Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

AUDIO by Max U. Bildersee Through the Looking Glass — To Tomorrow The past year has been marked by an explosive growth in the number of secondary schools and colleges expanding their foreign language offerings and expanding, too, the technical facilities for such studies. Recent surveys indicate the number of language laboratories in service as more than 300— with more than 60 of these in sub-collegiate institutions. Colleges report language enrollments increased by as much as 36 per cent with new demands for languages other than the usual Latin-French Spanish German group. Foreign language accomplishment, recently in the 'recommended studies' group for college entrance, is again being made a requirement. Columbia College recently announced that, beginning as soon as 1962, a requirement for admission will be completion of at least three years of study of one foreign language in high school. This is not an isolated instance but is part of a trend. And the emphasis will be on communication, not rote learning of words out of context and dull and unexciting rules of grammar. The College Board examinations will include aural comprehension tests in French, German and Spanish. Similar in objective will be the revisions of the English examinations which will include testing in composition. Role of Listening Communication as a vital function of language, then, is becoming dominant and listening, perforce, becomes integral in modern education. The current emphasis on audio and audiovisual entertainment via motion pictures, television, radio and recordings heightens the need for this emphasis —but it has been a generation coming, and comes coincident with the sudden pubhc realization that our relations with the world depends on successful communications. The past year has seen, too, a sudden but anticipated growth in the variety of foreign language records marketed. No list of foreign language recordings, however recently publish ed, can be 'up-to-date' for more than a few months— or even truly 'recent' for more than a year — because the variety of available materials is so rapidly expanding. The pressures bringing this about are, of course, the growth in the number of foreign language laboratory study courses available to secondary school and college students, and the impact of the National Defense Education Act on audiovisual budgets in the language study area. The mirror shows phenomenal growth, and the rear-view mirror indicates, too, that language studies are not alone in this. Looking through the glass to the year and years ahead, it is reasonable to predict that we are at the beginning of an era of tremendous new emphasis on being able to communicate — to receive as well as offer information through the senses of hearing and seeing. The laboratory, as it has been introduced into foreign language study, will become integral in other areas beginning perhaps in English both as a language and as a humanities study, and progressing then to other humanities, the arts and finally to the sciences. It is not inconceivable that the expressed goal of so many educators will become a reality: that the student be encouraged and permitted to progress through the maze of his studies at his own gait, pausing to seek depth and breadth as interests and needs indicate. It is not inconceivable that through the audiovisual devices used by individuals and by groups however small the pressing needs of the intellectually gifted may be met. And, too, the lagging student may be helped to progress at his own pace through directed listening and other study experiences. It is always interesting and informative to know who is active and interested. A 'man in the street' survey is impossible but a 'letter in the mail' study is not. So, with this particular year-end summary and look ahead in mind, we made a simple tabulation of correspondence over the past few months. We have heard from a variety of places— from most of the states and from European and Asian nationals. The bulk of our correspondence is from schools and colleges, as might be anticipated, with schools and school systems accounting for about 48 per cent and colleges and universities 33 per cent. The rest is made up of miscellaneous adult groups including public libraries— almost a fifth. Av Directors and Centers When the same information was tabulated another way, it was learned that audiovisual directors and audiovisual centers, including curriculum materials centers, account for 63 per cent of the mail— almost two thirds. These are the professional audiovisual specialists, these are the professional educators outside of libraries. But librarians are asking questions, too, and almost a third of our mail comes from libraries other than school and college libraries. There is, of course, a smattering of letters which can only be described as 'miscellaneous' and Audio CAROALOO Record Reviews on Cards 659 INDIVIDUAL CROSS-INDEXED CARDS ALREADY ISSUED! SUBSCRIBE NOW $25.00 a year Audio CARDALOG Box 1771, Albany 1, New York A WORLD OF SOUND ON FILE Educational Screen and Audiovisual Guide — December, 1959 653