RF Annual Report - 1935 - The Rockefeller Foundation

THE HUMANITIES 287
within a short walk of the British Museum, the
association is admirably situated to serve these
demands through cooperation with these other
national centers of library work.
Means ofInternational Communication
Teachers College, Columbia University
Studies in English Usage
Columbia University has received 236,000 for
use of the Institute of Educational Research,
Teachers College, in carrying out studies of
English usage under the direction of Professor
E. L. Thorndike during the three-year period
May
1, 1935, to April 30, 1938. The purpose of
this study is to determine, for the guidance of
persons preparing textbooks and manuals of
instruction for the teaching of English as an
auxiliary language, what meanings of words
should be indicated in an initial English vocabulary.
It therefore has a direct bearing on efforts
to advance international understanding in
those countries where English is the language
next in importance to the vernacular. Governmental
advisers on the teaching of English in
Turkey, Japan, China, India, and the British
colonial possessions recognize the need of such
guidance as this study should provide.
The
fundamental research required in this
task falls to the psychologist, who has a sensitive-
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