FOREIGN EXCHANGE: see EXCHANGE, FOREIGN. FOREIGN INVESTMENT: see CAPITAL, EXPORT OF. FOREIGN LANGUAGES, TEACHING OF. The rev olution that has taken place in the methods of teaching modern languages may be said to date from Vietor's pamphlet Der Sprachunterricht muss umkeliren (1886). His doctrines were largely adopted in the Frankfurter Reformschulen, but it was not till after 'goo that the movement became widespread in England and France. Broadly speaking, the idea of the reformers was to substitute direct comprehension and acquisition of the foreign language for mere knowledge attained through the medium of the mother tongue.
They insisted on oral study at the outset of the language, in volving explanations in the foreign tongue itself, on inductive methods of learning grammar and on the use of reading and of free composition in place of formal grammar and translation from or into the foreign language. Hence the introduction of the phonetic script and chart ; the employment of gesture ; the utili zation of pictures, postcards, coins and other Realien; and the stress laid on the teacher and not the text-book being the centre of the instruction—the whole idea being to render the classroom a sort of French or German enclave, and to make the pupil think as far as possible in the language.
Some of these doctrines were pushed to excess. Certain teachers attempted to exclude the mother tongue entirely from the class room; others devoted an inordinate time to phonetics or conver sation on pictures, and exalted the oral side as the goal of all teaching. Others again neglected the grammar or interpreted their new-won liberty as a right to teach as they pleased, irrespective of their colleagues. Today, while phonetics (q.v.) have been gen erally accepted in England (though not in France), it is seen that the extent of their use (apart from the chart) may be left to the choice of the teacher. Again new grammar points should be learnt inductively, but the grammar must be systematized and codified. With most pupils grammatical points are more safely explained in English. Due co-ordination of method can usually be secured by the appointment of a head of department. Translation from or into the foreign language is often begun two years before the final ex amination and not often earlier. As regards the exclusion of the mother tongue, we may take it as an axiom that the cleverer the child the more direct the teaching. Hence with the duller child the aim should probably be to concentrate rather on reading and translation than on composition (free or otherwise). At the ex treme end of the scale there are, in the opinion of some experts, a few non-linguistic pupils, who would be more profitably engaged in confining themselves to the mother tongue.
It is probable that the earlier reformers laid insufficient stress on the rapid acquisition of vocabulary, possibly from their dread of rote-work. To-day there is a fruitful tendency to learn by heart, not merely poems but duly prepared prose passages, a prac tice that is at the back of much of the mastery attained by the French in their own language. Of course such passages need occa sional revision. Again, the principle of private reading, which has made such strides in English has been promoted by the forma tion of class and school libraries, and the practice has been further fostered by the introduction of free study periods in certain schools. Such are the main features of the teaching in English secondary schools, up to the first school examination.
In the central schools, which often prepare their fifth-year pupils for similar examinations, the methods are largely the same, except that in the first year the classes, which are larger, are sometimes divided for conversation, with excellent results. In the advanced courses of the secondary schools, the methods of read ing and lecture expliquee without translation are largely followed, and essays on literature are written in the foreign language. A burning point is that the universities which conduct the higher certificate examinations appear to prefer answers in English in the literature papers. A possible solution would be the award of extra marks for one question to be answered in the foreign tongue. In the evening schools methods have been modernized, but the need of covering the ground more quickly necessarily limits the use of the leisurely practices of the direct method. (C. BR.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Cloudesley Brereton, The Organization of Modern Bibliography.-Cloudesley Brereton, The Organization of Modern Languages t1905) (a concise statement of the Old and New Schools) ; Selected Official Publications—Modern Studies. Report of the Com mittee on the Position of Modern Languages in the Educational System of Great Britain: a survey of the past and a forecast on the future (1913) ; H. G. Atkins and H. L. Hutton, The Teaching of Modern Foreign Languages (192o) .