Mateusz Wiącek

PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations) is often considered a pioneer in the field of computer-based education. It was a computer-based learning system developed at the University of Illinois…

Penfield and Roberts introduced the concept of critical period hypothesis (CPH) in 1959. The theory states that the first years of life constitute the time during which language develops readily…

Scoville and Milner in 1957 studied a patient named Henry Molaison.  Henry suffered from severe epilepsy and underwent a surgical procedure in 1953 to alleviate his seizures. The surgical procedure…

The Chomsky hierarchy was introduced by Noam Chomsky in his work on formal language theory, which he presented in 1956 as “On Certain Formal Properties of Grammars”. He proposed a…

Chomsky not only defined the grammar types, but also made significant contributions to the understanding of language from a cognitive and theoretical perspective.  In 1950 Chomsky proposed a new way…

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) was established in 1947. It is the primary training institution for personnel of the United States Department of State and other foreign affairs agencies. The…

During World War 2 there was an obvious need for the military to speed up the language learning process, so that the personnel could acquire language skills quickly. The audio-lingual…

With the successes of the new language learning methods based on Berlitz’s ”direct method” (also called “natural method”), researchers started thinking about how people actually acquire languages.  The first language…

Cecil Alec Mace is a British philosopher and industrial psychologist, best known for his work on monetary incentives and goal-setting theory. In 1932 he published his book The Psychology of…

At the beginning of the 20th century, teachers and scholars started searching for ways to improve language learning. They were inspired by looking at how children learn languages. They understood…