Teaching English as a Foreign Language, 1912-1936 : Pioneers of ELT

This collection focuses on the work of the major pioneers working in the 1920s and 1930s whose research and writings laid the methodological foundations for post-World War II British approaches to English as a foreign language teaching ('ELT').

These early pioneers included Harold E. Palmer (in Japan), Michael West (in India) and Laurence Faucett (in China).

Separately and jointly (at the 1934-5 'Carnegie Conference' featured in the last volume), they succeeded in establishing a principled basis for the teaching of English to speakers of other languages, different in significant respects from teaching English as a 'first language' in Britain and the Empire.

Seminal works reproduced in this collection include: Palmer's (1924) Memorandum on Problems of English Teaching , West's (1926) Bilingualism and Faucett's (1927) The Teaching of English in the Far East.

Despite their continuing interest value to contemporary teachers and researchers, most of the works included have been out of print for many years, and available in only a few libraries.

The collection also contains learning/teaching materials produced by Palmer, West and Faucett