Charles Carpenter Fries (November 29, 1887 – December 8, 1967) was an American linguist and language teacher.
He believed, along with Robert Lado, that language teaching and learning should be approached in a scientific way.
He founded the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan and served as its director from 1941 to 1956.
He conducted diachronic and synchronic studies of the English language,[5] prepared a series of English-language textbooks for foreigners, and developed, what he called 'scientific principles for the study of foreign languages'.
[citation needed] Fries was the editor of the journal Language Learning in 1948.