Robert Louis Politzer

Robert Louis Politzer (born March 21, 1921 in Vienna ; died January 26, 1998 ) was an American Romance scholar , linguist and foreign language teacher of Austrian origin.

life and work

Politzer fled to the United States in 1938 before Austria was annexed . There he studied at the Washington University in St. Louis and graduated in 1943 with the Master's work The Problem of the free or checked development of the tonic vowels in Old French before palatalized L and N . Then he served in the US Army.

In 1947 Politzer received his doctorate under Mario Pei at Columbia University with the work A Study of the language of eighth century Lombardic documents. A statistical analysis of the Codice paleografico Lombardo (New York 1949). He taught at Harvard University , at the University of Washington , and from 1955 to 1963 as Professor of French and Romance Linguistics (and colleague of Ernst Pulgram ) at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor , and finally from 1963 to 1986 at Stanford University . There he played a key role in setting up the Stanford Center for Research and Development on Teaching (later Center for Educational Research at Stanford (CERAS)).

Politzer was an early exponent of applied linguistics .

Other works

(with Frieda N. Politzer [1920–2006]) Romance trends in 7th and 8th century Latin documents , Chapel Hill 1953
(with Mario Pei ) Getting along in German. A Holiday magazine language book , New York 1957
(with Charles Neff Staubach) Teaching Spanish. A linguistic orientation , Boston 1961, 1965
Teaching French. An introduction to applied linguistics , New York 1965
Reading French fluently. A structural approach to French , Englewood Cliffs 1965
Foreign language learning. A linguistic introduction , Englewood Cliffs 1965, 1970
(Ed.) 3 contes. 2 essays. 1 comédie , Englewood Cliffs 1966
(with Michio P. Hagiwara and Jean R. Carduner ) L'échelle. Structures essentielles du français , Waltham, Mass. 1966
Programmed dictionary for "Masterpieces of French literature," Englewood Cliffs 1966
Contribution to the phonology of the Nonsberg dialect , Innsbruck 1967 ( Nonstal )
Teaching German. A linguistic orientation , Waltham, Mass. 1968
Speaking German , Englewood Cliffs 1969
Reading German fluently , Englewood Cliffs 1969
(with Diana E. Bartley) Teaching standard English as a second dialect. Suggested teaching procedures and sample microlessons , Stanford 1970
Active review of German. A German review grammar , Waltham, Mass. 1971
Linguistics and applied linguistics. Aims and methods , Philadelphia 1972
(with Diana E. Bartley) Practice-centered teacher training. Standard English for speakers of non-standard dialects , Philadelphia 1972
(with Frieda N. Politzer) Teaching English as a second language , Lexington 1972, Huntington 1981
(with Hector N. Urrutibeheity) Peldaños , Lexington 1972 (Textbook)
(with others) La France. Une tapestry. Français et francophonie , New York 1973

literature

Mary E. McGroarty: A Tribute to Robert L. Politzer, 1921-1998 . In: Applied Linguistics . 19, 1998, pp. 429-431
Politzer, Robert Louis , in: Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.2. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , pp. 915f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Politzer, Robert Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Politzer, Robert L.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American Romance studies scholar, linguist and foreign language teacher of Austrian origin
DATE OF BIRTH	March 21, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	January 26, 1998