Thomas Prendergast (180614 November 1886) was a British administrator in the service of the East India Company, and the inventor of the "mastery system" of learning foreign languages.

Biography

Prendergast was the son of Sir Jeffery Prendergast, born at

Clonmel Clonmel () is the county town and largest settlement of County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The town is noted in Irish history for its resistance to the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, Cromwellian army which sacked the towns of Dro ...

in 1769, who was in the service of the East India Company, becoming colonel of the 39th native infantry in 1825. Sir Jeffery served in the

Mysore War The Anglo-Mysore Wars were a series of four wars fought during the last three decades of the 18th century between the Sultanate of Mysore on the one hand, and the British East India Company (represented chiefly by the neighbouring Madras Presid ...

, was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in 1838, promoted to the rank of general in 1854, and died in 1856, having married in 1804 Elizabeth, daughter of Hew Dalrymple of Nunraw. Thomas was nominated a writer in the East India Company's service on 23 June 1826, and became assistant to the collector of Tanjore,

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

, in 1828. He was acting head assistant to the collector of Nellore on 16 January 1829, and head assistant on 9 February 1830. In 1831 he became acting sub-collector and joint magistrate of Nellore, in 1833 acting assistant judge at Guntoor, and on 8 August 1834 assistant judge of Tinnevelly, where he remained until 1838. He was afterwards for many years collector and magistrate at Rajahmundry until his retirement on the annuity fund in 1859. On his return to England he settled at

Cheltenham Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...

, and soon became totally blind. Despite this misfortune, he devoted himself to literary work, and invented what he called the "mastery system" of learning languages, based on the process pursued by children in learning to speak. By frequently repeating conversational sentences Prendergast had himself acquired the Madras vernacular, Tamil, and

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

. His system was to some extent a development of the Ollendorffian, but Prendergast elaborated its details on original lines. His success was considerable, and the various manuals in which he practically expounded his views went through numerous editions. He died at Meldon Cottage, The Park, Cheltenham, and was buried in the new cemetery on 18 November. His son, Sir Harry Prendergast, G.C.B., V.C., was commander in Burma in 1883–6.

Works

*''The Mastery of Languages, or the Art of Speaking Foreign Tongues Idiomatically'' (1864) *''Handbook to the Mastery Series'' (1868) *''The Mastery Series: French'' (1868) *''The Mastery Series: German'' (1868) *''The Mastery Series: Spanish'' (1869) *''The Mastery Series: Hebrew'' (1871) *''The Mastery Series: Latin'' (1872)

References

External links

"P is for (Thomas) Prendergast"
(

Scott Thornbury Scott Thornbury (born 1950 in New Zealand) is an internationally recognized academic and teacher trainer in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). Along with Luke Meddings, Thornbury is credited with developing the Dogme language teaching ap ...

, 6 August 2017) {{DEFAULTSORT:Prendergast, Thomas 1806 births 1886 deaths British East India Company civil servants British writers