Harold E. Palmer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harold Edward Palmer, usually just Harold E. Palmer (1877-1949) was an English linguist, phonetician and pioneer in the field of English language learning and teaching. Especially he dedicated himself to Oral Method. He stayed in Japan for 14 years and reformed its English education. He contributed to the development of the applied linguistics of the 20th century.

Palmer was born in London. In 1892-1893, he studied in France. In 1902, he went to Belgium and started teaching English at Berlitz school. In 1903, he established his own school. In 1915, he started teaching at University College London. In 1922, he was invited by Masataro Sawayanagi, Kojiro Matsukata and went to Japan. In Japan, he became 'Linguistic Adviser' to the Japanese Department of Education. In 1923, he established the Institute for Research in English Teaching (IRET), now the Institute for Research in Language Teaching (IRLT), and became the first director. He founded the Institute's Bulletin. In 1935, he was awarded D.Litt. by Tokyo Imperial University. In 1936, he returned to England and became consultant for Longmans, Green. In 1937, he published Thousand-Word English with A. S. Hornby, the main creator of the first Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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1917-The Scientific Study and Teaching of Languages
1921-The Principles of Language-Study, The Oral Method of Teaching Languages
1922-English Intonation, With Systematic Exercises
1924-Memorandum on Problems of English Teaching in the Light of a New Theory, A Grammar of Spoken English
1925-English through Actions
1929-Eigo no rokushukan (The First Six Weeks of English)
1930-Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection, The Principles of Romanization
1931-Second Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection
1932-This Language-Learning Business(With H. Vere Redman)
1933-Second Interim Report on English Collocations, A New Classification of English Tones
1934-Specimens of English Construction Patterns, An Essay in Lexicology
1937-Thousand-Word English(With A. S. Hornby)
1938-A Grammar of English Words
1940-The Teaching of Oral English
1943-International English Coursestarted.