This presentation considers the contribution made by women to English language teaching and learning in early 20th century America. Following the arrival of large numbers of immigrants to the USA in the early 1900s, there was a requirement for the incoming population to learn English as part of the “Americanization Movement”, to learn the U.S. Constitution, understand the laws and government of their new country and become assimilated into American culture (Cavanaugh 1996). Although policy may have been male-driven, documentation from the period demonstrates that women played a large role in implementing these language policies through both teaching and the publication of language teaching manuals for night schools, shop and settlement classes.
This study examines five female-authored English teaching manuals published between 1906 and 1915. The teaching approaches taken are typical of this period in the USA, influenced by Sauveur’s Natural Method and Berlitz’s commercially successful Direct Method (Howatt 1984). However, the themes and contextualisation of target language in these books offer insights into this period, and in some cases demonstrate a uniquely female perspective on learners’ needs (e.g. Austin 1913). The texts will be explored using a corpus-based approach, referenced against male-authored manuals from the same period.