Linguistic Experiment in Brazil

A great deal has been said and more has been written both for and against the so-called Army method of teaching languages. This paper is not intended as an apology for the method nor is it intended as an argument against it. It will describe in detail a large-scale experiment conducted under the auspices of the War Department and allow you to draw your own conclusions. I shall try to be as objective as possible. Sometime in 1943, when the War and Navy Departments established their many A.S.T. and kindred programs, the nationwide publicity attracted special interest in Brazil, where the Military Attach6 in Rio was faced with the problem of hundreds of officers unable to speak Portuguese. The problem was of particular interest to a young captain Williams, who had followed with enthusiasm the claims of the new method. He was not a professional linguist, but as an officer he realized that friendly relations could be established only through mutual understanding of each other's language. He was able to interest the general in charge of the area, who in turn requested a linguistic expert from the Education Division in Washington. The War Department was somewhat busy with other major problems in 1943, and it wasn't until March 1945 that the request was put through. Since I had been in charge of the writing of two Army texts in Portuguese, I was asked if I would care to go down to Rio, with my wife as my assistant, to undertake the teaching of Portuguese to the American personnel and English to the Brazilian personnel. My wife had been my assistant throughout the writing of the texts. Nothing more was heard of the matter until the beginning of July of that year when we were vacationing in Quebec. A telephone call from Washington requested an immediate answer. They were ready to send me to Brazil, but I would have to go alone. My wife urged me to seize the opportunity, and I arrived in Rio on July 16th. Mysterious are the ways of the Army, for when I arrived in Rio the general asked me why I did not bring my wife, as was expected. Certain conditions which were true of that experiment can hardly be duplicated. A conference with the general resulted in an order of the day issued the next morning ordering all Army personnel to study Portuguese in class for one hour a day five days a week. He was willing to make it six days, if I felt it necessary. No exceptions. Overnight provisions were made for about one hundred officers and enlisted men, and before the end of the week all of them, including the general himself and the secretaries, were studying Portuguese

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