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Linguistic Pedagogy

A Series of Articles on the Teaching and Learning

of English as a Foreign Language

By A. S. Hornby

/ . The Doctrines of de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) was for many years a professorat the University of Geneva. By many philologists in many countrieshe is considered the founder of mode rn linguistics. His m ain doctrinehas had a great influence up on linguistic methodology.

The teachings of de Saussure, so far as linguistic methodology isconcerned, are to b e found in th e volume Corns de Linguistique Ginirale*compiled after de Saussure's death by his disciples Sechehaye and Bally.They have been made known to students of linguistic methodologythrou gh the w ritings of D r. H . E. Palmer, first in articles which appearedin the Bulletin of the Institute for Research in "English Teaching(Department of Education, Tokyo) ten or twelve years ago, and in an

article in Oversea Education (April, 1942). The y are also set forth inThis Language-Learning Business (Palmer and Redman), t

De Saussure's doctrine is formulated in French, and it is by no m eanseasy to finH English, equivalents for his ter m s. It is necessary to explainand to provide analogies. It should also be borne in mind th at deSaussure treated language in the ab stract. Th e. application of thedoctrine to trarhing methods is the work of his followers.

The main point of the doctrine may be stated briefly thus :—Language (de Saussure's langage) may be considered from two aspects,

the first being the " code " aspect (de Saussure's langue), and the secondthe " activity " aspect (de Saussure's parole).

Langage is the sum, the " code " and " activity " aspects together (orlangue+parole).

Parole is langage— langue.Langue is langage— -parole.

The words langage, langue and parole are used by de Saussure withspecial connotations, and any attempt to supply single-word Englishequivalents would probably result in ambiguity and confusion. Atvarious times Dr. Palmer has used for langue the terms " language ascode " and " language as an organized system of signs " ; fa t parole he

• Payot, Paris, 1915.f Haxisp, London, 1932.



has used " language as speech," " language as a mode of social be-haviour " and " language as an activity." For the sake of brevity th eterms " code " aspect and " activity " aspect will be used henceforthin this article.

The " code " aspect is the organized information about the language.It is to be found in the dictionaries and grammar b ooks, in all the ru lesthat can be formulated about the spelling, pronunciation, intonation,

usages and so on of the language. Here is a quotation on this aspectfrom the Cows de Linguistique Ginbrde.

What is the langue ? We do not consider it as being identicalwith Icmgage : it is only a portion of it—an essential portion, it istrue. It is both a social produ ct of the faculty of language and atotal of the necessary conventions adopted by the social body toallow the exercise of this faculty among individuals. Looked at as awhole Icmgage is multiform and heterodite, astride of severaldom ains, physical, physiological and psycho logical; it belongs alsoto the individual domain and to the social domain; it does notallow itself to be classed in any category of human facts, becausewe cannot determine its identity.

Langue, on the contrary, is a complete whole and in itself a

. principle of classification. From the mom ent we give it the firstplace among the facts of language, we introduce a natural orderinto a totality that lends itself to no other classification.

" It is not spoken language that is natural to man , bu t the facultyof constituting a code, Le. a system of distinct symbols corres-ponding to distinct ideas . . ."

" The code is not a function of the individual speaker."The " activity " aspect of language is a series of acts of expression.

It is not confined to " spoken English," which is why it isto use " speech " as an equivalent for de Saussure's term parole. Hereis a further quotation from th e Covrz de Linguistique G niraU.

Parole is an individual act of will and intelligence, in which wemust distinguish (1) the combinations by which the individualspeaker utilizes the language-code in order to express his personalthoug ht, and (2) the psycho-physical mechanism th at makes itpossible for him to exteriorize such combinations."

Further light on the terms is supplied in the following quotations*from Professor Sechehaye, the chief interpreter in Switzerland of thede Saussure doctors.

" The term Icmgage is a vague and convenient term with which

In a letter to Dr. Palmer, printed in the tdUtin of the Institute for Research inEnglish Teaching, Tokyo, June, 1934.



to express a general idea in the absence of all analysis. I use itconstantly, but in reality it represents nothing precise or definable.'*

" La parole : every act of ' language,' of communication, evenif only a simple cry or gesture."

" La langue: the entirety of the conventions in a linguisticcommunity, making it possible to express d ear ideas by means ofarbitrary symbols in accordance with certain rules."

Th e " c o d e " aspect of language is the aspect often given most

emphasis in the study of dead languages. T he " codes " for Latin andGreek are rigid for die obvious reason that Latin and Greek are dead.It was the " code " aspect that, until the reform movement began, wasmost stressed in th e study of mo dern languages in m ost British secondaryschools. It was easier to test from t he exam iner's point of view. T h eaverage school teacher or college lecturer had spent years in acquiringthis kind of knowledge, and naturally passed on to those under himwhat he felt best qualified to teach. Th e learner often ended his periodof study with an accumulation of facts about the language: he wasusually unable to understand it when he heard it, or to speak or writeit well himself though, by a process of patient deciphering he wasusually able to read it.

T h e " activity " aspect of language is tha t known to the foreign

nursery governess. She does not worry her young charges with rulesof syntax, with dictionaries, or with the rest of the apparatus of theteacher who uses the " code " approach. Yet the results are usuallyadmirable: her charges achieve remarkable fluency in a comparativelyshort time.

These then are the chief points of the doctrine. We have the twoaspects of language, the " code " aspect and the " activity " aspect.The first may be compared to the railway guide, the cookery book, thegolfer's manual, or the engineer's book of formulas and mathematicaltables. Th e second may be compared to the railway system in opera tion,the cook's practical work at the kitchen table and cooking stove,practice with balls and clubs on the golf course, or the work which the

engineering student does in the machine shop . T he railway guide, evenif as comprehensive as the pre-war Bradshaw, will be useless if therailway workers are on strike. Th e cookery-book will not feed a hungr yman.

T he n ext step for the student of linguistic pedagogy is that of applyingthe doctrine to the teaching and learning of a foreign language. T henew language may be approached solely from the " code " aspect,solely from the " activity " aspect, or from both aspects, either simul-taneously or alternately. Com plete reliance on the " code " aspect,



experience shows, rarely brings useful results. Com plete reliance on the" activity " aspect appears to give good results with very youn g child ren.We canno t feel so certain in the case of adult learners. Waiters incosmopolitan hotels, stewards on liners, the dragomans in the NearEast, do it is true, learn in this way. But th e quality and extent of then-linguistic knowledge are not usually of the kind considered desirablein academic work. Before we can decide on procedures, we have toconsider numerous factors, of which the most important are :—

1. The Age of the Learner

Very young learners are able and willing to submit to the proceduresneeded for learning a language from the " activity " aspect, Le. listeningto and obeying commands to perform actions, answering simple drill-like questions, going through repetitions, and engaging in the numerousother activities associated with die Direct-Ora l Meth od. Ad ult learnersare often unwilling to accept the necessity for such procedures : a tooextensive use of them may arouse resistances. Youn g learners are oftenunable or unwilling to learn from the " code " asp ect: they may bealarmed if presented with too much syntax, by charts of the speechorgans, and th e rest of the code apparatus. Adu lt learners often welcomeall the codified information that is available (to the profit of the makersof books ), and delude themselves with the belief that they may acquire

the new language by this means.

2. Conditions of Language Learning

Is the new language to be studied in class for a few hours weekly,with litde or no opportunity of using it outside ? Th is is the case withmost secondary school studen ts. Or is the language to be studied in anenvironment where it may be heard on all sides, and where there areconstant opportunities of using it ? T h e large num bers of foreignstudents who came to Great Britain before 1939 to study in the Poly-technics, learnt Eng lish, and usually learnt it well, und er theseconditions.

3. The Aims of the Learner

Are these four-fold, including understanding the language when

spoken, speaking it, and reading and writing it ? Or does the learnerwish only to be able to read it (as in the case of those who w ish to stu dytechnical books and periodicals) ? Or does he w ish to speak the languag efor purposes of social intercourse or travel, and have no particulardesire to read extensively, either in literature or in technical publica-tions ? Or is he , perh aps, studying th e foreign language merely becauseil is a compulsory subject in an examination syllabus ?

There are other factors, such as the length of time available, and the

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competence of the teacher. Th ese are so variable that it is not possibleto consider them within the limits of a short article.' T h e majority of language teachers are engaged in classroom w ork,

usually in an area where their pupils have few opportunities of hearingand using the language outside lesson periods. Let us , therefore,consider their problems first.

If the pupils are children, the new language is best presented in its" activity " aspect from the start, and for a considerable period—

perhaps thre e or four years. For at least the first three mon ths it isdesirable to teach by methods almost exclusively oral. Reading isintroduced gradually, care being taken that pupils have been madefamiliar in advance with all the words, collocations, and grammarmechanisms that occur in the reading material. New ma terial is pre -sented first from t he " activity " aspect. Pupils listen, see, and u nde r-stand j they listen, understand, and perform actio ns; they listen andmake oral responses. The y then read. Th e vocabulary and grammarmechanisms are carefully selected and controlled.

W hen a sufficient quantity of material has been presented and digestedin this way, it may be desirable to offer some " c ode ." Th is may includ egrammar, but not of the formal ki nd : it must be inductive. " Code "is to be used for the consolidation of what has been acquired earlier by

" activity " procedures . Th e rules that are induced will be such as areuseful for synthesis. Analysis must take a back place. T he rules will befor sentence building, and will be illustrated by sentence patterns andsubstitu tion tables. Patterns for intonation will be induced from th eoral work with which the class is already familiar; they will not beproduced from a text-book. For subsequent work, extending overthree years at least, this same procedure will be used. New materialwill be presented from the " activity " aspect and consolidated by theuse of " code."

Th e procedures with adult learners will be different. As has alreadybeen suggested, adult learners are usually less willing to submit to thedisciplines required by the Direct-Oral Method. They are better ableto grapple with th e intricacies of codified information. I t will be

desirable, therefore, to presen t the new language from the " code "aspect at an earlier stage, in larger quantities, and at a faster ra te. Butadult learners should be made to realise that a mere accumulation offacts about the language however well marshalled and howeverthorough the mastery of them may be, will not suffice to enable themto use the language. Th ere must be activity: the learner must hearthe language spoken and must speak it himself. Even if his aim is onlyreading, he should learn to use the new language.

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