The teaching of English composition : current practices in historical perspective

Abstract

The incentive for this study has been the desire to gain insight into current English problems by considering composition instruction in historical perspective. To evaluate composition instruction and adapt it more effectively to contemporary and future existence we should begin by examining the development of language arts instruction through the ages of western education since the origin of schools in ancient Greece. What follows here is a combination of the philosophy and the history of language arts instruction, with special interest in the teaching of English composition and grammar since 1500, and a consideration of the present program in the light of future needs. The demarcation of dates for the historical periods is rather arbitrary, following the example of historians themselves. Data concerning particular instructional procedures and texts in some periods, especially the Middle Ages, is perhaps more generalized than specific, following Professor Boyd’s admission that “in most cases the scanty information available about the course of events during this period makes it impossible to trace with any exactness the way in which education was undertaken”.