The story of languages at Maine since 1946 when the Departments of Romance Languages, German, and Classics were combined as the Department of Foreign Languages and Classics is very likely short on the dramatic side. There are no great experiments to report, no application of special funds or subsidies to bolster our efforts. It is, rather, a story of hard work, steady progress, gradual and continuing evolution in an institution of modest resources and primarily local influence. If the account be worth the telling it is because it has not drama and distinction to its credit but a certain significance in that it represents the type of accomplishment possible in an institution of modest and limited proportions, yet one which, for these same reasons, is typical of a large segment of American education. The numbers of students studying languages at Maine and in institutions of similar compass undoubtedly make their impact upon national life and certainly account for an appreciable portion of those students who eventually find their way into the profession of language teaching at all levels.

On 19–20 May 1956 the Foreign Language Program sponsored a Conference on Criteria for a College Textbook in Beginning Spanish, held at MLA headquarters. Nearly all of the seventeen participants had considerable experience in teaching the Spanish language to beginners at the college level, and most were authors of beginning texts. They represented in their theory and practice of language teaching a wide variety of views in both the academic field and the field of linguistic science.

Adult education is a very complex phase of American education, ranging from organized evening colleges to informal classes held at a YMCA or public library. This survey is restricted to the quantitative evaluation of foreign language teaching during the fall term of 1956 in adult education and correspondence programs sponsored by institutions of higher education. The results of the survey are based on 1,127 usable replies.

This is the first attempt on the part of the FL Program to investigate the foreign language requirements in graduate schools throughout the United States. To keep the problem within manageable limits it was restricted to three advanced degrees, the M.A., the M.S., and the Ph.D., and to requirements in fields of study other than foreign languages. No effort was made to gain information from graduate schools which are clearly and strictly professional, such as schools of law, music, theology, medicine, and education. We used as the basis of our mailing list the USOE Circular No. 418, Earned Degrees Conferred by Higher Educational Institutions, 1953–1954, and sent a lengthy questionnaire to two kinds of institutions: (1) all graduate schools which granted any Ph.D. degrees, and (2) all schools listed in the Circular which granted 30 or more master's degrees. This arbitrary figure was chosen because it seemed necessary to eliminate from consideration several hundred small colleges which each year award a handful of master's degrees; most of these, presumably, have no language requirement.

This is a fifth revision of statistics first published in the Supplement A to the September 1953 number of PMLA. The original listing was based on institutions offering the B.A. degree and listed as accredited in the American Council on Education's American Universities and Colleges, 1952. At that time, questionnaires were sent to the registrars of 767 colleges and universities granting the B.A., and replies were received from all.