The MLA FL Program in 1962

Extract

I am happy to report once again on the year's foreign-language activity. It is varied and vigorous, and it is by no means exclusively sponsored by our FL Program. Our first large production of 1962 was, in fact, a joint MLAAAT enterprise, the Selective List of Materials for Teachers of Modern Foreign Languages in Elementary and Secondary Schools, whose short title, Selective List of Materials, we further abbreviated to S.L.O.M., or simply SLOM. Produced under contract with the U. S. Office of Education, and accompanied by elaborate criteria for evaluating various categories of teaching materials, it gives detailed ratings of materials in ten foreign languages. As part of our contract, we distributed 53,000 free copies to administrators and high-school teachers. In the eight months since publication we have sold only three thousand copies. Our profession seems to be divided into teachers who already have a free copy of SLOM and teachers who have never heard of it. Perhaps the present plug may act as a hearing aid. And despite its full title, this bibliography has value for college teachers as well as for school teachers. It has 128 pages of useful information and it costs only one dollar.