User:Umimmak/sandbox/MLA

The Modern Language Association of Great Britain, or just Modern Language Association (MLA),

Its headquarters in 1972 was in 2 Manchester Square, London W.1.

Founding
The MLA was founded in 1892..

The MLA's inaugural meeting was held 22 December 1892 in London. It included university dons like Karl Breul of King's College, Cambridge and Victor Spiers of King's College London, and various schoolmasters including Annesley Somerville of Eton College, Louis Moriarty of Harrow School, Otto Siepmann of Clifton College, and W. Stuart Macgowan of Cheltenham College. Representatives from Clifton College and the Manchester Grammar School were also in attendance.

The Journal of Education, in its coverage of the MLA's first meeting, anticipated that the organization would "exert a powerful influence on school curricula, methods of study, and examinations". Max Müller, who was the Chair of Comparative Philology at Oxford, was the MLA's first president. The MLA's conferences and journals provided a venue to discuss language, literature, philology, phonetics, and teaching methods.

Its goals were "To obtain for modern languages the status in the educational curricula of the country to which their intrinsic value, as instruments of mental discipline and culture, entitles them apart from their acknowledged commercial and utilitarian importance." It also included "the unification of methods of teaching".

Its aims specifically entailed being an analogous organization to the Modern Language Association of America and the Neuphilologenverein of Germany. This was around the time of the formation of the Modern Language Association of Ontario, the Modern Language Association of America, and the Verband der deutschen neuphilologischen lehrschaft.

Some of its early specific goals included getting the University of Oxford,University of Dublin, and University of Durham to offer an honours degree in Modern Languages and Literature. While Cambridge had such a program since 1884, Oxford at the time had even lacked an honours degree in English language and literature. They had achieved this goal by 1911.

The MLA also thought modern languages should be taught as "living languages", and as such also promoted the use of oral examinations. In 1894, they formally petitioned Victoria University to make sure its newly-established school of modern languages would have viva voce exams.

The MLA's early years focused on the "chief foreign languages", viz., French and German.

The MLA set up a subcommittee in 1913 to investigate the nationality of professors of modern languages teaching at English universities; with the start of World War I, anti-German sentiment made the topic more salient. Its 1916 report found that eight of the 23 university professors of modern languages in England were British; it also recommended that professors should be British-born. This lead to a similar discussion on schoolteachers in 1918. Otto Seipmann, who was involved in the founding of the MLA, withdrew in protest due to rising anti-German sentiment during World War I.

In 1961,

In 1972, Reinhard Hartmann described the MLA as having "great influence among school teachers". It continued to be the primary professional organization for British modern language teachers until its closer in 1990.

The MLA recommended in a policy statement from February 1983 that each local education authority should ensure students have "a variety of choice" of languages to study.

Membership and growth
At its first general meeting in December 1894, the MLA had nearly 170 members.

By 1910 it had almost 900 members.

The MLA had more than 1,000 members by 1911.

By 1972, it has 2,700 members and 20 regional branches.

Modern Languages
The MLA's first publication was called Modern Languages. Its first issue was published in November 1894, and its two final issues were published in 1895. J. J. Beuzemaker was the editor.

Modern Language Quarterly
In 1897, the MLA established The Modern Language Quarterly. The MLA's journal was renamed in 1905 to Modern Language Teaching. These journals provided the opportunity to discuss the practice of teaching modern languages. Walter Rippmann and Karl Breul were co-founders of Modern Language Quarterly, and Rippman was the journal's editor throughout its publication.

The Modern Language Quarterly incorporated The Modern Language Teachers' Guide.

The first issue was issued in July 1897. It was devoted to the study and teaching of medieval and modern languages, including English. Issues had sections for modern language teaching, observations, reviews, as well as a list of recent publications. Articles included: "Spenser and Puritanism", "Pre-Malorean Romances", and "Sketch Portraitures of Far Eastern Languages".

John Russell, head of the King Alfred School, London, said in 1901 that The Modern Language Quarterly was comparable to the best of similar journals in other nations.

Walter Rippmann was the editor of the Modern Language Quarterly and then Modern Language Teaching from 1897 to 1911.

Modern Language Teaching
The MLA's journal was renamed in 1905 to Modern Language Teaching. Rippmann stepped down in 1911 to become the editor of the Simplified Spelling Society's journal, but he still contributed to Modern Language Teaching.

Modern Languages
Modern Languages was the main journal for teachers of modern languages in Britain for many years.

Modern Language Review
It was at an MLA meeting that W. W. Greg and others established the journal The Modern Language Review. The Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) at some point took control of running the journal, but the MLA continued to provide annual grants even after it was no longer the official organization behind the journal. In addition many MLA members were also on MHRA.

Other groups
The MLA was affiliated to the International Federation of Modern Language Teachers. It was also one of six associations represented on the Joint Council of Language Associations.

Association for Language Learning
The MLA is seen as the "precursor" to the Association for Language Learning (ALL). In 1989, the MLA, the British Association for Language Teaching, and other organizations for the teaching of specific languages merged to form ALL. The Language Learning Journal is ALL's main publication; in 2000 the British educational theorist Colin Wringe described it as "an academic and professional journal of considerable international standing and readership".

List of presidents
The presidents of the MLA were:


 * 1893 — Max Müller
 * 1894 — H. Weston Eve
 * 1895 — W. Haig-Brown
 * 1896 — R. S. de Courcy Laffan
 * 1897 — J. E. C. Welldon
 * 1898 — A. T. Pollard
 * 1899 — W. W. Skeat
 * 1900 — Richard Garnett
 * 1901 — J. P. Mahaffy
 * 1902 — A. S. Napier
 * 1903 — Arthur W. Rucker
 * 1904 — Michael E. Sadler
 * 1905 — T. H. Warren
 * 1906 — A. C. Benson
 * 1907 — F. Storr
 * 1908 — Lord Fitzmaurice
 * 1909 — E. S. Roberts
 * 1910 — Karl Breul
 * 1911 — J. L. Paton
 * 1912 — Reginald W. Macan
 * 1913 — Lord Weardale
 * 1914 — Henry A. Miers
 * 1915 — W. W. Vaughan
 * 1916 — Edmund Gosse
 * 1917 — Paul Cambon
 * 1918 — Lord Lytton
 * 1919 — Stanley Leathes
 * 1920 — Lord Askwith
 * 1921 – S. Russell-Wells
 * 1922–23 – N/A
 * 1924 – E. Audra
 * 1925 – Ernest Barker
 * 1926 – Viscount Cecil of Chelwood
 * 1927 – Rennell Rodd
 * 1928 – H. E. Dr Sthamer
 * 1929 – H. Wickham Steed
 * 1930 – N/A
 * 1931 – Marques de Merry del Val
 * 1932 – Allen Mawer
 * 1933 – Lord Eustace Percy
 * 1934 – H. E. M. Corbin
 * 1935 – E. Denison Ross
 * 1936 – Lord Soulbury
 * 1937 – N/A
 * 1938 – Malcolm Rol
 * 1939 – Dorothy L. Sayers
 * 1940–44 – N/A
 * 1945 – Leslie Burgin
 * 1946 – R. A. Butler
 * 1947 – Harold Nicolson
 * 1948 – Salvador de Madariaga
 * 1949 – D. W. Brogan
 * 1950 – John Maud
 * 1951 – Robert Birley
 * 1952 – René Massigli
 * 1953 – A. E. Twentyman
 * 1954 – Robert Lindsay Graeme Ritchie
 * 1955 – N. F. Mott
 * 1956 – Lord Harvey of Tashburgh
 * 1957 – L. A. Willoughby
 * 1958 – J. Schwartzenburg
 * 1959 – W. H. Bruford
 * 1960 – William Hayter
 * 1961 – E. Vinaver
 * 1962 – B. L. Hallward
 * 1963 – M. van Willigen
 * 1964 – E. M. Wilkinson
 * 1965 – L. Farrer-Brown
 * 1966 – George Taylor
 * 1967 – A. J. Ayer
 * 1968 – D. C. Riddy
 * 1969 – Lord Gladwyn
 * 1970 – R. F. Brown
 * 1971 – Lord Evans
 * 1972 – Betty Parr
 * 1973 – S. Ullmann
 * 1974 – J. de Beaumarchais
 * 1975 – P. H. Hoy
 * 1976 – Christopher Soames
 * 1977 – Richard Hoggart
 * 1978 – R. J. North
 * 1979 – S. R. Ingram
 * 1980–81 – P. M. W. Thody
 * 1982 – The Duke of Kent
 * 1983–84 – E. Hawkins
 * 1985–86 – Sheila Browne
 * 1987–89 – Peter Blackburn

MLT
[p. 2, 11 for discussion on Ireland]
 * [about age languages should be taught]
 * [about age languages should be taught]
 * [about age languages should be taught]
 * [about age languages should be taught]


 * Modern Language Teaching 28(3): 117, September 1947). [obit?]
 * MLT: 14: 198[?]

Others

 * [Reprinted: ]