Harold E. Palmer

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.

Publication

*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 Course"started.

The Five Speech-Learning Habits

*Auditory Observation
*Oral Imitation
*Catenizing
*Semanticizing
*Composition by Analogy