Harold E. Palmer


Harold Edward Palmer, usually just Harold E. Palmer, was an English linguist, phonetician and pioneer in the field of English language learning and teaching. Especially he dedicated himself to Oral Method. He stayed in Japan for 14 years and reformed its English education. He contributed to the development of the applied linguistics of the 20th century.
Palmer was born in London. In 1892-1893, he studied in France. In 1902, he went to Belgium and started teaching English at Berlitz school. In 1903, he established his own school. In 1915, he started teaching at University College London. In 1922, he was invited by Masataro Sawayanagi, Kojiro Matsukata and went to Japan. In Japan, he became 'Linguistic Adviser' to the Japanese Department of Education. In 1923, he established the Institute for Research in English Teaching, now the Institute for Research in Language Teaching, and became the first director. He founded the Institute's Bulletin. In 1935, he was awarded D.Litt. by Tokyo Imperial University. In 1936, he returned to England and became consultant for Longmans, Green. In 1937, he published Thousand-Word English with A. S. Hornby, the main creator of the first Advanced Learner's Dictionary. During World War II he lived in England, and assisted the war effort with his language skills, publishing three booklets about the French language, to assist soldiers preparing for the invasion of Normandy.

Publications

A more detailed list:
Palmer, H. E.. A First Course in English Phonetics, including an Explanation of the Scope of the Science of Phonetics, the Theory of Sounds, a Catalogue of English Sounds and a Number of Articulation, Pronunciation and Transcription Exercises. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E.. The Scientific Study and Teaching of Languages: A Review of the Factors and Problems Connected with the Learning and Teaching of Modern Languages with an Analysis of the Various Methods which may be Adopted in order to Attain Satisfactory Results. London, Harrap.
Palmer, H. E.. The Oral Method of Teaching Languages: A Monograph on Conversational Methods together with a Full Description and Abundant Examples of Fifty Appropriate Forms of Work. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E.. The Principles of Language-study. London, Harrap.
Palmer, H. E.. Everyday Sentences in Spoken English, with Phonetic Transcription and Intonation Marks. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E.. Colloquial English. Part 1. 100 Substitution Tables.. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E.. A Grammar of Spoken English, on a Strictly Phonetic Basis. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E.. Memorandum on Problems of English Teaching in the Light of a New Theory. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. The Principles of English Phonetic Notation. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Progressive Exercises in the English Phones. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Systematic Exercises in English Sentence-Building. Stage II. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. English through Questions and Answers. Book I. Corresponding to Book I, Part I of the Readers. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. English through Questions and Answers. Book II. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Graded Exercises in English Composition. Book I. Corresponding to the Book I of the Standard English Readers. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching
Kennard, J. S. and H. E. Palmer. Thinking in English.. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. The Five Speech-learning Habits. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Graded Exercises in English Composition. Book II. Corresponding to the Book II of the Standard English Readers. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Graded Exercises in English Composition. Book II. Corresponding to Book II of the Standard English Readers. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. The Reformed English Teaching. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Some Specimens of English Phonetic Transcription. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Specimen of One Complete Unit in the Reader System. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. A First Course of English Phonetics, including an Explanation of the Scope of the Science of Phonetics, the Theory of Sounds, a Catalogue of English Sounds and a Number of Articulation, Pronunciation and Transcription Exercises.. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E.. The Language Study Library. Concerning Pronunciation. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. The First Six Weeks of English. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. The Technique of Question-answering. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. On Learning to Read Foreign Languages: A Memorandum. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Second Interim Report on English Collocations, Submitted to the Tenth Annual Conference of English Teachers under the Auspices of the Institute for Research in English Teaching. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. The Grading and Simplifying of Literary Material. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. The Institute for Research in English Teaching: its History and Work. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E.. Conversational English. Tokyo, Kaitakusha.
Faucett, L.W., H.E. Palmer, et al.. Interim Report on Vocabulary Selection for the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language. London, King.
Palmer, H. E.. A Grammar of English Words: One Thousand English Words and their Pronunciation, together with Information concerning the Several Meanings of Each Word, its Inflections and Derivatives, and the Collocations and Phrases into which it Enters. London, Longmans, Green.
Palmer, H. E.. The New Method Grammar. London, Longmans, Green.
Palmer, H. E.. How to Use the New Method Grammar. A Teacher’s Handbook. London, Longmans, Green.
Palmer, H. E.. New Method Series. English Practice Books. Book I. Elementary Oral Exercises. London, Longmans, Green.
Palmer, H. E.. New Method Series. English Practice Books. Book II. Oral Exercises and Written Compositions. London, Longmans, Green.
Palmer, H. E.. New Method Series. English Practice Books. Book III: More Advanced Oral Exercises and Written Compositions. London, Longmans, Green.
Palmer, H. E.. Foreign Language Teaching: Past, Present and Future. Buenos Aires, Mitchell's English Book-Store.
Palmer, H. E.. The Teaching of Oral English.. London, Longmans, Green.
Palmer, H. E.. Language and Language Learning. The Principles of Language-study. London, Oxford University Press.
Palmer, H. E.. Language and Language Learning. Curso Internacional de Inglés. London, Oxford University Press.
Palmer, H. E.. Language and Language Learning. The Scientific Study and Teaching of Languages. London, Oxford University Press.
Palmer, H. E. and F. G. Blandford. Everyday Sentences in Spoken English, with Phonetic Transcription and Intonation Marks.. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E. and F. G. Blandford. English Pronunciation through Questions and Answers. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E. and F. G. Blandford. Everyday Sentences in Spoken English, with Phonetic Transcription and Intonation Marks.. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E. and F. G. Blandford. A Grammar of Spoken English, on a Strictly Phonetic Basis.. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E., F. G. Blandford, et al.. A Grammar of Spoken English.. Cambridge, Heffer.
Palmer, H. E. and A. S. Hornby. Thousand-word English: What it is and What can be Done with it. London, Harrap.
Palmer, H. E. and A. S. Hornby. Thousand-word English Junior Series. Stories from Grimm. Adapted and Rewritten within the Thousand-word Vocabulary. London, Harrap.
Palmer, H. E. and J. V. Martin. English through Questions and Answers. Book I. Corresponding to Book I, Part II of the Readers. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E., J. V. Martin, et al.. A Dictionary of English Pronunciation with American Variants, in Phonetic Transcription.. Cambridge, Heffer and Sons.
Palmer, H. E. and D. Palmer. English through Actions,. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Palmer, H. E., E. K. Venables, et al.. The Standard English Readers for Girls. Book One. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching.
Wilson, J. and H. E. Palmer. New English Course. Grammar and Composition for Reader 3. London, Longmans, Green.
Wilson, J. and H. E. Palmer. New English Course. Reader 3. London, Longmans, Green.
Additionally:
Naganuma, N. . A Commemorative Volume Issued by the Institute for Research in English Teaching on the Occasion of the Tenth Annual Conference of English Teachers Held under its Auspices. Tokyo, Institute for Research in English Teaching
The Bulletin of the Institute for Research in English Teaching, ed. Institute for Research in Language Teaching, Tokyo: Meicho Fukyu Kai

The Five Speech-Learning Habits

Composition by analogy is often referred to as the generative principle. Palmer coined the term "ergon", defined as a phrase that serves as a syntactic prototype from which pupils can construct further sentences. "The learners' task is to acquire these ergons or 'primary matter' as a database which will then serve them to generate many more analogous sentences - 'secondary matter' according to Palmer."