January 17, 2007
Learning Languages in Russia
Several days ago I posted some thoughts here on the use of Esperanto as a propaedeutic language, and mentioned two or three of the "experiments" that had been done in this regard. Today I received the December issue of the magazine Esperanto, and found an interesting article on the same subject, detailing an experiment I hadn't known about, by Svetlana Miroŝniĉenko of St. Petersburg, Russia. I thought I'd translate the article for today's blog, so here goes (it won't be that easy; Miroŝniĉenko's Esperanto is quite good, but since she's not an English-speaker it doesn't reflect the characteristics of English that make for an easy translation). The article appeared on page 246.
In 1993 an experiment on the introduction of Esperanto for propaedeutic purposes, to facilitate the study of foreign languages, under the sponsorship of the International Academy of Sciences in San Marino and the Cybernetic Institute of Paderborn (Germany), was disseminated throughout the entire former Soviet Union.
In several middle schools in St. Petersburg (Russia) there was participation as well. In Gymnasium [high school -DH] No. 271 Esperanto was taught as of 1991. The result was so good that the management kindly allowed Esperanto to be introduced as a mandatory object of study in the first year. Unfortunately, the experiment did not end successfully in all schools, firstly because of administrative obstacles, secondly because of a lack of experienced teachers [the dangers of success, again? -DH].
Results that raised quite a bit of enthusiasm were attained in Gymnasium 271, with deepening study of French, where Esperanto was taught as a mandatory subject through 2002, even when the experiment had ended. The language entered the school program quite naturally. It helped the students learn French, later, more easily and with pleasure. Many years of work brough an approved task which received the title: "Author's program of Esperanto. For classes 1-10. Basic course — first-degree step, 2 hours per week. Elective course for classes 2-10, 1 hour per week."
After serious expertise the program (340 hours) was acknowledged by the St. Petersburg state university of pedagogical operations in February, 2001.
The basic course (mandatory) contains 63 hours and every subsequent elective year contains 34 hours.
The program was worked out for "musical" classes, for pupils who, in addition to the ordinary school program, are occupied with music and song. Esperanto is a very musical, creative language which is very similar to the Romance languages. The Esperanto teaching staff, too, liked the language and propagandized it, consequently it awoke interest among the parents and also among the children. Thanks to that many Esperanto trips and Esperanto concerts were realized by the pupils and the city's Esperanto speakers, there was vigorous correspondence, the gymnasium took part in the projects Interkulturo and Euroscola (2002).
The teachers successfully taught Esperanto for many years in the gymnasium. The program was set up to show the pupils the similarities and differences between French and Esperanto. Meanwhile the pupils had the chance to get to know Esperanto literature and history, etc. After first learning the grammar and vocabulary of Esperanto, the pupils passed through to learning French. I don't believe that it was by chance that several of the pupils after leaving the gymnasium chose to study foreign languages, French, Spanish and others, for their professional lives.
Despite the success of the experiment, it seems to me that relatively few people know about it. Esperanto speakers should be better informed about the results of the experiment, to be able to convince the incredulous about the positive, valuable sides of Esperanto in the study of foreign languages while on the "school benches".