Thehouse:"Anglic" refers to a simplified version of english or an english which contains lots of spanish, french, and chinese elements. After studying esperanto I've come to think of this "Anglic" as an english with basically the rules of esperanto.

I've probably read many of those same novels, and I don't know if all those writers had in mind a simplified English, so much as a naturally evolved English some point far in the future. Like Middle English is to modern English.

Dro.Morbanzo:English can't be simplified for international use, nor could any other "natural language", but we already have a really good language for that purpose. All we have to do is get billions of stubborn people to learn it.

Yes, it would be nice if we could spread Eo further. But without money, that will be a challenge. I think that if you want to get people to learn Eo you have to give them an economic incentive. Otherwise most will simply watch American Idol or play world of warcraft. Learning a language, even Esperanto, is a huge amount of work.

I think we, as a community need to get esperanto into schools. If we could start with one school as a model, that could be used to convince other schools to try it (assuming it was successful).

But why should a school invest in an esperanto curriculum? There are two main hooks. 1) Learning Esperanto is a great way to learn about languages in general, specifically English. In the states, people with a good command of english tend to do better economically compared to those with lesser english skills. Esperanto can be a fantastic tool for helping kids learn english. Things like adjectives and adverbs, direct objects, etc become much more understandable in Eo because they are explicitly marked. good or well? which is the adverb? Ask most americans and a bunch will get it wrong. bona or bone, well nobody with even a passable understanding of Eo will get that one wrong. I have a much deeper understanding of the structure of my own language because I also learned esperanto.

the 2nd main hook I see is that esperanto can be a gateway language. Language learning is a skill. As you learn your 2nd second language, you build that skill. So when you start to learn a 3rd language, it's much easier.

If we started kids learning Esperanto in 2nd or 3rd grade, they could be fluent by the time they get to high school (easily). Then if they study french or spanish or chinese or whatever, they'll have the confidence of knowing they can learn a new language and they'll have developed the skills useful to learning languages in general.

To bolster my case, I submit the following:

propedeutic value of Eo

If we could have a school with an Eo curriculum, we could say to parents, This language is designed to be easy to learn, and it's put together in such a way that it will help your kids be better at English. It will help your kids do better in school in the future because their English is better. It will help them get better jobs when they are older. And it will help them in high school and college when they have to take some other foreign language. I bet you could get a lot of parents on board with those arguments. And then you could show results. show how kids in the Eo curriculum do better than the kids who don't follow it. Then let it spread to another school...then more...then more. Someday it could become a standard tool for teaching. And if 10's or thousands of students are learning it in school each year, it's going to spread more and more.

Of course, getting that first school to do it and to be really dedicated to it, that's tricky. Maybe some Esperantist in the education field could write a grant proposal or something for it. It would be nice

awake:
If we could have a school with an Eo curriculum, we could say to parents, This language is designed to be easy to learn, and it's put together in such a way that it will help your kids be better at English. It will help your kids do better in school in the future because their English is better. It will help them get better jobs when they are older. And it will help them in high school and college when they have to take some other foreign language. I bet you could get a lot of parents on board with those arguments. And then you could show results. show how kids in the Eo curriculum do better than the kids who don't follow it. Then let it spread to another school...then more...then more. Someday it could become a standard tool for teaching. And if 10's or thousands of students are learning it in school each year, it's going to spread more and more.

I believe there are already several Esperanto organizations working on this. For example, the EAB (British Esperanto Association) has assembled a program called "Springboard to Languages" which seems very similar to what you suggest. It is running in some pilot schools right now.
http://www.springboard2languages.org/home.htm

Unfortunately I think a lot of parents would consider this useless, and I can't imagine a lot of parental support for "wasting time" teaching Esperanto when you could be teaching another European language instead. There are many, many research studies showing the value of teaching Esperanto as a gateway to other languages, but people often use emotion rather than logic when making decisions like this.

I can see it makes sense to give children Esperanto as learning tool. After all, they're given simplified versions of other things for their learning. We don't expect them to get to grips with Photoshop in their ICT lessons! I'm chair of governors in a Welsh primary school, and I'll be showing the 'Gateway' material to my headteacher. But I know in advance he won't be keen -- there is alot of pressure on the curriculum and (as Erinja suggests)I don't suppose there's be parental support. Perhaps when I've learned more I could start an after-school club...

richardhall:I'm chair of governors in a Welsh primary school, and I'll be showing the 'Gateway' material to my headteacher. But I know in advance he won't be keen -- there is alot of pressure on the curriculum

Don't Welsh schools also have mandatory Welsh classes? I can see how they would be under even more pressure than, for example, English schools.

erinja:Don't Welsh schools also have mandatory Welsh classes? I can see how they would be under even more pressure than, for example, English schools.

Yes, Welsh is compulsory. My school (primarily English-speaking) takes its welsh-language curriculum very seriously and we are investing extra resources in improving the way it is taught.

richardhall: Perhaps when I've learned more I could start an after-school club...

Incidentally, I believe the program's starter pack is free. I wouldn't see any harm in at least requesting the starter pack to see the materials. And actually, I have encountered plenty of teachers who ran after-school clubs, even if they were only beginners themselves. They learned along with the kids and everyone seemed to have a good time. If you're interested, I can put you in contact with a teacher in the US who did something of that nature (though we have nothing like Springboard, so I think she used lernu as her main reference)

I would like to see some studies showing that Eo helps students score better on their English SATs. I have not heard of anyone studying it, but I imagine a specially designed Eo course could have a large impact. Eo uses a fairly large number of root words which turn up in advanced SAT words. Plus Eo does help teach the difference between Adverb and Adjective. SAT preperation is a big deal in the USA. If you can prove say two month "Esperanto for SATs" course improved scores by 20 points I think American parents would support it. In fact I think promoting Esperanto as a learning tool would be the easist way to get a large number of people to learn the language.

@thehouse:

yes, that might be a very positive approach. Also, pointing out these effects of Esperanto might shift it's image from rather excentric and not (yet) very successful (in terms of a universal language) to cool/modern and also a tool for the intelligent...

Anyway, this might not be a very direct path, but the goal justifies the means!

Ĝis, Geraldo

erinja:
Unfortunately I think a lot of parents would consider this useless, and I can't imagine a lot of parental support for "wasting time" teaching Esperanto when you could be teaching another European language instead. There are many, many research studies showing the value of teaching Esperanto as a gateway to other languages, but people often use emotion rather than logic when making decisions like this.

Support for foreign language instruction in the US is very weak anyway. Most school students resent every minute they have to spend in language classes, and manage to graduate with incredibly little knowledge. I know this because the university where I teach adminsters simple placement tests to incoming freshmen. Most of those who have had two or three years of foreign language in high school barely manage to score above the raw beginner level. Even after two or three semesters of required language study, the majority still do not achieve an intermediate level of proficiency. Given a choice, most would not study any language, ever. Depressing but true. They tend to think that everyone in the world worth talking to speaks English.

For 20 years, I've found excuses to mention Esperanto in my classes, and to impart bits of information about it. Not once has any student come to me to learn more.