Historia y tradición en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en Europa (1): Antigüedad.

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that the history of foreigm language teaching, like the history of Linguistics, is considered to be clearly defined in Ancient Greece. However its first testimonies are to be found in other places and in the hands of other ancient peoples, who in a less direct manner have also had an influence in Europe.
In fact the Sumerians took the first steps we know in the practice of foreign language teaching. Therefore we take as starting-point their testimony together with that of the Egyptians and other ancient cultures in order to present the history of foreign language teaching in Western Europe up to the 17 th century. Our underlying aim is a contibution to a cross-century of this subject based mainly on a knowledgw of the development of the teaching resources and instruments which throughout the centuries have been used in languages acquisition teaching.