History of Foreign Language Education Session I Introduction

1. History of Foreign Language EducationSession I Introduction Zhong Caishun 13699529035 hokmdj@163.com

2. 1. Why study history and history of FLE?

3. a knowledge of certain historical facts helped distinguish the educated from the uneducated

4. History is a compendium of understanding that might have no other reason but an intrinsically compelling reason to study.

5. we study history so that we won't repeat the mistakes of the past. • Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

6. You may also have heard that everything repeats itself, so if we study the past, we can be sure to know something of the future. • What is past is prologue.

7. Who we are, is who they were. • The importance of history is the importance of understanding yourself.

8. We study history to learn how we got to where we are now; to learn what worked for people in the past; to learn not to make mistakes made in the past.

9. Knowledge of FLE history can • enable us to obtain insights into how and why FLE is undertaken. • improve our FLE practice.

10. 2. What to study • There are so many important people and dates, it is impossible for any one to know all of them. Besides, it is pretty easy to look up most of the factual information most people need on any thing close to a frequent status. The importance is not in the specifics but the lessons.

11. Course syllabus

12. 2. How to do history research? • philosophy of history • critical philosophy of history Critical philosophy of history is the "theory" aspect of the discipline of academic history, and deals with questions such as the nature of historical evidence, the degree to which objectivity is possible, etc.. • speculative philosophy of history Speculative philosophy of history is an area of philosophy concerning the eventual significance, if any, of human history. Furthermore, it speculates as to a possible teleological end to its development—that is, it asks if there is a design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in the processes of human history

13. I: Preparing to Do Research • Before you even begin the process of researching, you have several tasks to address. Spending some time on these steps before you get to the library or archive will make your valuable research time more profitable. • --Think carefully about your research topic. • --If you have been given a specific question or problem to answer in your research, review your assignment and be certain that you understand it fully before you set off. Read over any materials which have been provided to you. Discuss it with your professor and with other students. Make a list of questions which you may need to discuss with your professor during office hours or in-class discussion about the project. • --If you have been given a more open-ended project for which you must identify the topic of research, think about ways you can focus your research. Be sure that your own research question is neither too broad nor too narrow. Also, try to think of an original slant on your topic that will make the project more rewarding for you to spend time on. • --Assess the time and resources that you will need for research. • --Make plans for uninterrupted time when you can work on your project, well in advance of the due date. Work out a schedule so that your non-school responsibilities will not interfere unduly with your ability to spend sufficient time in the library or archive. Since that uninterrupted research time is especially valuable and difficult to secure, make sure that every moment of it will be as productive as possible by preparing ahead of time and planning carefully. • --Review the library resources you will need to use, and examine the most productive ways to gain access to them. Make notes about when the libraries and archives you will be using will be open, and record a contact number so that you can confirm the hours in order to schedule your visit. It may make more sense to travel farther to a library which has all of the resources you need if you can set aside a chunk of time to use them. Be sure to check the resources available in a variety of libraries and archives which hold the materials you need to use. • --Make a list of key terms and ideas pertaining to your research question. • Search in the library, in the archive and in the internet

14. Oral History Research Method • Oral history interviewing is valuable for history, anthropology, and folklore. • Collects information about the past from observers and participants in that past. • Gathers data not available in written records about events, people, decisions, and processes. • Can show how individual values and actions shaped the past, and how the past shapes present-day values and actions. • Methodological problem: • Oral history interviews are grounded in memory, and memory is a subjective instrument for recording the past, always shaped by the present moment and the individual psyche.

15. Historical Events Research • examines particular events or processes that occurred over short spans of time • Methodological problems • Meanings may have changed • Information may not be complete

16. Historical Process Research • focus on how and why a series of events unfolded over some period of time • Methodological problems: • May place too much emphasis on the actions and decisions of particular actors • Not always clear which example represents general pattern • definitions may change over time • relies on long-term records and archives

17. Cross-Sectional Comparative Research • comparing two or more social settings or groups (usually countries) at one particular point in time • Methodological problems: • comparability of measures across countries

18. Comparative Historical Research • combines historical process research and cross-sectional comparative research • To understand causal processes at work within particular groups and to identify general historical patterns across groups • Methodological problems: • history has not been recorded accurately or reliably • difficult to know how to deal with exceptions • difficult to conclude that one factor (and not others) is what causes some outcome • groups being compared may not be independent (Galton’s Problem)

19. Equivalence in Historical Research • How can we make comparisons across diverse contexts (both in time and geography)? • Lexicon equivalence • Contextual equivalence • Conceptual equivalence • Measurement equivalence

20. Data Sources • Primary Sources: • first-hand or eyewitness observations of phenomenon • Secondary Sources: • second-hand observation, i.e. the author collected the data from eyewitnesses. • Running Records • Statistics, gov’t data • Recollections

21. Analysis • 1. Conceptualization of an idea, topic, or research question • 2. Locate evidence and do background literature review • 3. Evaluate evidence • 4. Organize evidence • 5. Synthesize evidence and develop general explanatory model • 6. Develop a narrative exposition of the findings

22. Approaching the Sources In historical research the difficulty which confronts the researcher is a special one: ► How to deal with the sheer unmanageability of the massive array of documents. ► How to deal with the ‘muteness’ of the sources - how to make them ‘speak’ to the research question. ► Few research questions will be answerable in terms of what is directly communicated in the sources. There are 2 main ways of dealing with these problems: i) The Source-Oriented Approach ii) The Problem-Oriented Approach

23. The source-oriented approach: The researcher takes one primary source or group of primary sources which fall into the area of research interest (e.g. the records of a particular association, trade union, or court) and then searches for whatever is of value, allowing the content of the sources to determine the nature of the enquiry. The problem-oriented approach: After consulting secondary sources a specific research question is formulated. The relevant primary sources are then examined for their bearing on this specific question, with their relevance to other issues being put to one side. In this way the researcher proceeds as efficiently as possible to the point where they can some conclusions.

24. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses: i) The source-oriented approach ► May yield an incoherent jumble of ‘data’. ► Narrowing this down to a meaningful body of ‘evidence’ is impossible without the use of theoretical principles. ► If the researcher has a set of theoretical assumptions then it might be better that these are made explicit. ii) With a problem-oriented approach, ► It can be very difficult to tell in advance what sources are relevant to the specific research question. ► The most improbable sources can prove illuminating, whilst the obvious ones can be disappointing. ► This can mean ploughing through many sources which turn out to be of no use.

25. Evaluating Sources • External Criticism: • Appraises the authenticity and authorship of the data source • Internal Criticism: • Appraises the meaning and intent of the data source

26. Source-Criticism: Interpreting Documents Once the sources have been located and the approach decided upon the next step is to evaluate and interpret the documents: Principles of Source-Criticism: ► There is always the danger of reading documents in terms of cultural assumptions rooted in the present. ► Therefore sources must always be put in context, which can require further historical research (using secondary sources). ► There is always the question of ‘bias’, i.e. the reason why the document was produced, the motives of the writer, and how this may have influenced its content.

27. Source-Criticism: Beyond ‘Bias’ ► ‘Bias’ is misleading, because it suggests that wholly ‘neutral’ sources exist, and that a wholly ‘truthful’ account is possible. ► Few historical researchers would now support this suggestion. “However spontaneous or authoritative the source, very few forms of writing arise solely from a desire to convey the unvarnished truth.” (Tosh 1991, p. 62) It is therefore better to assume that all sources are biased, and to acknowledge that the aim is not to find ‘non-biased’ sources, but to be aware of the bias and take it into account in interpreting the document. ► The bias may even prove to be useful historical ‘data’…

28. historical reasoning • Argument to the best explanation • seven conditions for a successful argument to the best explanation: • The statement, together with other statements already held to be true, must imply yet other statements describing present, observable data. (We will henceforth call the first statement 'the hypothesis', and the statements describing observable data, 'observation statements'.) • The hypothesis must be of greater explanatory scope than any other incompatible hypothesis about the same subject; that is, it must imply a greater variety of observation statements. • The hypothesis must be of greater explanatory power than any other incompatible hypothesis about the same subject; that is, it must make the observation statements it implies more probable than any other. • The hypothesis must be more plausible than any other incompatible hypothesis about the same subject; that is, it must be implied to some degree by a greater variety of accepted truths than any other, and be implied more strongly than any other; and its probable negation must be implied by fewer beliefs, and implied less strongly than any other. • The hypothesis must be less ad hoc than any other incompatible hypothesis about the same subject; that is, it must include fewer new suppositions about the past which are not already implied to some extent by existing beliefs. • It must be disconfirmed by fewer accepted beliefs than any other incompatible hypothesis about the same subject; that is, when conjoined with accepted truths it must imply fewer observation statements and other statements which are believed to be false. • It must exceed other incompatible hypotheses about the same subject by so much, in characteristics 2 to 6, that there is little chance of an incompatible hypothesis, after further investigation, soon exceeding it in these respects.

29. Statistical inference: syllogism in probabilistic form • McCullagh gives this example: • In thousands of cases, the letters V.S.L.M. appearing at the end of a Latin inscription on a tombstone stand for Votum Solvit Libens Merito. • From all appearances the letters V.S.L.M. are on this tombstone at the end of a Latin inscription. • Therefore these letters on this tombstone stand for '’Votum Solvit Libens Merito’’.

30. Argument from analogy • The structure of the argument is as follows: • One thing (object, event, or state of affairs) has properties p1 . . . pn and pn + 1. • Another thing has properties p1 . . . pn. • So the latter has property pn + 1.

32. Weaknesses of Historical Method • 1. Bias in interpreting historical sources. • 2. Interpreting sources is very time consuming. • 3. Sources of historical materials may be problematic • 4. Lack of control over external variables

33. Strengths of Historical Method • 1. The historical method is unobtrusive • 2. The historical method is well suited for trend analysis. • 3. There is no possibility of researcher-subject interaction.