Professor and Director, Intensive Language Program, Darthmouth College
Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters
1988
Bio:
Background information is taken from Professor Rassias' vitae and article in Change (Vol 10:30-33, January 1978). Dr. Rassias was the Founder and Chairman of the Rassias Foundation whose goal is to improve the quality of language education and teaching values, thereby improving interpersonal and international communications relations. He was the originator of the Dartmouth Intensive Language Model disseminated to the Department of Languages, University of Detroit, 1977. Dr. Rassias received the Distinguished Teacher of the Your Award, University of Bridgeport (1962), Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award Dartmouth College (1968), and The Harbison Award for ten outstanding teachers of America (1970). Dr. Rassias is a professor of French and Modern Greek at Dartmouth College. "While teaching crash courses in French for Peace Corps volunteers, Rassias grew concerned about the failure of language programs. He came to believe that a second tongue could be taught best by instilling a desire in the student to communicate in a given language. To do that a teacher had to show, by his energy and concern in class, that he was convinced of the subject's importance. Many students were reluctant to speak in a foreign language because they were afraid of making mistakes. Rassias thought that by bringing out the uninhibited child in his students it would be possible to encourage them to freely use the language and learn it more quickly. 'First you have to secure an emotional reaction' Rassias explained. 'To do that I will go to any extreme.' In the Rassias' method, English is rarely spoken in the classroom. "Professors introduce new words by dramatizing them....the students break into groups of approximately 10 for hour-long drill sessions...It is crucial to the success of the method that all classes move quickly. In an average drill each of the 10 students is asked to respond 65 times....The instructor keeps the class alert by randomly selecting students, looking at one person and pointing at someone else. All mistakes are corrected. There is little emphasis on cultivating perfect pronunciation or accent. What matters is that student begins to experience the excitement of communicating in another language." (Change pp31-32) Commencement, University of Detroit, May 14, 1988.