ministry for Sciences of Slovenia, who was held between 1993 and 1995 on the basis of model worked out by the Institute of Cybernetics of Paderborn. The goal was to so study pupils who approach the training of the foreign languages by the means of Esperanto learn then much more quickly and much more easily English or German.

Was this thesis also valid for other countries? Can one measure the time-saver thus carried out?

To answer this question, an experiment was undertaken with classes where only English was learned, others where only German was learned, and others finally where a 70 hours teaching of Esperanto preceded that by English or German, this in schools of at least three countries of different languages:

Austria (Hauptschule II, Deutschlandsberg)
Croatia (School Alojzije Stepinac, Zagreb)
Slovenia (School Pre ihov Voranc, Maribor, elementary school of Radlje ob Dravi)

Three tests carried out at three different periods in these four schools carried:

on 33 pupils who learned Esperanto, then English, and 32 who learned only English,
on 7 pupils who learned Esperanto, then German, and 7 which learned only German, are on the whole 40 pupils who learned Esperanto and 39 which did not learn it.

Compared to the pupils who, in two years of study, had not learned Esperanto, it appears that the time-saver of those which had learned it in first during 70 hours was respectively of 25-30% for English and German, i.e. their knowledge was higher of 50-60%.

As the foreign language is learned at a rate of 3 hours per week, therefore 120 hours in the year or 240 hours in two years, the time-saver is of more than 120 hours. Consequently, the 70 hours invested in Esperanto are already compensated in less than two years of training of the foreign language.

Notice

The first experiment of this kind was undertaken of 1922 to 1924 in England to the school “Green Lane” of Auckland where 76 pupils had learned Esperanto, and 76 others French. The following year, French was taught with those which had learned Esperanto. At the end of the second school year, the pupils who had started with Esperanto had better results that those which, during two years, had learned only French.

Royal inspector of the Schools (Oxon), A. Parkinson was surprised by the benefits of this preparatory teaching: “The experiment of the school “Green Lane” led in an indubitable way to an obvious success. At the beginning of the experiment, I did not have any practical knowledge of Esperanto, although I had intended some to speak. I was so amazed at the progress made by the children that I decided to learn it for better judging their work. By studying myself the language, I on still the occasion to note its great teaching and educational value. ”

Why Esperanto is propaedeutics?

First of all, it should be known that practically all the languages are propaedeutics. The first language is more difficult to learn than the second, itself more difficult than the third. The facility of training of Esperanto makes it possible however to acquire these mechanisms of training more quickly.

Let us add that Esperanto can also help thanks to its beneficial psychological effects on the pupils. Ease with which the pupils learn Esperanto gives them confidence in them and makes them more enthusiastic to the idea to learn a language different from their. Cultural blooming, due to the contacts with esperantists of several countries, makes it possible to the pupils to abundantly be interested in the geography, the history and the traditions of the countries of their possible correspondents esperantists.

The last argument relates to the clean grammatical structure of this language. Each vernacular Language has a clean structure, sometimes but the exceptions to the rule prevent to distinguish it. That of Esperanto is based on the principle of regularity and of the grammatical immediately perceptible analyzes (see the article of Claude Piron on the compared linguistic structures of the French, the English and Esperanto). The grammar of Esperanto is all the more interesting as the same sentence can turn several different manners, each turning being able to correspond to such or such group of vernacular languages.

A concrete example

To measure the time-saver thus carried out is delicate, because that depends at the same time on the pupil, his native tongue and the target language, more or less close to Esperanto.

Let us take the concrete example of a French-speaking person eager to learn the German (considered difficult in France). Many aspects of this language will be more familiar to him if he learned Esperanto before:

Vocabulary : the portion of the Vocabulaire of Esperanto which does not resemble French (approximately 25%) comes mainly from the Germanic languages.

Formation of the words : starting from simple words like Heim (house, hearth, home) and Weh (badly, misfortune, alas) German allows in a way very similar to Esperanto to build complex concepts Heimweh ( alas + home , is nostalgia ).

Accusative : the French-speaking person will have been accustomed to mark each direct object and each direction of a special mark: the final - N . Being based on this asset, it will be able more easily to assimilate the system of the German Déclinaisons. Moreover, the accusative gives to Esperanto a great freedom in the word order of the sentence, which makes it possible to connect on the next point.

Word order : the word order in German can appear strange for a French-speaking person. For example: er sagt, dass er sehr schnell nach Rise gekommen STI . Word for word: It says, that it very quickly towards the house gone is . The syntactic freedom of Esperanto makes it possible here to facilitate the transition: our French-speaking person could use the word order of his native tongue when it began, then was accustomed without difficulty particular to include/understand then to use other constructions.

the orthography and the pronunciation hardly represent difficulties in German as in Esperanto, the language written being perfectly phonetic contrary to languages like the French or the English.

Obviously, the reverse will also function: a French-speaking person will learn Esperanto even more quickly if he speaks already German. However the time necessaries with the training of German and Esperanto are not of the same order of magnitude. In practice, to learn German to be able to learn Esperanto more quickly is thus stripped of direction.

External bonds

Study Italian Ministry of Public education (Ministry for the Instruction) Commission on the International Language (called Esperanto) interdepartmental Decree - April 29th/October 5th, 1993

teaching Value of Esperanto, Marine Jean (site: Esperanto-North federation)

teaching Value of Esperanto

Esperanto: an ignored educational jewel, of Claude Piron

Value propaedeutics of Esperanto

Tests made to study the value propaedeutics of Esperanto on anglophone Wikipedia.

Springboard, a British programme of initiation to the foreign languages via the training of Esperanto

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