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RELIGION

There are two principal forms of religious faith in the country, Christian and Jewish. The Christian faith is found in two main forms, Protestant and Roman Catholic. These religious institutions have many functions besides that of common worship. The churches in the United States are important centers of community life and activity. They organize various groups for adults, youth, and children, for the purpose of study and service, as well as for fellowship and recreation.

THE FAMILY

A knowledge of home and family life is fundamental for understanding any people. The differences in family life in a large city, a town, and a rural community may be contrasted. Changing forms of living have had great influence upon home relationships, but, in spite of these rapid changes, "home" has a significant meaning. Comparatively speaking few homes have servants; their place is taken by the use of labor-saving devices. As a result, almost all of the work in the family is done by the housewife and members of the family. Often guests in a home help with necessary tasks.

The status of single women and "career girls” is sometimes discussed, particularly in regard to the problems encountered by the young, unchaperoned girl living alone in the city. Certain conditions of city life occasionally lead to the making of acquaintances, without an introduction by a common friend. Many American women of high social standing live alone in apartments, with no question concerning their respectability, regardless of the quite different impression given in the motion pictures. An invitation to a woman's apartment for an evening of conversation is not an invitation to improper behavior. “Career girls” of all ages work at interesting jobs and generally lead a busy life outside their work, with their friends, their hobbies, and their other activities.

RACE RELATIONSHIPS

It is believed that we must face squarely, in the discussion of society in the United States, the fact that racial discrimination does exist in many parts of the country. In these discussions an attempt is made to explain that many people are not satisfied with the situation and are making efforts to improve it, but that since this discrimination has had a long hstory, it cannot be eradicated at once. The foreign student is counseled for his own sake to avoid embarrassment insofar as possible by observing the customs of a locality. That progress is being made in solving this problem is also emphasized.

SOME ASPECTS OF THE EARLY HISTORY AND CURRENT PROBLEMS OF THE UNITED STATES

Interesting films are available which help foreign students to understand something of United States history and present conditions. Many of these films are U. S. Government films and may be borrowed from the film depositories of the various agencies. Included in the bibliography is a list of film guides. A chart compiled by the Office of Education gives information on how to obtain the Government motion pic ture. (2) In addition, sound films showing industries, geography, history, and life in general in various States can be borrowed from companies interested in transportation, such as oil companies, railroads, and air lines.

Current events are discussed in all the groups as part of their exercises in English speaking and comprehension. Besides this, each class has one period a week in a Current Events course which is based on filmstrips, called “Report on the News." The films are produced monthly by the New York Times, and present such subjects as: "The Marshall Plan," "Labor in the News," "Farmers and Prices," and "The Defense of the United States."

Each film usually requires about four lessons for adequate study. Lesson One introduces the film by linking the subject with recent newspaper articles. While the film is being shown the students read aloud the subtitles, and the teacher explains the new vocabulary. Lesson Two shows the film again, and the students review and apply the new vocabulary in conversation. Lesson Three comprises an oral or written test. Lesson Four, in lower groups, makes a thorough review and completes other parts of the preceding lessons. In advanced groups, the fourth lesson period is often used for the presentation of a film of a previous month, which the group has not seen. These filmstrips provide an opportunity for pronunciation drill through reading subtitles aloud. They also make many new words and idiomatic expressions understandable through their visual interpretation. As the present day can only be explained by referring to the past, The Report on the News films provide the teacher with appropriate opportunities to teach other periods of United States history.

The weekly movie program described by the Orientation and English Language Institute at the University of California merits being quoted in full:

Movies-Each Tuesday evening during the 1949 Institute, motion pictures on subjects of interest to students coming to the United States from abroad were shown after dinner. Discussion, refreshments, and an informal social hour fol lowed the showing of the pictures.

2 Seerley Reid. How To Obtain U. S. Government Motion Pictures. Washington, D. C., Federal Security Agency, Office of Education. Reprint from School Life, May 1950.

The films shown were obtained from the large library in the Audio-Visual Instruction Department of University Extension. Among the movies shown were the following:

Golden Gate City

California

The Story of California and its Natural Resources

The Bill of Rights

The Story of the Flag

The Westward Movement

The Perfect Tribute (on Lincoln)

The Story of Communication

From Trees to Tribunes

Radio Broadcasting Today (March of Time film)

The Development of Motion Pictures

How we Elect our Representatives

Our National Government

National Parks in the United States

Yosemite

Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons
Music in the United States (6)

The University of California bulletin also carries a list of subjects for their Thursday evening lectures, for example, The Press in the United States, Government and Politics, and Issues and Problems in American Education. The Mills College pamphlet says that "in order that every student may have drill in taking notes in English, we insist that they present their notes for inspection after every lecture." (44)

PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION AND VOCABULARY

We have always believed that one of the most important parts of our program of orientation is the making of professional contacts for the students. For example, for our agriculturalists we invite officials of the Department of Agriculture to come for coffee, after classes are over for the afternoon, and to talk to the students informally, leaving plenty of time for questions. We arrange for the agriculturalists to visit the Division of Animal Husbandry at the University of Maryland and the United States Experimental Station at Beltsville.

We take the doctors and nurses to visit hospitals, where, in addition to the general tours, we arrange for them to have longer visits in their own special fields. We get permission for the pediatricians to spend several Saturdays at the Children's Hospital; the specialists in eye, ear, and throat have a chance to see a number of operations in the Episcopal Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital; the malaria specialists receive permission to go after school for several days to see the studies at the Naval Medical Research Institute. The National Institutes of Health of the Public Health Service, Federal Security Agency, show their laboratories to the public health doctors and nurses and give them bulletins. Many

individual appointments are made for them in school clinics and in visiting nurses' clinics. The Saturday mornng lectures at the George Washington University Medical School are often open to them, with permission to audit some of the courses of their specialties.

Sanitary engineers are taken to the water purification plants, the sewage and garbage disposal units, the dairies, and the street-cleaning departments.

Social workers visit orphanages, the juvenile court, and the training schools for delinquent boys and girls.

The teacher trainees visit the schools of their specialties, such as vocational high schools, and are supplied with copies of the courses of study. They are taken to the Office of Education of the Federal Security Agency and to the National Education Association for consultation with persons in the departments dealing with their fields of interest. At Wilson Teachers College they audit such classes as educational psy chology.

Lawyers are taken to the Supreme Court and to the civil and criminal courts. For some of them our jury system is completely new. Amazing to many is the fact that our courts are open to the public, who go in and out at will.

Librarians among our students receive special attention at the Library of Congress. Several have obtained permission to work for practice, on a volunteer basis, at the Library after school hours. One of our students, who is to set up the first libraries for children in her country, audited a library course at Catholic University. She has been eagerly translating the textbooks used in the course there so that she can train librarians on her return to her homeland.

The District of Columbia Highway Department has arranged special trips for our highway engineers, taking them on Saturdays to see construction work on new bridges and underpasses. Our engineering students also audit classes at Wilson Teachers College as soon as they have sufficient English proficiency. The subject matter may be familiar to them already, but practice in hearing the scientific vocabulary as pronounced in English is helpful to them.

On field trips the students collect pamphlets or bulletins pertaining to the special fields, and on returning to school they read the publications, reviewing and learning new technical terms.

When there are small groups of one special interest, such as a medical group, a Labor Department group, or an Agricultural Department group, special vocabulary classes are organized for them. For example, in a group of doctors, nurses, and sanitary engineers, U. S. Public Health Service bulletins and Red Cross Manuals are used as vocabulary textbooks, and medical films from the film libraries of the U. S. Public Health Service are available.

The Departments of Labor and Agriculture are willing to lend pamphlets and films on proper application. Study of the scripts before seeing the films and discussion after seeing them are necessary to establish the vocabulary firmly in the student's memory.

The professional trips and the special vocabulary lessons are stimulating to both students and teachers. They aid in provoking lively conversation and in developing confidence in using English as well as in satisfying the natural urge of every professional person to keep in touch with his own work and to go forward in his knowledge of it, even though he is temporarily engaged in learning a new language.

Special Courses for Foreign Students in Universities Not Having English Language Institutes

Conditions in a language institute like our Orientation Center and others to which this bulletin has already referred differ in several respects from conditions in a university or college in which foreign students are carrying a program of regular university courses. Such students accepted by the university are generally assumed to have sufficient ability in English to profit by class instruction in that language. Consequently, it is not considered necessary to devote appreciable time to improving their English. In practice, however, it is often found that some foreign students have language needs not filled by the normal courses in freshman English. Several bulletins have come to hand describing plans by which such situations are met.

An article entitled “English for Foreign Students at the University of Illinois" is a report on the special courses arranged for its foreign students. Rhetoric 111, 112, and 113 provide a rapid review of grammar, intensive drill in sentence patterns, and correction of individual pronunciation difficulties for the students who can take such courses as science and mathematics, but are not able to take lecture courses or courses requiring much reading or writing. Rhetoric 114 and 115 are substitutes for the courses required of American students and fulfill the English requirement for undergraduate foreign students. (3)

A second discussion of this problem of integrating into the university program the English courses, of which some of their foreign students are in need, is given in the pamphlet: Organization of the Courses in English for Foreign Students given at U.C.L.A. (38) There are four courses, each giving four units of university credit and meeting for five class hours a week. There are two sections, intermediate and advanced. "The work done in all classes falls under five general headings:

I. Pronunciation and phonetics.

II. Written composition and grammar.

III. Oral composition, reading, and vocabulary study.

IV. Aural comprehension and orientation.

V. Individual work and examinations.

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