Paderborn method

The Paderborn method is a proposed method for teaching foreign languages, originally conceived for children's education. It consists of first teaching a student a simple language (usually Esperanto) for two years, then teaching them a second language for several years after that. The time spent studying Esperanto helps the student acquire the second language more quickly, such that they end up more proficient in the second language than if they had spent the first two years studying it instead of Esperanto. The most comprehensive experiment on the Paderborn method was done by Prof. Helmar Frank, of the University of Paderborn's Institute of Pedagogic Cybernetics, from which the method gets its name.

History of the method

Many adults who learned Esperanto had noticed that they could better understand the grammar of their own mother tongue and foreign languages — thanks to having come to know this simple, planned language with its transparent grammar — and started to think that such a language could have propaedeutical value in language teaching.

Other experiments

This consideration led to many independent experiments being done in Hungary, Great Britain and other countries. They are not listed here as support of the Paderborn experiment, but as prove that many in different places and time tried to investigate that way of teaching. Some of the most significant were:

  • 1918-1921 - Female middle school in Bishop Auckland (GB). Esperanto taught as propaedeutical language for French and German[1]
  • 1934-1935 - Public high school in New York[2]
  • 1947-1951 - Provincial grammar school in Sheffield (GB),[3] focused on help received by less intelligent students
  • 1948-1965 - Egerton Park School, Denton (Manchester, GB).[4]
  • 1958-1963 - Somero (Finland), Esperanto used as propaedeutical language for German[5]
  • 1971-1974,[6] 1975-1977[7] - The International League of Esperanto Teachers (ILEI), encouraged by previous studies, coordinated international studies, the first in Hungary and the second in Belgium, France, Greece, West Germany and the Netherlands. In 1977 the students met in an educational week, where they learnt about various topics in Esperanto.
  • Late 1970s to early 1980s - Paderborn experiment (more details below). Experimental observation of two different groups of students focused on the differences in learning of the two groups.[8][9]
  • 1983-1988 - After Paderborn other experiments compared two different groups of students — for example, in the primary school "Rocca", in San Salvatore di Cogorno (Italy) — with similar results.[10]

Experiment in University of Paderborn

Under the supervision of Helmar Frank, a professor at the Institute of Cybernetics of Paderborn, two groups of pupils (A and B), both with German as mother tongue, were created in a primary school.[8][9] The aim was to prove the propaedeutical value of Esperanto for learning English (and in general, any other foreign language).

Group A started to learn English from the third year of study, while group B in the same year started to learn Esperanto (160 hours); group B also started to learn English after two years (i.e., in the fifth year of study). Although group B studied English two years less than group A did, by the seventh year the two groups reached the same level in English, while in the eighth year of school the English level of group B was more advanced than that of group A.

The following table summarizes the Paderborn experiment:

Year of study Group A Group B English knowledge
3 ENGLISH ESPERANTO A reaches a basic level of English, while B does not know it at all
4 ENGLISH ESPERANTO A reaches a basic level of English, while B does not know it at all
5 ENGLISH ENGLISH A continues to learn English while B starts to learn it
6 ENGLISH ENGLISH A continues to learn English, while B quickly improves in it
7 ENGLISH ENGLISH The level of English of A and B is the same
8 ENGLISH ENGLISH B exceeds A in English skills, even if B learnt it for 2 years less

The study demonstrated not only that group B gained linguistic skills with English, but also that group members could use two languages instead of only one. Because all the pupils had a Germanic language (German) as their mother tongue, the help they got from Esperanto was not a result of its greater similarity to English than to German. In addition to cultural gains, the saving of time and resources resulted in an educational saving as well.

Mechanism
See also: Psychopedagogy and Esperanto grammar

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain how the Paderborn method works. It is generally accepted that the learning of any language makes the learning of all subsequent languages easier.[11] Norman Williams argues that Esperanto provides this benefit to a greater degree than natural languages because of its simplicity and its familiarity to English speakers, stating that Esperanto is six times easier to learn than French or German, and that 89% of Esperanto roots are recognizably related to words in English.[12]

Helen Eaton argues that some of Esperanto's benefit comes from the vocabulary and grammar that it shares with the target language. Lexical analyses have found that 80% of Esperanto roots are similar to the corresponding Latin root, 20% to the corresponding German,[13] and 66% to the corresponding Italian.[14] Eaton also notes that Esperanto grammar has noun-adjective agreement and an accusative case, which are also found in the grammars of French, German, and Latin.[13]

Angela Tellier argues that a key factor is the positive attitude toward language learning that Esperanto provides students. Experiments consistently suggest that a student of Esperanto can reach proficiency faster than a student of a natural language.[15] This rapid progress reinforces the student's self-confidence as a language learner[16] and their enthusiasm for language learning,[13] both of which encourage them to persevere in their future language learning endeavors.

See also

References
  1. Alexandra FISCHER, Languages by way of Esperanto; Eksperimento farita en Bishop Auckland (GB) en la jaroj 1918-1921 in Internacia Pedagogia Revuo, 1931.
  2. Helen S. EATON, "An Experiment in Language Learning", in Modern Language Journal, Volume 19, Issue 1, pages 1–4, October 1934
  3. J. H. HALLORAN (teacher of pedagogy at University of Sheffield), "A four-year experiment in Esperanto as an introduction to French", in British Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 22, no. 3, 1952 (Nov.), pp. 200-204.
  4. Report: Norman WILLIAMS (didactical director) Report on the teaching of Esperanto from 1948 to 1965. - It concluded that a child can learn as much in six months of Esperanto study as in about 3-4 years of French study. The conclusion was that if all children would learn Esperanto during the first 6-12 months in a 4-5 year course of French, they would gain a lot of time without losing anything.
  5. J. VILKKI, V. SETÄLÄ, La eksperimenta instruado de Esperanto en la geknaba mezgrada lernejo de Somero (Suomio); V. SETÄLÄ, Vizito al la eksperimenta lernejo en Somero, Finnlando.
  6. Marta KOVÁCS, Internacia Didaktika Eksperimento Kvinlanda; Johano INGUSZ, Instruspertoj en esperantfakaj klasoj (en Hungario)
  7. Helmut SONNABEND, Esperanto, lerneja eksperimento
  8. Prof. Dr. Helmar Frank, Das Paderborner Experiment zum Sprachenorientierungsunterricht in the publication of the Hanns-Seidel Stiftung eV, Verbindungsstelle Brussel/Bruxelles
  9. Günter LOBIN, Der propedeutische Wert von Plansprachen für den Fremdsprachenunterricht, Universität Paderborn, Institut für Kybernetik.
  10. Report: Elisabetta FORMAGGIO (Chiavari, Italia), Lerneja eksperimento pri lernfacileco kaj transfero en la fremdlingvoinstruado.
  11. Charters, Duncan (2015). "The teaching and learning of Esperanto" (PDF). Interdisciplinary description of complex systems. 13 (2): 295. doi:10.7906/indecs.13.2.7. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
  12. Williams, Norman (December 1965). "A language teaching experiment". Canadian modern language review. 22 (1): 26.
  13. Eaton, Helen S. (November 1927). "The educational value of an artificial language". The modern language journal. 12 (2): 90, 91. doi:10.2307/314175.
  14. Smidéliusz, Katalin (1997). Analisi comparativa del lessico italiano esperanto ed ungherese a fini didattici. Milano: COEDES. pp. 47, 48. ISBN 88-85872-09-3.
  15. Maxwell, Dan (February 1988). "On the acquisition of Esperanto". Studies in second language acquisition. 10 (1): 59. Retrieved 2022-05-01.
  16. Tellier, Angela (2013). Esperanto as a starter language for child second-langauge learners in the primary school (second ed.). Great Britain: Esperanto UK. pp. 11, 12. ISBN 978-0-902756-35-9.

Bibliography
  • Günter LOBIN, Der propedeutische Wert von Plansprachen für den Fremdsprachenunterricht,, Universität Paderborn, Institut für Kybernetik, Wartbürgerstrasse 100, D4790 Paderborn.
  • J. H. HALLORAN, A four year experiment in Esperanto as an introduction to French. In "British Journal of Educational Psychology", vol.22, n. 3, 1952 (nov.), pp. 200–204.
  • R. Selten: "The Costs of European Linguistic (non)Communication.", ed. Esperanto Radikala Asocio, 1997
  • Raif MARKARIAN, The educational Value of Esperanto Teaching in the Schools, In: R. Schultz & V. Schultz (compilers) "The solution to our language problems" pp. 362–386, Bailieboro, Ontario, Esperanto Press, Canada, 1964.
  • Judit BALOGH, Rule of Esperanto as bridge language for foreign language teaching, (in Hungarian). PhD thesis in General linguistics at University of Eötvös Lorand, Budapest, 1979, 182 p.
  • Wilhelm SANKE, Linguistische und sprachdidaktische Aspekte eines Sprachorientierungsunterrichts - Thesen und Fragen am Beispiel einer Plansprache. In: I. Meyer (Red.): "5. Werkstattgesprach- Interlinguistik in Wissenschaft und Bildung, Arbeitspapier n. 62", IfKyP. Paderborn: FEoLL GmbH, 1981, pp. 18–206.
  • Lian O'CUIRE, An Cas do Esperanto, Esperanto-Asocio de Irlando, Dublin 1984, 5 p.
  • Ludovik PREBIL, Internacia pedagogia eksperimento en 5 landoj (1-a regiono), in "Esperanto", 1972, n. 121, July-August.
  • W. PERRENOUD, Conférence International sur l'enseignement de l'espéranto dans les écoles, au secrétariat de la Société des Natios, du 18 au 20 avril 1920. Compte rendu sommaire en français. Genève.
  • Antoni Grabowski, Esperanto kiel preparo al la lernado de lingvoj, in "Pola Esperantisto" 1908, n. 1, p. 48.
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