LB 2365 .L4 ri4 Copy 1 THAT TEACHEST ANOTHER TEACHEST THOU NOT THYSELF?'' Ml >, B*.''f.i;,.va ia« *» ^ / CS- tiK^M, VM V * g^ B METHODS OF TEACHING MODERN LANGUAGES PAPERS ON THE VALUE AND ON METHODS OF MODERN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION. BY A. Marshall Elliott, Calvln Thomas, E. S. Joynes, W. T. Hewett, F. C. DE Sumichrast, a. Lodeman, F. M, Warren, E. H. Bab- i^" > 1/^ ' \ • bitt, C. H. Grandgent, O. B. Super, C. F. Kroeh, • ^ ■ (^ • ' W. Stuart Macgowan, H. C. G. von Jagemann. ►.^^ OP co.v ^/7 rAUG 21 oj3 ) OF WASH BOSTON, U.S.A.: D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS %cf/syy 1893- A- Copyright, 1893, By D. C. Heath & Co. C. J. PETERS & SON, Type-Settbks and Ei.ectrotypeks, 146 High Stbeet, Boston. PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. In all departments of education teachers to-day, more than ever before, are reading the literature of their profession ; and it is hoped that modern language instructors may find in the following papers stimulus and suggestion in a branch of education that is now recognized as exceedingly important in any scheme of liberal training. Teachers of the modern languages have repeatedly inquired for copies of papers or addresses dealing with their profession, and it was suggested to us that it would be very acceptable and helpful if we should publish a collection of some of the best thoughts on the value and methods of Modern Language Teaching. We have therefore compiled this book of ad- dresses and articles that have come to our notice or have been mentioned to us by prominent friends of modern language instruction. By kindly consenting to their publication in this form, the authors have co-operated with us in presenting pedagogical opinions of interest to the thoughtful considera- tion of scholars and teachers. The order of these papers is due partly to their respective dates, and partly to the order in which they were suggested or presented to us. D. C. Heath & Co. Makch, 1893. + CONTENTS PAGE Modern Languagks as a Coli-kgic Discipline 1 By PU0KK,S80K A. JiAKSllALL ELLIOTT of Jolius Hopkius University. Obsehvations ui'on Method in the Teaching of Modeiin Languages 11 By I'uoKK.ssuu Calvin Thomas of tlie Uuiversity of Michigan. Heading in Modeiin Language Study 29 By Profkssou Edwaki) S. JoYNiiS of the University of South Caro- lina. The Natural Method (Criticised) 45 By Professor W. T. Hewett of Cornell University. L^ Notes on the Teaching of French 50 By Professor F. C. de .Sumiciirast of Harvard University. Practical and Psychological Tests of Modern Language Study 90 By Professor A. Lodeman of Michigan State Normal .School. Collegiate Instructio'n in the Romance Languages . . 109 By PROFES.SOR F. M. WARRENofAdelbert College. How to use Modern L.^vnguages as a Means of Mental Discipline 124 ByMu. E. n. Barbitt, Instructor in Columbia College. I'^TnE Teaching of French and German in Our Public High Schools 138 By Mr. C. FT. Grandgknt. Director of Modern Language Instruction in the Boston High and Latin Schools. VI CONTENTS. PAGE The Aim and Scope of the Study of Modekn Languages AND Methods of Teaching them 144 By Professor O. B. Super of Dickinson College. The Natukai. METHCfb (Explained) . 153 By Profkssor C. F. Kroeii of Stevens Institute of Technology. The "Reader" the Centke of Modern liANGUAGE Teach- ing 163 By Mr. W. Stuart Macgowan of Cheltenham College, England. On the Use of the Foreign Language in the Ci.ass-room. 171 By Professor H. C. G. von Jagemann of Harvard University. METHODS OF TEACHING MODERN LANGUAGES. MODERN LANGUAGES AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE.^ BY PROFESSOR A. M. ELLIOTT, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. There is one aspect of the Greek-Modern Language ques- tion on which there has been no special stress laid, so far as I have seen, in the various discussions of it that Mr. Adams's paper has called out; viz., the importance of modern lan- guage study as a special disciplinary factor of our higher education. In truth, the few references to the subject outside of the favorable view held in the Phi-Beta-Kappa oration would seem to imply a denial of the existence of such an ele- ment altogether in the modern idioms as compared with the classic tongues. The eminent president of Yale College as- serts that they "are distinctly recognized as essential condi- tions of professional and business success, or accomplishments of gentlemanly culture." Professor Josiah P. Cooke of Harvard assures us that, in his opinion, " to compare German literature with the Greek, or, what is worse, French literature with the Latin, as a means of culture, implies a forgetfulness of tlie true spirit of literary culture." And a leading con- temporary journal, after qualifying all controversy of this sort as an " inexcusable display of ignorance," adds with a 1 Read before tlie Modern Language Association of America, 1887, and reprinted witli tlie permission of tlie author. I MODERN LANGUAGES sort of oracular sanctity. " And for philology, there practically is no foundation except Latin and Greek, — and Greek rather than Latin." Such expressions ^s these show most clearly the dogmatic spirit in which this whole subject is approached by many advocates of the exclusive classical idea when the ques- tion of training comes up. As zealous holders of the only true faith, they would fain exclude the converts to modernism from all the distinctive elevating influences of their creed, and would relegate them to the domain of purely utilitarian interests, or to the changing caprices of society ; and this subordinate position is granted them more from the necessi- ties of the age in which we live than from any special feeling of their worth as members of the great corporate body of scholars. For the scholar in truth it is even hinted, in some cases, that their field is useless, and for the educator in par- ticular the subjects that occupy them are regarded as a species of cumbersome, worthless lumber that litters up the mental workshop, and that must be gotten rid of as soon as possible, if the range of the active powers of the mind is to be widened. In other words, it is set down as a tenet of axiomatic wisdom that modern languages have no place whatever among the formative elements which help to develop the mental faculties. This doctrine, however extreme it may seem, when thus plainly stated, is held by a large majority of those who repre- sent, at present, the guiding force in matters of education throughout our country ; but I apprehend that it is for the most part the result of traditional beliefs, or of the unhappy failure of methods, or of sheer prejudice in a few cases, rather than of actual experience in such matters. It may be doubted, in fact, whether this important branch of learn- ing has been represented by rigid scientific methods in our educational system sufficient to test even the most elemen- tary worth of its subjects as factors of a living power suited to intellectual growth. Until this shall be done, it is difficult to understand the fairn«ss of any comparison AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE. 3 between them and another set of kindred subjects that has long received special cultivation by the most eminent scholars, and has held a prominent place in the training of our youth. In the controversy now before the country with reference to the merits of tlie study of Greek in our higher institutions, as compared with that of science and modern languages, I fail to see the a})propriateness of disparaging remarks on the edu- cating qualities of the latter, especially as to that part of the question that touches upon the modern idioms. Science has had tlie chance to cast off her swaddling clothes, and it is now only a question of time as to the position she will eventually occupy in the list of studies that are to constitute the building- elements of the mind. With the modern languages it is wholly different. They have but just started upon the road of a true scientific development, and will naturally require some 0})portunity to show their value as educating elements. But, on general principles, such comparisons as these are more or less odious in all circumstances, and they become especially so when there is an evident intention to multiply the claims to superiority of a given department of learning over others that are allowed few or more of the privileges that attach to the would-be favorite. The inconsistency of comparing the potential forces of any two systems of educational training without first according to both of them similar opportunities of cultivation, and like circumstances of growth, is obvious to every one who has not the drag-chain of some creed about his neck. » The reproach flung at the modern languages by the pai-- tisans of the exclusive order of classical studies, that they do not show brilliant results of scholarship in this country, is but a covert way of begging the question in a discussion of their relative standing in any grade of culture. Up to now no chance has been given to show whether favorable results may be obtained from them, since other linguistic learning has held the sway, to the driving out of all serious modern language 4 MODERN LANGUAGES study. The time for pursuing them is often cut down to a minimum ; far less teaching force, proportionately, is allowed to them than to other departments ; no fixed standard of requirement is set for them, as an academic discipline ; in fine, they are practically crowded out of many college schedules, and then mercilessly inveighed against because those who fol- low them do not present, with all these disadvantages, as high arstandard of critical linguistic acquirement as if they had spent years of careful preparation in them. Until they shall have had a fair trial in the hands of Avell-trained, competent teachers ; until the study of them shall have been given all the favor in time and position which are accorded to the clas- sics in our colleges, it is difficult to see the justness of any demand that they shall make the same showing of general training or of special scholarly attainments. If we inquire into the depreciatory feeling with which the modern languages are regarded by scholars generally, we shall find, I think, that the responsibility for a great part of it, at least, rests upon the shoulders of those who have the chief power of appointment to positions in our higher in- stitutions. The fatal college nepotism that has pervaded this whole system in many places has practically ren- dered it a sort of closed corporation to all who are educated outside the pale of their own individual sanctuaries. The natural consequence has been that young, inexperienced, and, only too often, poorly prepared assistants have been called to office, and through them the departments have had to suffer not alone for a lack of efficient instruction, but also in the general appreciation both of the student and of an intelligent public. This misfortune has fallen more frequently upon the modern languages, perhaps, than upon any other depart- ments, from the simple fact that the idea is so generally prev- alent that anybody can teach them. We have only to examine a considerable number of cata- logues of our colleges to see that this unfortunate state of AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE. 5 affairs is much more extensive tlian is generally supposed. A boy who lias spent one academic year of two hours per week, for example, on his French, is then called to teach it ; or, again, a gentleman who knows nothing of either French or German receives an appointment in them, and goes abroad for two months in the summer to prepare himself for the impor- tant position ; such are but too common illustrations of the kind of hands into which these branches often fall. What wonder, then, in such circumstances, that the pupil should lose all resj^ect for his subject, and grow conceited with reference to his own acquirements in it, while as yet he has not an inkling of decent knowledge. This procedure is a downright disgrace to any system of instruction, and should be forced aside by the timely action of the leading institutions of this country, by placing all language study upon an equal footing with the same rights and privileges, and by demanding like results of discipline from both the classical and modern idioms. Tlie time would then soon come in which the latter would no longer be regarded as fit tools simply for the busi- ness man, or as only pleasing accomplishments of the society dilettanti. The importance of having specially trained teachers in this work would seem manifest from the very nature of the subject, and yet no such necessity has been generally recognized by us up to the present time. That intelligent young men become in consequence simple information machines, stuffed with systems of facts that they have no chance to digest, and that they come to play mere parrot roles, learning their task-work without any stimulus to awaken their powers of observation or shape their judgment, is unfortunately a sad fact in much of our modern language study. A further consequence of this state of things is a degradation of the subject, a stifling of all spontaneous interest, and a deadening apathy on the part of the student. No incentive is placed before him to awaken curiosity for learning, to strengthen the perceptive 6 MODERN LANGUAGES faculties, and to cultivate the power of concentrated mental effort. It is to this end that I would urge here an intelligent historical, disciplinary study of these subjects, as peculiarly adapted to a wide range and variety of minds. In recognizing this cardinal fact, German educators have given them an im- portant place in their schools and gymnasia, and for the last two decades have been thereby rewarded with most gratifying results in the general linguistic training of their youth. No- where else as there has stress been laid upon the philological study of these idioms, and the natural consequence has fol- lowed that faulty methods have been rooted out, the standard of their appreciation everywhere raised, and rich fruits gar- nered in their advance in academic discipline. It was this religious regard for the spirit rather than the letter of lan- guage that lifted Germany out of the Slough of Despond in which all linguistic study was sunk three-quarters of a century ago, and gave her such vantage ground over all other nations that they will probably never be able to overtake her in this work. Here, too, just in proportion as methods have been bettered and the true spirit of linguistic training developed, the modern languages have risen higher and higher in the scale of potent agencies for mind-culture, and, in some parts of the empire, have for years stood beside the classics and shared with them all their rights and privileges. The begin- nings of a similiar change, too, have been noted in our own country, where, in proportion as the worth of these studies has become known, they have universally taken a higher stand among the disciplince for special education. The wealth of material they offer for philological training and historical investigation is becoming more appreciated every day, and it is now only a bold spirit and rigidly scientihc method that are generally needed to raise them, in the estimation of scholars, above the plane of simple "polite accomplishments." The principles and scope of their scientific study have never been stated clearly and sharply enough in our plans of college edu- AS A C0LLEGI5 DISCIPLINE. 7 cation, and the result has been that they are only too often regarded as fit subjects for those who work little, and there- fore as necessarily constituting a part of the "soft electives," that " Serbonian bog " where all intellectual virtues are swal- lowed up. The defective methods according to which they are some- times taught, and the summary manner in which they are fre- (juently shoved aside when they clash with other studies, cannot but discredit them in the mind of the serious student. It cannot be doubted, too, that it is a grave mistake for edu- cators to depreciate their value so long as they occupy a place in our scheme of instruction, since it is absurd to suppose tliey do not exert a detrimental influence on the habits of dis- cipline in other departments when they are thus disparagingly treated. No one set of disciplinary elements can be specially neglected, as a part of any given system, without producing baneful effects upon others connected with it, however remote they may be in subject-matter, or different in mode of presen- tation. But we are obliged to confess that this attitude of college authorities toward the modern language branches is in part, at least, the fault of the department itself. The shift- less, slip-shod instruction that boasts of teaching any language with two hours per week, during a single academic year, must naturally tend to make a slouch of the otherwise honest, en- thusiastic student, and turn into a conceited charlatan the pupil who, for lack of previous sound training, is disposed to skim over his subjects. To earnest and experienced educators such a procedure must seem sheer nonsense, and it is to be ex- pected, therefore, that they will have as little of it as possible. The fact of the matter is, that our whole system of modern language instruction needs overhauling in this respect before it can hope to command the consideration that it ought to have, both from scholars in other departments, and from the public at large. It is useless to plead for favor on the one hand, and blame those who underrate its value on the 8 MODERN LANGUAGES other, unless we recast our methods, and show by convincing results that there is abundant material for our work. The subject-matter is surely not at fault with reference to the pres- ent abnormal position this branch of learning holds in the estimation of scholars. Obloquy has been thrown upon it be- cause of unjust prejudices in certain cases ; in others be- cause the new-comer does not tread the accustomed ruts of a traditional creed. It is, therefore, viewed with suspicion ; but until its powers shall have been tested by the same dis- cipline of years required for other departments, and it shall have failed to meet the demands made of it, we can hardly es- teem it fair to condemn it to the exclusive and not flattering regime of society circles and of business interests. No means, in my opinion, could at present be more efficient in raising this subject to a higher level of development than the introduction of a thorough historical basis for all college work. It is stating a trite fact when we assert that every intelligent pupil is in- terested in understanding the whys and wherefores of phe- nomena that he has learned to use mechanically. How much greater interest, then, must a subject arouse in him from the beginning, if, instead of playing a parrot-like part, he is led to exercise his ingenuity and test his powers in the discovery of relations before hidden to him ; and this he will readily do if the history is steadily kept before him of the growth oi form and expression, with their resemblances to modes of thought already familiar to him, and to the natural develop- ment of the varying phenomena of speech in general. Lan- guage thus ceases to be a sort of " Fifteen Puzzle " to him, since he sees philosophy enough in it to lubricate the other- wise dry machinery of grammar. He learns with zest any new series of facts connected with it because they serve, in their turn, to further illustrate the principles that have become fundamental notions, so to speak, in his mind. And no ex- perienced educator, I think, will maintain that the learner can acquire these habits of comparison and reflection more AS A COLLEGE DISCIPLINE. 9 readily in a vehicle or system of thought the farther separated it is from his own. The real training that belongs to all lan- guage-study must come more rapidly in proportion as we can eliminate differences of idioms during the primary stages of it, and carry the pupil back to a few principal sources of growth, which have their raison (Vetre in a common origin. The modern idioms will suggest themselves, here, as most valuable adjuncts to this rational mode of language-study, since their processes of creation and development lie within the range of strict historical proof, and their life-liistory may be followed up step by step through all the stages of their complex growth. If it is the object to get the learner as far away as possible from his natural intellectual bent, as some writers on this subject would seem to suggest, why not ply him with Chinese or Arabic formula, which would require ex- traordinary mental gymnastics ? Why not force him, from the start, to spend time in casting his thoughts in the artifi- cial mould of Sanskrit or some other complex system, as foreign as possible to his natural analytic routine ? It is precisely to avoid this squandering of time and energy that a study of the modern European languages is so useful before proceeding to that of the older tongues. The student in them becomes ac- quainted with forms of thought-expression closely allied to his own ; his mind can suit itself to the new clothing with less waste of time than by tbe reverse i)rocess ; and thus by a reg- ular progression from the better-known types of his own tongue to the less familiar word-building and phrase-setting of the new idiom, he attains the objects of his labors. I hold, in truth, that the rational way to learn language is the same as for other things ; that is, to move from the known to the un- known, to pass from the native tongue to the next-lying liv- ing system, where this is possible, and thence to that form of speech in which the so-called dead language is locked up. To study Latin, therefore, I would begin with French and work on to a tolerable mastery of Italian, after which the mother- 10 MODERN LANGUAGES. idiom would come almost of itself, and all three languages would be learned more understaudingly than the ancient tongue alone can possibly be according to the present system ; and the time required for all three, I think, would be found little more than what we now spend on Latin. However un- orthodox this doctrine may seem, I have seen it tried in a few cases with such marked success that I am sure, if for Mr. Adams some such bridge as this could have been thrown across the chasm between his native English and the domain of Greek roots, we should never have known "A College Eetich." But, on the other hand, even if we accept the cur- rent theory, and place the older idioms first in the line of lin- guistic topics to be presented to the mind, irrespective of any natural relation, it seems to me self-evident that our order of progression would be incomplete if we should allow any break to exist between the training-period of youth and the future practical activity of the man. Between college and life there ought to be no gap. The ending of every system of instruc- tion, whatever it may be, should naturally lap on to the sphere of those broader and more varied duties that crowd upon the man in the fierce battle of his after-life. And I cannot but feel, therefore, that Schleiermacher is wholly correct when he remarks in his Erzielningslehre, '' If the natural passage from the school into life is not reached, then we have either been upon a false route, or we did not begin right." Have we in America struck this bridge in language-study ? Does the present position of modern languages in our higher institu- tions, as connecting-link between the old and the new, between classicism and modern life, fully represent that stage of care- ful transition discipline which our age demands ? OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE TEACH- ING OF MODERN LANGUAGES.^ BY PROFESSOR CALVIN THOMAS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. It is a very common practice in professional discussions to begin with some remarks upon the importance of one's subject. I, however, will venture upon a different kind of exordium by expressing the opinion that my subject is not of much importance ; or, at any rate, that it is not half so momentous as a great many people suppose it to be. I have a conviction which has been strengthening for some time, that the subject of method in teaching receives in general more attention than it deserves. I think it probable, nay to my mind it is certain, that a good deal of the teaching that goes on in this country is suffering severely because of haying too much stress upon matters of method. Quite a large portion of the teaching fraternity are making of method, if not a fetish to worship, at least a hobby to ride, and that to the detriment of the country's highest pedagogical interests. If I can trust my own observation, a person's reverence for what is com- monly called method usually varies inversely with his own intellectual breadth. Let these remarks of mine not be misunderstood. There is a sense in which a teacher's method is the most important thing about him, is, in fact, the essential source of his power and his influence. His method in this sense is nothing less than his entire character displaying itself in his work. It designates not so much a mode of procedure for accomplishing 1 Read at the first meeting of the Michigan Schoolmasters' Club, 1S86, 12 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE a particular piece of work, as rather the spirit which informs and directs all his work. In other words, it is the working expression of his personality, his general way of imparting his own intellectual life to his pupil. But the word method is much more commonly used as synonymous with routine. It has reference to the details of procedure, and is a name, not for the incommunicable secret of personality, but for the easily divulged secret of machinery. Now, it is method in this latter sense that I think receives more respect and more attention than it deserves. I am aware, of course, that it is not easy always to keep these two senses rigidly apart in one's mind, and to respect method in the former sense while thinking but indifferently of it in the latter. One's routine may be inti- mately bound up with his personality, but it need not be so, and usually it is not so. Nor do I say that matters of routine are never of any moment. There may be circumstances in which it is highly important to decide between the comparative merits of two or more processes for accomplishing a given result. What I deprecate is the wide-spread tendency I ob- serve to treat routine as if that were the thing of chief impor- tance ; as if it were the real key to a teacher's power and usefulness. For that it certainly is not. There are always two other questions upon which more depends than upon this questions of. How ? These are the questions, What ? and Why ? Let the teacher put to himself the inquiries : What knowledge or capacity is it that I am seeking to impart ? and to what end ? Let him settle these clearly in his own mind, and then the question, How best to teach ? will usually take care of itself. At any rate, it will no longer seem a difficult or bewildering problem. Having now defined my position with regard to method in general, I turn to the subject of modern languages for the purpose of illustrating, amplifying, and perhaps here and there qualifying, the views already set forth. In recent years the public has heard a great deal about a so- TEACHING OF MODERN LANG U AGES. 13 called natural method in the teachinj^ of languages. This method is really nothing new in tlie history of the world ; it has been known and used for centuries. But it has acquired great notoriety in this country of late on account of the vigor- ous crusade its votaries have been carrying on against the tradi- tional practice of the schools. What this traditional practice is, is of course well enough known. A pupil wlio is to study, let us say German, is first required to commit to memory the grammatical inflections of the language. For the purpose of aiding his memory in the retention of the grammatical forms, and also for the purpose of giving him the beginnings of a vocabulary, he reads as he goes along a certain number of easy German exercises, and likewise translates a number of easy English exercises into German. All of this study is es- sentially grammatical. The learner then takes up some Ger- man reader, with which he works for a few weeks or months, as the case may be, the aim being to fix thoroughly in his mind the elementary i)rincii)les of tlie language he has been studying. After this he takes up the study of literature, and liis goal is henceforth simply to learn to read German as readily and as intelligently as possible. Now, a few years ago we began to hear from certain quarters that all this is wrong; that a pupil should learn a foreign tongue just as he learned his mother tongue in his infancy; that is, by at once beginning to hear it spoken and to imitate what he hears. We are told that the initial study of grammar is unnatural, since the child hears nothing of the grammar of his own language until after he has learned to speak said lan- guage, and to speak it, mayhap, with commendable correct- ness. From this the corollary naturally follows that the teacher's chief effort should be to see to it that his pupil shall of all tilings learn to speak the language he is studying. The originators of this agitation were in the main very excellent teachers, who would have succeeded with any method. As it was, having secured good results of a certain kind, they began 14 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE to think the magic was in the method rather than in them- selves. They were able to secure striking testimonials from distinguished persons as to their success in teaching pupils to speak, and so they started an agitation. And the agitation has grown. Its promoters have multiplied and spread abroad through the land. They are busily writing articles, essays, prefaces, in praise of their doctrine. To a certain extent they have got the ear of the public, wiiich is usually ready to listen to any one that comes talking majestically about " modern ways " of doing things, and winking his eye and biting his thumb at the expense of the old fogies. Many of these ener- getic reformers use very positive language. They tell us in effect that a notable educational conflict has been going on, which has now, however, been decided in their favor. They claim to have carried through a great reform, and do not hesi- tate to assure the public that any one who in these days con- tinues to teach a modern language in the old way is behind the age. Out of much literature in this vein which is continually falling under my eye I will quote only the following, from the preface to a lately published German Eeader : — " It is now conceded by most teachers," says this writer, ^' that, in learning any modern language, little is gained by beginning with the study of the grammar, and that the most successful method is the natural one, by which a child learns to speak its own language ; i. e., by constant practice in conver- sation. A mass of grammatical rules and forms at the outset renders the subject dry and uninteresting, and the time so spent can be much more profitably employed in colloquial ex- ercises, which are absolutely necessary in acquiring fluency of speech, no matter how thoroughly the rules of grammar have been mastered." Surely it is trifling with serious matters to say of such a statement as this that it is important if true. If true, it is, in the light of what is now actually going on in the great majority of American schools and colleges, enough to take one's breath away. TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 15 What, then, are the merits of this position ? What are the general merits of this controversy so far as there is any con- troversy ? (The quarrel is after all a very one-sided one.) This is a question which, as I surmise, must be of especial in- terest to persons who may have found it necessary or conven- ient to undertake to teach a modern language before having attained to a very wide or deep scholarship in the language, and before they have formed through personal experience an independent judgment with regard to the matter under con- sideration. Such persons may well vv'ish to know how a conservative teacher can go on his way and live and labor una- baslied in the face of all these breezy proclamations like the one quoted. Well, I have something to say on that subject; but, before proceeding to say it, I desire to remark incidentally that tlie statement quoted is very far from being true. What the writer says is : " It is noxo conceded hij most teachers, that in learning any modern language, little is gained by beginning with the study of the grammar." To be true, the statement should run : " It is now conceded, and for that matter always has been conceded by most teachers, that with pupils of a certain kind, and for the attainment of certain results, little is gained by beginning with the study of the grammar." Or to speak more explicitly : all teachers are agreed that if you wish to teach any one to speak a language, the learner must be given practice in speaking. Tlie sooner you begin, and the more practice you offer, the better. But this is not an admis- sion wrung but yesterday from the teaching profession by the successes of the natural method. Nobody, so far as I know, ever held or advocated any other opinion. Then, as to that other observation that a " mass of gram- matical rules and forms at the outset renders the subject dry and uninteresting," when shall we hear the end of such non- sense ? When shall we see the end of this wretched desire to make all things soft and sweet for tlie youths and maidens of 16 OBSERVATIONS tTPOK METHOD IN THE this generation ? Grammar deals with the facts and the laws of language, and language is the most important of all human institutions. Whatever interest, whatever charm, attaches to the study of any historical science ought to attach to the study of language. The facts of grammar are as interesting as any other facts, and the laws of grammar are as interesting as other laws. It was doubtless unfortunate to subordinate sense, poetry, philosophy, history, — everything to grammar, as was done by a good many teachers, especially of the Greek and Latin, a few years ago. There are better uses for the masterpieces of literature than to be made so many vehicles for teaching grammar. But, on the other hand, it is equally pernicious to speak of grammar and to treat it as if it were some miasma from which the dear boys and girls must be ten- derly shielded just as far as possible. Let them learn the grammar and learn it well. It will be good for them. If the teacher has the instincts of a scholar himself, the facts of lan- guage will not seem dull or uninteresting to him ; and if they do not seem so to him, he will usually contrive that they shall not seem so to his pupil. But suppose that they do seem so ? Or rather, suppose the learner occasionally has a sensation that he is working ? What of it ? There are worse things in the world than that. He is supposed to be preparing in school for life, and when he gets out of school the Genius of Life will admonish him at every turn that valuable acquisi- tions have to be worked for. He may as well learn early to face this simple doctrine and to make the best of it. It is no part of the teacher's business to make things easy at the ex- pense of thoroughness. It is a mistake if he thinks that the real and lasting regard of his pupil can be won in that way. Healthy boys and girls, and young men and young women in school and college, do not want an easy time. They wish for work to do, and they enjoy work. It is not their desire to float down the stream with a soft-hearted pedagogue to keep them clear of all the difficulties and asperities of navigation. TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGF:S. 17 They prefer to paddle, and if the course lies up the stream, against a tolerably swift current, they like it all the better. In the high school they may talk freely about the sweets of idleness, and may at times seem to be rather fertile in precau- tions against over-exertion. So the college student will often profess to have a lively affinity for what he calls a " soft snap." But this is simply a conventional student dialect, — a surface indication, which belies what is underneath. The truth is that the vast majority of students in both school and college prefer to be kept busy, and they have, both in the long run and in the short run, the greatest respect for the teacher who gives them work to do, insists upon their doing it, and does not seem over anxious to make things easy. Res severa verum gaudium is the true student motto the world over. I am of course not saying that of two ways for accomplish- ing a given end the more difficult and laborious is to be chosen on the ground that students after all like to work, and that work is good for them. By no means. There are always subjects enough to learn which will tax one's strength all that it ought to be taxed. It is therefore always a proper and wise economy to select the easiest way of attaining any given result. What I am arguing is, that when a line of work has once proved its usefulness, it is not to be discarded and spoken ill of simply because the learner finds it difficult or " dry." The road which he thinks dry and difficult may be precisely the best road for him to travel. I come now to the application of the thought expressed some time ago, which Avas, in effect, that any controversy con- cerning method in teaching will usually be found to have un- derlying it a more important question as to what should be taught. This is certainly true in the case before us. The issue between the advocates of the natural method and those who use the other method does not turn upon the comparative merits of two ways for accomplishing the same purpose ; it 18 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE turns upon the comparative merits of two different purposes to be accomplished. The alternative is simply this : Is it best in teaching a modern language to make it our chief aim that the learner shall acquire some ability to speak the language, or shall we make it our chief business to teach him to read the language with some scientific understanding of it ? If one accepts the former as the true ideal of school and college instruction, then it is very certain that the natural method, or any modification of it which affords tlie utmost possible practice in speaking, is the best method. If, on the other hand, one accepts the lat- ter as the true ideal, then it is equally certain that the other method is the better. What, then, is the true ideal ? What ought we to aim at in the teaching of a modern language ? Or rather, what ought we to aim at in the teaching of a modern language in school and college ? This limitation of the question is of importance, since the circumstances under which we are compelled to work in school and college may very possibly exercise a de- termining influence upon us when we are attempting to decide the questions what to aim at and how to go to work. For example : I might, and very certainly I should, proceed in one way with a large class of university students whom I ex- pected to meet four times a week, and in quite another way with a child who was to live with me for several years in my own family ; and in still another way with a class of three or four whom I expected to be with me for several hours each day. We must look at this question with reference to the circumstances that are, and forever must be, imposed upon us in school and college. German, for example, is not begun by our pupils in their early childhood, nor can the study be kept vip for ten or twelve years. In the present crowded state of our school and collegiate courses such a thing is out of the question, and it must forever remain out of the question unless it can be shown that some great, some very great advantage TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 19 would result from it. In my opinion no such showing will ever be made. I admit, of course, that if all persons who studied German in our schools were to begin the study in childhood, and to begin it with the expectation of keeping it up through a long succession of years, then certain questions might arise with regard to the teaching of the language which are not now living questions at all. I, however, am very far from thinking that such an innovation would be desirable. So tliat I can claim to be discussing this subject here not simply from the standpoint of what is and what is likely to continue to be, but also from the standpoint of what ought to be. Upon hearing this inquiry, What should be our aim in the teaching of German ? many persons, particularly those who are themselves unschooled, will be inclined to answer at once : Why, it should be your aim to impart to your pupil a com- plete mastery of the language, so that he can read, write, and speak it ; can even think in it, or crack jokes and write verses in it. But those who have done some work upon a foreign language, and especially those who have tried to teach one, will understand at once that a programme of this sort would be simply what Mr. Tilden called a "barren ideality." It is of no use to hitch our wagon to a star in that fashion. To learn to speak any language in any decent manner demands long and assiduous practice in speaking. To learn to speak it at all well demands long association with those who speak it as their native tongue. And this requires tjme. To learn to read a language, again, requires long practice in reading. One must have read a large number of books from different periods of the language. He must have acquired some first-hand familiarity with its literature. And this, again, requires time. We have here two different disciplines. Now, if in our school work one of these disciplines is accented, the other must be neglected. There is simply no other way, without involving a very much greater expenditure of time than we now make. Which, then, shall we accent ? 20 OBSERVATIONS UPON RIETHOD IN THE Among the great unschooled public the ability, real or apparent, to speak a foreign language undoubtedly counts as a great thing. They look upon such ability as the natural and necessary outcome of linguistic study. Parents covet the accomplishment for their children. For a long time a little French was a necessary item in the intellectual outfit of a fashionable young lady. All over the country multitudes of boys and girls are trying to learn to speak German, and that without reference to any particular use they expect to make of the acquisition, but from the general impression that it's a good thing to do. Very intelligent people are now and then found crying out that it is a disgrace that students should pursue the study of German four or five years, and then not be able to speak it. As if that, and that only, were the true criterion by which to decide whether the stiident has got any good from the study. Well, now let us inquire what is the precise value, for average graduates of our schools and colleges, of the ability to speak a foreign language ? I say average graduates, since it is obviously with reference to them that we must shape our courses of study and our methods of teaching. We cannot shape these with reference to the occasional student who might wish to prepare for a residence in Germany or for a position as German clerk in a business house. Whatever value the ability to speak a foreign language may have for average graduates ought to be found, I should say, along one of two lines. Its value ought to be either practical or educational. I *am aware of no other lines of importance along which its value ought reasonably to be sought. The word "practical" I use here in the manner of the world's people as synonymous with commercial. That is, to be sure, a very vicious use of the word. I would not for a moment admit that, even if a much better case could be made out than can be for the commercial value of the ability to speak a for- eign language, that therefore we should make the imparting TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 21 of such ability the chief aim of our teaching in the schools. We cannot throw too often or too hard in the face of the public the fact that our business is educational. Our work is the building up and the leading out of minds, and not the teaching of crafts, trades, tricks, and techniques to get a liv- ing with. Whatever has a high educational value has a high 'practical value, since nothing is of more practical moment than the training of minds. But using the dialect of the age, what is to be said of the practical, i. e., commercial, value of the ability to speak a foreign tongue ? This is a matter about which I imagine that a good deal of loose thinking and talking prevails, which have given rise to misapprehension. It is of course true that the command of two languages has, for one who is seeking a position in a community where there is a large foreign population, a real commercial value. To deny this would be absurd. Professional and business men are continually saying in our hearing, " I'd give a thou- sand dollars if I could speak German." The boy or the girl who desires employment in a city like this, or like Detroit, undoubt- edly has an advantage if able to speak German. But what kind of ability is it that is meant in such cases ? A smattering of the language will not suffice. It is not enough that the appli- cant should be able to say. Good-morning ! and How do you do ? and What time is it ? It will not suffice if he even have at his tongue's end the whole wisdom of Ollendorf, and be able to say ever so glibly that the wife of the butcher is more handsome than the nephew of the baker. But he must be able to speak German ; not as school-children use that phrase, not as it is used by the professors in summer schools of languages, but as men of business and of the world under- stand it. He must have, at least for all the purposes of the position that he seeks, a fluent and ready command of the language. But cannot this superior grade of ability be imparted in the schools ? Practically it cannot. It is indeed true that 22 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE if any competent teacher were to take a very small class of boys, all of whom wished to become German clerks in a dry- goods store, and if he were to meet them every day for an hour and talk nothing but dry-goods store to them for a mat- ter of two or three years, he might thus contrive to give them an indifferent preparation for entrance upon the duties of Ger- man clerk in a dry-goods store. But their preparation would be none of the best. They could get a much better one, and that too in less time, by means of an apprenticeship, or by living in a German famil}^. And then the time has not come for managing our educational institutions on that principle. But perhaps it may be asked whether it is not possible, by means of general conversational instruction and practice in the schools, to impart such command of the German language for all purposes, that the learner upon leaving school can fill any position where a knowledge of German is required? In answer to that question it must be said emphatically that it is not possible. The conditions of the school forbid. The teacher meets his pupils in classes (and these classes are often large), five hours or less each week of the school year. Each pupil has a few minutes' practice on certain days of the week in speaking German. All the rest of the time, with his teacher, his schoolmates, his parents at- home, he speaks Eng- lish. Now, no one can learn to speak a foreign language in that way. To do that requires months or even years of con- stant practice, through association with those who speak the language as their mother tongue. You can no more teach a person to speak a foreign language by means of class instruc- tion given at stated intervals, than you can teach him to swim by giving courses of illustrated lectures in a 7 X 9 bath-room. The thing never has been done, never will be done by the natural method or by any other method ; and any one who professes to be able to do it may be safely set down as a quack. I know very well that some rather striking results can be achieved in this direction. I have experimented with TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 23 the matter myself, and am familiar with the reports of those who have done much more and much better than I can claim to have done. It is possible by sedulous attention to the sub- ject, continued through a considerable period of time, to teach a class to speak German in the class-room with tolerable flu- ency and correctness. Any one not an expert listening to such a class easily gets the impression that they can really handle the German language, — can actually " speak German" in some proper sense of the term. But alas, it is only the class-room dialect that they speak. Their discourse moves in a very narrow range. They do but say over certain phrases and sentences and idioms that they have heard and learned. Out- side of this beaten round of expression, which they never hear or need to use outside of the class-room, they are perfectly helpless. On the street, at the store, in society, their German ''conversation " leaves them in the lurch at once when they attempt to operate it. And so they take to using their costly acquisition of foreign speech simply for purposes of diversion. They say, " Wie befiiiden Sie sich," or " Comvient vous portez-vous ? " where they might just as well say, " How are you ? " and make no further use of their accomplishment. The simple truth is that the attainable results in this direc- tion of teaching students in the class-room to speak a foreign language are so insignificant as to be utterly devoid of any practical value whatever, out in the world. And so there is no use in aiming at these results with reference to their com- mercial value, even if we were to admit the propriety of teach- ing subjects in school and college out of purely commercial considerations. But what of the educational value of this acquisition ? This is for us the really important question. I have spoken of its supposed commercial value only for the purpose of correcting what I deem a common misapprehension. I have tried to show that the smattering of conversational ability which the schools can impart is worthless on the market, and, conversely, that 24, OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE the kind, of ability which has a market value is beyond the reach of school training to impart. If we should attempt to impart it by quadrupling the time given to the study, and. by devoting all our energies to teaching conversation, we should even then be coming into hopeless competition with other easier and more expeditious methods of acquiring the same thing. One who especially desired to learn to speak German could learn it so much better by living a few months in a German family. Furthermore, in this country, wherever a foreign population is numerou.s enough to make a knowledge of two languages commercially valuable, there are always a multitude of boys and girls growing up who are bilingual from childhood. They are usually numerous enough to fill all positions where their particular capacity is specially required. Who would pass by them to take up with the imperfect, un- satisfactory product of the schools ? We must, therefore, it seems to me, admit that if the ability to speak a foreign language has an}^ value that is within the reach of the schools, that value must be educational. How is it, then, with regard to this ? There is a wide-spread impres- sion that the ability to speak a foreign language is in itself an important evidence of culture. It would appear as if this impression ought to correct itself when one sees how very many people there are in the world who can speak two or more languages with some fluency, and who are nevertheless without anything that can properly be called education. But the impression does not correct itself. People go on assuming that any person who can speak another tongue than his native one must have passed through a course of intellectual disci- pline proportionate in value to his fluency in speaking. In the minds of many, — and even of many who ought to know better, — fluency of speech is the only criterion by which to judge whether a course of study in a modern language has been profitable. Now, all this is very erroneous. The ability to speak a for- TEACHING OF MODEKN LANGUAGES. 26 eign language is a matter of practice, not of intellectual disci- pline. Proficiency in the acconiplisliment depends simply upon the opportunity one has had, and the use one has made of his opportunity, for practice. It is a trick, a craft, a tech- nique, quite comparable with the ability to telegraph, or to write short-hand. It has in itself only a very slight and a very low educational value. Suppose that an English-speaking boy some day learns at school that the German for ''All men are mortal " is " Alle 3'Ienschen sind sterhlich." What has he added to his intellectual outfit ? Nothing at all. He has simply got hold of a new set of symbols by which to commu- nicate, if necessary, an idea that was already in his mind. From an educational point of view his acquisition is of the same order as if he had learned to tick off the English words on a telegraph instrument, to write them in short-hand, or to set tliem in type in a printing-office. But education deals with the getting of new ideas, with the enlargement of the mental horizon. The thought that I am here seeking to pre- sent finds a good illustration in the ease with which very young children learn to talk in a foreign language. If a mem- ber of this club, ignorant of German, were to go to Germany for a year's residence, and to take with him his three-year-old son ; and if then he were to engage a teacher for himself, and work hard for a year, making use of all the expedients which are usually resorted to for the purpose of learning to speak German, meanwhile letting his son play at liberty about the house and street, he would find at the end of the year that he himself would be able to speak German in a halting, imper- fect, unidiomatic, humiliating sort of way, which would betray his foreign extraction at every word. The little four-year-old, on the other hand, would use the language, so far as he needed to use language at all, just like a native. The reverse of this depressing picture is that upon returning home the child would, at the end of a second year, completely have lost his acquisition, while the father's would have suffered but little. 26 OBSERVATIONS UPON METHOD IN THE This furnishes us with the real argument against sending our children abroad, or putting them in the charge of foreign gov- ernesses, in order that they may learn to speak German and French in childhood. The accomplishment acquired with such ease by tlie little ones goes just as easily as it came when the opportunity for constant practice is withdrawn. The plan is a good one where the circumstances are such that one will have through life constant need and occasion to make use of the accomplishment acquired thus in infancy. Such circum- stances exist in numerous European countries. For the grad- uates of our schools and colleges, however, circumstances of that kind do not exist. Even if we could in the schools accomplish far more than we really can in the way of impart- ing conversational ability, it woukl still not be worth while to make that our chief aim, since we should be perfectly sure that in a few years after leaving school our graduates would lose through lack of practice the accomplishment so labori- ously acquired. It is, of course, no objection to a study that the learner is going to forget it, provided that the study has in itself an educational value, or lays a foundation upon which the learner can build further all through his after-life. If he fails to build, that is his own faulty and not that of his teacher or of his schooling. If he forgets what he knew after having once got an educational value out of it, what of it ? Let him forget it. His forgetting is no sign that his former study was thrown away. There is a good deal of nonsense talked and written on that subject. But if the thing learned is without educational value in itself, is an accomplishment, a technique of the fingers or of the vocal organs, then it is obviously a very grave objection to the teaching of it, if we know that the learner will soon forget it through lack of practice. Who would think it good policy to go to the trouble and expense of teaching our students telegraphy or type-setting if it were certain that nine-tenths of them would soon forget the acqui- sition through lack of practice ? TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. 27 I conclude, then, that the educational value of learning to speak a foreign language is of itself very small. There can, however, be no doubt that language-study is one of the most potent educational instruments we know anything about. How is this ? Where does this value lie, if not in learning to speak the language ? Why, it lies in learning to read it. It lies in the deepening and broadening of the mind that come from the introduction to a new literature. It lies in the grad- ual working of one's way into the intellectual life of another people. It lies in the gradual taking up into one's own being of what has been thought and felt by the greatest of other lands and of other days. Or, along another line, it lies in the scientific study of the language itself, in the consequent train- ing of the reason, of the powers of observation, comparison, and synthesis; in short, in the up-building and strengthening of the scientific intellect. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the world to-day who cannot converse at all in German, in French, in Latin, or in Greek, but Avhose intellect- ual debt to one or all of these languages is nevertheless simply inestimable. For myself, I can say with perfect sincerity that I look upon my own ability to speak German simply as an accomplishment to which I attach no great importance. If such a thing were possible I would sell it for money, and use the money to buy German books with ; and it would not take an exorbitant price to buy it either. But, on the other hand, what I have got from my ability to read German, that is, my debt to the German genius through the German language, I would no more part with than I would part with my memories of the past, my hopes for the future, or any other integral portion of my soul. Such being my views with regard to language-study and the source of its value, my views as to methods of teaching a lan- guage will follow of themselves. The teaching of a modern or of an ancient language in school or college should be thorough and scientific. It should have as its aim to acquaint 28 TEACHING OF MODERN LANGUAGES. the learner with and fix in his mind the fundamental facts of the language and to introduce him to its literature. In this way a foundation will be laid for an acquirement which the learner can go on perfecting and making more and more use- ful to himself through all his after-life. He can be perfecting it not simply when he has a foreigner to talk with and to bore, but by himself in the privacy of home, wherever and when- ever he can get a book to read. In the laying of this founda- tion a certain amount of colloquial practice is desirable. There are some things about a language that are needful to learn which can really be learned better and faster in this way than in any other. It is well to give some time to the memorizing of phrases, sentences, and idiomatic peculiarities, and to afford oral practice in the proper use of these. In no other way is a true feeling for the language, a proper Sprachgefilhl, to be ac- quired. But this work should not be a mere empirical imita- tion of the teacher or of the book. It should appeal to the learner's intellect, as well as store his memory and discipline his vocal organs. Especially should it be treated not as itself the end of study but as a means to an end, that end being linguistic and literary scholarship. READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY." / BY PROFESSOR EDWARD S. JOYNES, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA. It is with extreme diffidence that I offer to read a paper before this Association. My own teaching is done under con- ditions of such disadvantage, with students so poorly pre- pared and with results so unsatisfactory, that I cannot but feel how presumptuous it would be in me to attempt here to teach those who themselves teach under so much happier con- ditions and to so much better purpose than I can do. My sole apology might be an experience which, covering now three decades of language-teaching, has passed through many phases, both of our professional activity at large and of my own individual Avork. But these phases, for myself person- ally, have been rather renewals of effort and of disappoint- ment than landmarks of progress or of triumph ; and this experience, if I could recount it, might serve rather as a warn- ing than as an example. So that it is as a seeker rather than as a giver that I come, to share my counsel with my more fa- vored brethren ; in order that by the confession of my own shortcomings, and especially by the criticism and discussion which this paper may elicit, I may be helped, and so per- chance may help others, to find "• the better way." I am conscious, too, that my argument is addressed not so much to the members of this Association, who surely need no advice from me, as to a wider circle of humbler teachers who 1 Read before the Modern Language Association of America, 1880, and reprinted with the permission of the author. 30 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. may be reached and perchance helped through this agency ; as from the mountain-tops may be flashed beacon-lights to those who are laboring in the valleys below. I therefore rec- ognize the fitness of the reference of this paper to the Peda- gogical Section, which I hope may more and more engage hereafter the attention and sympathy of the Association. In the stormier days of a controversy now happily abated, we have often heard the reproach made — some of us perhaps in our "fighting moods" have made it ourselves — against our brethren, the classical teachers, that the great majority of graduates wholly forget their Greek and Latin in after-life. Now, it might be answered that so ungracious a charge carries with it its own refutation. AVhat a man has not learned he cannot unlearn, nor can he forget what he has never got. And if, under any old-time method of classical teaching, stu- dents did not learn Greek and Latin, but only learned about them, it is not strange that they should not know, or use, or love, these languages in later life. Yet, after all, and at the worst, this charge, if true, would not prove that the methods of even such classical study had failed to confer discipline and culture of life-long benefit, even when the Latin inflec- tions, or the Greek alphabet itself, had been entirely forgot- ten. A far more serious matter it would be, however, if such a charge could be established against our modern languages. For, apart from all questions of method or of relative value in education, the modern languages, it seems, should at least be more vital — I mean in closer relation to our actual life ; at least comparatively more for ^ise, and less for discipline only; for the creation of new instruments of active power rather than for the mere training of faculty ; for the mani- fold needs of a living present rather than for even the high- est communion with the past. And if, under all these advantages, a like charge could be sustained against our department, it would be a far more serious imputation upon the value of our work, or at least upon the methods of our teaching. READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 31 Now it is precisely this charge which 1 find myself com- pelled to make, against myself at least, if not against others. I am fully aware of the disadvantages of my own teaching, and of the shortcomings of my own effort and performance ; yet I cannot believe my experience to be wholly exceptional. Let me ask you to do as I have done again and again, to my sorrow. Try your graduates of five, ten, fifteen years ago. Ask them, as you meet them at commencement or elsewhere, how many, outside of professional scholars, "keep up" their French and German ? How many still read these languages ? How many love to read them, or would not prefer even a poor translation ? How many use them as instruments of research or information ? Into how many lives have they entered as an abiding presence of sweetness and light, the perpetual heritage of a new birth of intellectual liberty and power ? Or, by how many have they been disused, laid aside, forgot- ten or used only to read a chance quotation, and remembered only as associated with college tasks and the fading " dream of things that were " ? This is a hard question — here perhaps an ungracious, and for me, it may be, an impertinent one. But I have been ask- ing it for many years, and without gratifying answer. I want my colleagues to ask it, — if not of their graduates, at least to themselves ; and to all who can answer " Not guilty," the ar- gument of this paper does not apply. Yet, I regret to say, I fear that the great majority of all our graduates lay aside and forget their modern languages, after graduation, to a degree only less complete because these are perhaps less easy to for- get, than do classical students lay aside and forget their Greek and Latin. Now if this is true, even in any large degree, why is it true ? The answer I believe is the same in both cases : because, instead of teaching modern languages, we spend so much of the limited time allowed us in teaching only about them, or in the unprofitable pursuit of false objects by false 32 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. methods ; and thus, like the dog in the stream, snatching at the shadow, we lose the substance and the shadow too. Whatever diverse views may be maintained as to the varied benefits of classical study, it will surely be admitted that the chief object of the study, say of French and German, is to know French and German ; and that, for the vast majority of all our students, the chief object of knowing them is to read them. I do not here include private instruction for special pur- poses or under special circumstances, but only such instruc- tion as, seeking '■ the greatest good of the greatest number," should be regularly offered in the organized classes of our higher institutions of learning. And of this, too, I speak only within what may be called strictly collegiate limits, meaning thereby, in a word, such study as is general for large classes within definite courses, and not including the higher special — or more strictly university — study, whose highest law is liberty. JSTow, it seems scarcely to need argument, that for this ^[ greatest number " of all our modern language students, in school or college, the " greatest good " that our teaching can confer is the poiver to read, with — so far as possible — the love of reading. I think this is sufficiently indicated in the definition adopted by this Association, of the '' primary aims " of such instruction : first, " literary culture ; " and then, " philological scholarship and linguistic discipline." My con- tention is, that that which is here placed first is not only first, but is by far the most important, and should have far more at- tention, relatively, than I believe it now usually receives. What is the kind of reading which this '' literary culture " implies ? In the first place, it must be accurate reading; for without accuracy there can be no thorough intelligence and, of course, no genuine literary culture. And this accuracy implies sound grammatical knowledge, and precise, often mi- nute, grammatical criticism. But beyond that, and far beyond READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 33 that, it must be reading which by practice has grown to be not only intelligent, accurate, appreciative, but easy and pleas- urable : it must be " Reading without Tears." That litera- ture which must be spelled out with grammar and dictionary is, for the nonce, not literature at all ; and will surely not be read, after graduation, outside of professional circles. My point is, we do not read enough : it is not quality, but quan- tity ; not depth, but range ; not knowledge only, but the ease of practised habit, that is left lacking in our results. Speak- ing not from my own unsatisfactory experience only, but judging so far as I can from the courses outlined in many of our foremost institutions, we do not read enough, not nearly enough, to secure that easy command of the foreign idiom and vocabulary, that comfortable at-homeness in the foreign at- mosphere, which is necessary for the appreciation of style, for the enjoyment of literature, or for the free and glad use of these languages as instruments of research, of culture, or of power in after life. Hence it follows that in the mod- ern languages, as in Greek and Latin, yet with far more lam- entable loss, reading is after graduation for the most part abandoned and forgotten ; and French and German, begun in school and continued in college as tasks, are remembered and avoided as tasks in after-life. That reading, I repeat, which must be done as a task, or with any distinct consciousness of the difficulty of a foreign idiom, will not be done at all out- side of professional objects. And so it is that the French and German literatures, witli all their wealth, all their " prom- ise and potency " of culture, of delight, of inspiration, of power, remain a dead letter in the lives of the vast major- ity of all our college graduates. If this is not true, I fain would be corrected ; but I fear it is only too true. If, then, this is true, the remedy is that we must read more, and give more prominence to reading, relatively, in our courses of study. And if this be recognized as the supremely impor- tant object to which all others are secondary, we must, per- 34 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. force, Avithiu our limited time, subordinate other objects to which large proportions of time and attention, though of course in varying degrees, are now habitually devoted. Among them I will briefly mention : — I. THE FORMAL STUDV OF GRAMMAR. This cannot, of course, be wholly eliminated, but it should be reduced to a minimum. The grammar should be for the reading, not the reading for the grammar. Reading outside of grammar should be begun at the earliest possible day, with all needful helps ; and the further accretion of grammatical knowledge should be made to crystallize gradually around easy, interesting, and pleasurable reading. The formal learning of paradigms and rules may thus, I believe, be wholly omitted, except in largest outlines. Nothing vitalizes language study like reading, even the simplest, outside of grammar rules, I remember a boy who, after a year of grammatical study of Latin on the old plan in school, came during vacation under the teaching of his sister, a bright Virginia girl, who knew nothing of the scholastic method : before the end of the first week he exclaimed, " Golly, sister ! I believe this means some- thing " — a commentary only too true upon much of our gram- mar grinding. If I might add a word of personal experience, it would be that year by year, though yet far from attaining my ideal, I am more and more impressed with the importance of minimizing formal grammar study. One month of indis- pensable introduction I believe to be quite sufficient. After that, so far as possible, the grammar, like the dictionary, should be used as a book of reference rather than of formal study. (I might add, that the best grammars for this kind of work remain yet to be written.) The reading, thus early begun, should be pushed more and more ; the formal gram- mar, more and more subordinated. I should not need to add that at this stage all points of technical learning, — etymol- ogy, language-history, etc., except for occasional help, should READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 35 be wholly omitted. Yet right here lies our temptation. It is so easy to waste time in displaying our own erudition ; so pleasant to astonish or amuse our pupils ; so hard to forget ourselves for their sake : so easy, in a word, to be a scholar, so hard to be a teacher ! II. EXERCISES IN SPEAKING. On this point I shall say but little. € fear I shall in some quarters be deemed guilty of high treason if I express my conviction of the utter worthlessness of such exercises in our ordinary college work. Of course, along with the tongue, the ear must be trained to an accurate pronunciation, and to the appreciation of the beauty and rhythm of the original ; for without this there is no language, much less literature. It is important, also, to be able to understand what may be added, for illustration or explanation, in the original tongue. But as for learning to speak in the college class-room, the idea is futile, and all the time devoted thereto is almost utterly wasted. Given a class, say of twenty-five to thirty members, with three or four hours a week, — that is five or ten minutes for each individual, — and all, meanwhile, reading, writing, speaking, thinking, dreaming English for all the remaining hours of day or night, and their power of intelligent speech in French or German would be trivial and futile, less than "a younger brother's revenue," even if every moment of time throughout the college course could be devoted to such exercises, to the exclusion of all other instruction. The result would be to leave the student, in the language of Professor Hewitt, "the proud possessor of a few sentences, but without any literary knowledge ; " or, as I have myself elsewhere said, "with one phrase on almost every subject, and hardly two on any." Whatever may be said for the so-called " natural method " with individual pupils, or in private classes taught under special conditions for special objects (and here its merits may be great), yet for collegiate or even school work 36 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. proper it is " a delusion and a snare." Who among us has not witnessed the helplessness of pupils trained by this method for all literary or higher linguistic work ? The condi- tions necessary for its usefulness are simply not practicable in the ordinary classes of the school or college. III. WRITTEN COMPOSITION. Here the weight of ^-escription and of authority would seem to be so overwhelming as to render criticism at once impotent if not impertinent. Yet we should not forget that this pre- scription comes to us through the Latin, and from an age when the writing of Latin was the necessary accomplishment of every educated person ; nor that it is now less than a genera- tion since the like prescription in England still insisted upon the writing of Latin verse : so hard it is to lay aside the leading-strings of a past culture, even after we have outgrown its infancy. I would not question the indispensableness of writing to the mastery, or indeed even to the accurate criti- cism, of language ; still less would I claim that the highest scholarship in French or German could be attained without the ability to write, or even to speak, these languages. Yet for how many of us does this " highest scholarship " come within the remotest horizon of our teaching ? How many of all our pupils do Ave expect to learn, by our exercises, to write French and German with any true command of language, much less of style ; or, indeed, with anything beyond the most barren grammatical correctness ? But even within this limit, and far short of any real power of expression, all must admit the value of writing to confirm the knowledge and use of the grammatical forms ; to teach the force of words, the value of position, structure, emphasis, etc. : so that, even for thorough grammatical training, exercise in writing — I will not say composition — may fairly be claimed to be indispensable. This I do not deny ; my protest is against the abuse, not the use, of this exercise. READING IN IMODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 37 I insist, first, that it is begun too early. To set a pupil to writing Latin or German who knoAVS nothing of reading is as unnatural and cruel as it is unprofitable. It reverses the natural order of acquisition, and makes the beginner's path, which should be lightened by every helpful device, literally a pathway of tears. Such exercise should be reserved until by actual use the student has acquired some considerable knowledge of word-form, structure, and idiom ; or, at the very ■ least, until a review, after the first studj^ of the grammar. Then, as my boy said above, it may '• mean something," and so become really intelligent and helpful. Secondli/, I contend that it is often made unduly difficult and burdensome, not only by being too early begun, but by being exaggerated beyond its proper importance, as though it were an end unto itself, instead of being regarded — what it really should be — as a help to easier and more accurate reading,^ At present I think I do not exaggerate when I say that this exercise is generally made to occupy from one-third to one- half, often even more, of the time given to the study of language, ancient or modern ; and that by unreasonable methods of instruction and of correction it is made also, to both pupil and teacher, by far the most painful and discour- aging as well as unprofitable part of the work. It would be a great gain for progress, as well as for peace and comfort, if this exercise could be restricted within narrower limits of time, and placed in its due subordination to the higher objects of reading and criticism. To a very large extent, indeed, its purposes can be better accomplished, with less loss of time, by writing from oral dictation — which gives, besides, the need- ful training of the ear, as of the attention, for the understand- 1 I beg leave here to refer to the excellent essay of Professor Hale of the Univer- sity of Chicago, on "The Art of Reading Latin" (Ginn & Co.), which, though intended for classical teachers only, may be almost equally helpful in tlie teaching of modern languages. I make this reference the more freely because I cannot fully claim the weight of this high authority in favor of all the points of the present paragraph. 38 BEADING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. ing of the spoken language. The time that may here be saved, in my opinion without loss, should also be devoted to the supreme object of more and better reading. Indeed, I will go further, and venture to add that, in courses which are neces- sarily elementary in scope, it would be a wise economy to omit composition altogether. IV. SUBJECTS OF HIGHER OR SPECIAL STUDY. The foregoing remarks include subjects and methods appro- priate mainly to the school and the lower classes of the col- lege. What I shall now briefly add concerns rather the higher or university study. I refer to those subjects which I suppose to be included by this Association in its definition, — "philological scholarship and linguistic discipline," in addi- tion to " literary culture." Under these heads may perhaps be roughly enumerated : scientific grammar, phonetics, ety- mology, special and comparative, language-history, with study of older forms and kindred dialects, textual criticism, the details of literary history, and so forth. Let no one suppose that I undervalue the importance of these things, however much I may regret my own shortcomings in the learning or teaching of them. They are the crown of our discipline, giv- ing to it the dignity of a many-sided and ample science, and touching at many points the highest intellectual and moral interests of man. My only contention is, that these should be mainly reserved for that higher study which should be made rather the privilege of the few than the task of the many ; for the higher classes only, in our collegiate work ; more properly and more largely for post-graduate or university students : best of all, for that seminary work so admirably outlined by Professor White of Cornell at Philadelphia in 1887, yet which I do not believe to be practicable, or even desirable, within ordinary collegiate limits. The scope of the subjects here included is so large and so important that they press with overwhelming weight upon lower classes, not yet READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 39 fully prepared for such study ; and for this very reason there is danger lest they should prematurely usurp the lion's share of that limited and precious time now available for our courses. Such topics — of more distinctly scientific import, linguistic or philological — should, therefore, be mainly re- served for later study, or introduced into the earlier by glimpses only ; for illumination and inspiration, rather than as an added burden of work. * I make this plea, as I think, in the interest alike of the higher and of the lower study ; to leave the latter free for the pursuit of its immediate and more important object, and to secure for the former the groundwork of an adequate preparation. The premature or excessive introduction of these topics into early study is one of the most dangerous temptations of our scholarship, and is, in my opinion, the chief reason why so many of our students leave college not only unable to read French and German with any intelligent appreciation or pleasure, but already wearied and alienated by such a mistaken study not of, but about them.^ Such students are little likely to return to these languages with any zest in later life. I claim, then, that far more largely than is now usually the case, the chief work of our school and college courses in mod- ern languages should be reading, — large, intelligent, pleasur- able, sympathetic reading (wliieh must, of course, also be 1 It is certainly true, as urged by the Nation in its review of President Lowell's ad- dress before this Association, that literature and language are equally worthy objects of study, and indeed, in their highest conception, are one. But this does not touch the argument of the present paper, which concerns only the relative weight that should be assigned to each in the (purely preparatory) work of the great body of our students. It is also true, as stated in another column of the same issue of the Xatioti, that the great mass of college graduates do not keep up the reading even of good English literature, — as, indeed, they do not keep up any branch of college study. But this is because they do not choose to do so, not because they cannot; they at least use English books for all needed purposes of help or information. I contend that they do not as a rule, even to this extent, use French or German, — and because they cannot — at least except as a difficult and disagreeable task. The question here is, moreover, something more than one of degree only. 40 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. careful aud accurate reading) ; and that our chief object should be, for this main body of our students, to endow them with the power so to read these languages that they shall love to read them, not as a task but as a privilege, and with the delight of literary insight and sympathy, for all the uses of culture and of service, as they would read their mother tongue. And in order to impart this power, and, when possible, to kindle this love, I contend that, just so far as may be neces- sary, all other objects or methods should be subordinated. How far such subordination may be necessary is, of course, a question of circumstances and conditions, for which I should be the last to propose any unvarying rule. Such questions of practical pedagogy, like all other questions of intellectual or moral duty, are at last personal questions, which every man must decide for himself. Finally, as to the method of this reading, believing that in details each man must make his own methods, I will only remark that it should be, first, for translation. It is vain to decry this exercise, which is one of the most valuable in the whole range of education. Translation, clear, accurate, sim- ple, adequate yet idiomatic, is not only the best test of the knowledge of both idioms, but it is a work of art as well as of science (and, as our President has said, of conscience too), disciplining the highest powers of insight, skill, and taste, both in thought and in expression. As a training in the mother tongue, it is superior to all the devices of rhetoric. President Eliot has somewhere said, though in other and bet- ter words, that the power rightly to understand and to use the mother tongue is the consummate flower of all education. So we should not debar our study of modern languages from this high ministry, for which it is so conspicuously fitted. There is no other discipline incident to language-study so valuable as translation rightly conceived ; yet there is noth- ing more harmful than those miserable verbal paraphrases which, under the utterly false name of " literal translation," READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 41 • are so often not only allowed but required.^ Such method is false alike to the foreign and to the native language. Only idiom can translate idiom, or style translate style. And if it be urged that no translation can be fully adequate, I answer that no otherwise can this truth be* so sharply taught, or so deeply felt, as by the effort to reproduce the perfect forms of a foreign literature in our own language : — it is only by doing our best that we can truly conceive the ideal and the unattain- able. We must insist, also, that for this American people there is only one mother tongue, to which all other languages are alike foreign, and to be studied as such, by its norms and largely, too, for its sake. It were better that our students should never know other languages than use them to debauch their English. I insist, then, upon the prime necessity and value of good translation, within appropriate limits. But, secondly, it is equally clear that our students should, finally, learn to read without translation. No one has ever truly read any foreign literature who has read it only through a translation — his own or any other. At best such reading is only at second hand, and, in the work of our students, is usually very imperfect. Translation is essential at first, as is the scaffolding to the building of a house ; but no house is finished or sightly until the scaffolding is removed. So, no reading is adequate until it can be understood at first hand, and in the form of the original. In other words, the student must learn to think and to feel, if not productively, at least receptively, in and through the foreign language. Then only can he truly know or feel its literature. How this trans- formation shall be accomplished, at what stage begun, by > Since the above was written, I have seen an amusing description of an old-time teacher who, in the lines of Horace, Epod. II., 31 : — " Aut trudit acres hinc et hinc multa cane Apros in obstantes plagas," insisted that multa cane should be rendered (literally!) ivith mucli dog. Some of my colleagues in the Association maybe surprised to learn that this style is by no means yet confined to the " rural districts," 42 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. what methods promoted, is one of the most important ques- tions of our pedagogy. 1 Suffice it to say, that it implies a new birth of intellectual power, and that without it the best results of language-study are impossible. What to read was twenty to thirty years ago a question of supply. Now, thanks to the intelligent zeal of our publishers, it is a question of selection. Such selection might, however, be much aided, for remote and less-experienced teachers, if the publishers' catalogues gave generally, as is already done in some cases, a careful description of the kind of each edition ; whether for primary, intermediate, or advanced work. Besides this there is only one remark of so general application as to justify mention here. This is, that beyond books intended for the very earliest use, editions with vocabularies, except such as are special or technological, are not to be commended. These vocabularies, unless very elaborate, and then expensive, are apt to be incomplete, or at least limited in scope. But even the best is only a poor substitute for a good dictionary, the essential feature being, usually, that the student is helped to the required meaning, instead of having to select it for himself. Such spoon-diet is proper only as " milk for babes." Beyond babyhood, the student should be trained to the right use of the dictionary, as well as of the grammar and other sources of information. This remark has seemed to be justi- fied here by the increasing number of such labor-saving editions " with vocabulary." And now, having detained you already too long, I ask to be indulged in a few words more. During more than twenty years of active work as a teacher of modern languages, I have seen our profession pass through many phases. At first we were fighting for a bare recognition in the scheme of liberal study. This victory won, we had then to witness the war of 1 Again I take the liberty of referring to Professor Hale's " Essay on the Art of Reading Latin," which I most gladly commend to all teachers of modern language. READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 43 " methods," until we are now, I trust, hai^pily past that stage of our progress. As I review the scene of so much discussion and experiment, and look forward to the bright promise of the new day, which I have lived to welcome, if not to enjoy, there seem to me to be two tendencies — two remaining perils — on which I may be permitted to add a word of experience and of warning. The first is tlie bread-and-butter theory. This, I hope, may be here briefly dismissed. Bread is indispensable, and butter, however thin, is to most of us a very acceptable addition. But these are not recognized by this Association, and should not be recognized by ourselves professionally, as among the primary and direct objects of our work. However the learning of modern languages may be made to serve this necessary and worthy purpose in private classes, in summer schools, or under other arrangements for special objects, we must see to it that such views shall not usurp a leading place in our institutions of higher learning. In the purview of our teaching, the life must be more than meat, and the body more than raiment. On this point, I am sure, it is not necessary here to insist. The danger which I more fear, just now, comes from the opposite direction — from the excess of what I cannot better describe than as erudition in the school room. I refer to the tendency — I fear the growing tendency — to obtrude the meth- ods and requirements of erudite or special study into our ele- mentary teaching and text-books. This may be at present only a wholesome reaction from former more trivial methods — the lustiness of a giant only lately liberated from chains; but it indicates a peril which, if not arrested by sound reason, will be hurtful alike to the thoroughness and to the modesty of true scholarship. The field of this danger lies less within the scope of this Association than in the lower schools ; but the warning, if at all justified, is not the less appropriate here, because to the members of this Association the humbler teach- ers will naturally look for the standards as well as the instru- 44 READING IN MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. ments of their work. The time was, and not very long ago, when we made this reproach against the classicists. Yet now, by strange reaction, we see them seeking, more and more, better and more reasonable methods, and producing easier and more teachable text-books ; while we, on our part, seem to be hastening to occupy the cloudy eminence which they are wisely trying to vacate. In this tendency I see a real danger to modern language study. In the pride of a triumphant scholar- ship we forget the requirements of a reasonable pedagogy; or, from the standpoint of another native tongue, we forget or ignore the needs of the English pupil ; — or we fail clearly to draw the line between the critical work of the advanced student and the wants of the untrained beginner. I see these indica- tions in some of our modern books ; and I must infer that they exist also in many of our class-rooms. I do not by any means despise erudition, or critical scholarship, or critical teaching ; but they have their place, as they have their value. We must draw the line clearly and broadly, in our editing as well as in our teaching, between advanced and elementary work ; or we shall soon have no good school books, and no good schools. If by the premature and injudicious obtrusion of learned methods or results we make the beginnings of modern language study harsh and repulsive, we shall under- mine the foundations of our discipline, and shall then vainly attempt to build any worthy superstructure. Let us resist the temptations of intellectual pride. Let us remember that in teaching, if anywhere, ars est celare artem ; — that the highest triumph of erudition, in the school book or in the school room, is in the most masterful helpfulness ; and that he who would lead the children of knowledge, as of faith, must himself become as a little child. THE NATURAL METHOD.^ PROFESSOR W. T. TIEWETT, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. The advocates of the " natural" method of teaching mod- ern languages have apparently captured the citadel of the argument by the name which they have chosen for their sys- tem, and the question arises, — What is the natural method of teaching or acquiring language ? The answer is : " Learn a language as a child learns its mother tongue." If tliis statement embodies the essence of this mode of instruction, we must ask what is the process by which a child learns to speak ? It is surrounded by the speech of its country. There is no blurring or obscuring of impressions : one sound and only one is associated with every object or action. The child assigns a certain meaning to a tone of the voice before it knows a single word. By the appli- cation of certain sounds to particular things it learns the names of persons and of objects. By repetition memory fixes the sound as the representative of an idea. Words of de- scription introduce the notion of quality, of good and bad, of color, heat, and size. Verbs of incomplete predication, and picture-words, give the idea of actions, and the relations of substance and quality. The conception of time follows, and adverbs indicate the mode of verbal action. Nouns as the objects of verbs and prepositions follow. The child passes from the generic to the specific, from applying a single term to all animals, to discriminating the characteristics of each. 1 Reprinted from the Academy, Dec. 1886, with the permission of the publisher. 46 THE NATURAL METHOD. Terms descriptive of physical objects are broadened in mean- ing to have a secondary and spiritual signification. Many expressions in the vocabulary of both the child and the man have been learned without even truly analyzing them. Stere- otyped, hereditary forms are adopted without any conscious mental action. This is, in brief, the process of the child's de- velopment in language in its own home and country. But the condition of pupils who begin the study of a foreign lan- guage in this country is different. They already possess a vocabulary fixed in the memory ; every Avord suggests at once an object or action or quality. The mind is full of the images of things. The steps of the child's development cannot be repeated exactly in later study. The process must be differ- ent, — new names must be associated with familiar things ; terms in part arbitrary and in part natural must be acquired, so that they come at command at the sight of the object ; or kindred words in a changed form must be learned. The child must at the same time retain and constantly use all its former store of words. It cannot be transported into a foreign world for more than an hour or two a day, or a few hours a week. The years through which a child grows into the life and spirit of its mother tongue, attaining even then but a limited vocabulary, cannot be repeated. More rapid results are pos- sible, and methods corresponding to the awakened powers of the child must be employed. The ''natural" method, strictly followed, would require that all instruction should be oral, by objects and by forms presented to the eye. But in advanced instruction we can- not stop here ; other methods must be employed to keep pace with the mind's expansion and its developed powers. We should ignore most important methods of training in use in the acquisition of other branches of knowledge, if we stopped with the oral, or " natural " method. That method is alone natural which takes cognizance of a pupil's surroundings, his purposes in life, his object in acquiring the language, and his , THE NATURAL METHOD. 47 intellectual capabilities in learning. The mind generalizes ; the principles of language admit of condensed statement ; the facts must be grouped in rules which enunciate the usages of the language, if they are to be retained. Systematic gram- mar is necessary, and language must be studied as the em- bodiment of thought, the philosophy of expression, in order to secure the highest culture. The mode in which a thought is conceived, the subtle influence of particles, prefixes, and suffixes, must form a part of the training in language. Lan- guage thus studied affords a valuable discipline, and indirectly prepares the way for the study of logic and philosophy. What is natural at one period of life is not natural, in the sense of being adapted, to all periods of study. The scholar of disciplined mind who seeks to master a language by the natural method alone, would make limited progress. The gift of generalization, of comparison of forms, and of insight into kindred words, would be sacrificed by adopting the method of the child. The scientific method of teaching language requires that all the powers should be enlisted in the work. Hence any exclusive system will fail to accomplish the highest results, and Avill overlook essential facts of intel- lectual growth. That method which evokes all the powers of the pupil's mind is the best ; the ear, the voice, and the eye must alike be taught, and this triple object must be kept in view throughout the course. Analogy is a suggestive and ever-active principle in the acquisition of language ; and a knowledge of related words, inflections, and principles in one language facilitates the mastery of every other. A knowledge of Latin is a key to the attainment of all the Romance lan- guages ; but only a clear and comprehensive knowledge of its words and forms will facilitate an acquaintance with the derivative tongues. A superficial, speaking knowledge of German does not contribute to the knowledge of Anglo-Saxon and of English speech, while a scientific knowledge is a most valuable aid. A defect of the so-called " natural " method is 48 THE NATtJEAL METHOD. "^ that it appeals to the memory exclusively, and, unless supple- mented by other methods, leaves the student with a bare knowledge of the idioms taught, but destitute of the principles and analogies of the language, beyond those imparted by oral practice. Students so taught are often deficient in a systematic knowledge of the inflections, and their subsequent progress is less thorough than that of pupils who have been trained by established methods. The culture of the memory alone never made a great scholar : a knowledge of several languages learned familiarly where they are spoken, fails in itself to give intellectual culture. The knowledge of German possessed by the children of Ger- man parents, born in this country, is often an obstacle to the thorough study of their native tongue. A facility in phrases is often accompanied by a real failure to discriminate properly the meaning of words in English. Those delicate distinctions in thought existing in a language are often lost in the case of students to whom both languages are alike. One language seems to displace the other, as Hamerton holds, and to make the possessor insensible to subtle shades of meaning. Even in the case of great scholars who seem to know equally the language and literature of two nations, the idioms of one language are often transferred unconsciously to the other. If we examine the results achieved by American students who have resided abroad, we are confirmed in our view of the limited value of the acquisition of a language mainly by in- tercourse, without thorough systematic study. Many who have taken a degree at a foreign university, and mingled intimately with the people, but who have devoted themselves to pursuits other than the language itself, have acquired only an uncertain facility in speaking and writing. If this is the case with students who have resided abroad, being daily in a foreign atmosphere, hearing in lectures and conversation only the language of the country, it is true by a stronger reasoning of pupils in this country who enjoy but an hour or two of THE NATURAL METHOD. 49 instruction per day in a foreign language, and speak and write and think the remainder of the time in English. Students study the modern languages mainly for an acquaintance with the literature ; the time which can be devoted to it is limited. If all the available time were consumed in studying by the oral method, a knowledge of the literature, and the discipline which comes from thorough study of the language, would be lost. A teacher who employed exclusively the oral method would fail to call into exercise some of the highest powers of the pupil, and the results would be meagre and unsatisfying. The oral method should be assigned to its true place. It is an important and valuable aid in training the ear to under- stand the spoken language, and the organs of speech to pro- nounce correctly. Translation at hearing is an admirable accompaniment of linguistic instruction, and should be prac- tised constantly in the study of language. If familiar expla- nations and lectures in the language itself are given, it will form a useful auxiliary to any course. It is fallacious to hope to impart to all students the ability to speak a foreign language fluently. Few would have occa- sion to use the language if acquired. It is therefore unwise to insist upon a speaking knowledge as the end of the study. It is a valuable aid in the mastery of grammatical forms, and a key to a facile acquaintance with the literature. Indeed, a true appreciation of poetry, as well as its expression, is im- possible without the feeling which comes from an inner knowl- edge of the spirit as well as of the sounds of the language. The manifest merit of the natural method should not be obscured by the exclusive claim that it is a substitute for, and should displace other recognized and approved systems of instruction. As an accompaniment of higher study, it will perform a useful and possibly indispensable office. These notes are simply what they are called, — notes of the writer's experi- ence in teaching French.* The methods suggested for the various parts of the work may not be the best; they can certainly be im- proved on ; hut they have proved fruitful of good results, and have been adopted by some other teachers with equal success. NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. BT PROFESSOR F. C. DE SUMICHRAST, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. IK general; the teacher; pronunciation; ground-work; sight-reading; composition; memorizing; dictation; speak- ing FRENCH; conversation CLASSES; CLASSIC WRITERS. IN GENERAL. Few changes in education are more striking than the growth and development of the study of modern languages. The time has long since gone by when Latin was practically the only medium of intercommunication between learned men in differ- ent branches of knowledge ; when philosophers, theologians, and scientists made use of the language of Cicero to commu- nicate to each other their discoveries or their opinions. A common language does not at present exist ; whether it ever will do so is a question which may be left out of consideration for the moment. It is plain that, with the strong patriotic feeling exhibited by the great nations of the world, neither English, German, nor French will be universally accepted as the language of general intercourse. A student of the present day who desires to be thoroughly equipped, must therefore possess more than an elementary knowledge ; he must have a good command of those foreign languages in which so many and so valuable works have been and are being produced. This alone, to say nothing of the splendor of French litera- ture in past centuries, must compel attention to the importa.nce Copyright, 1892, F. C. de Sumichrast. NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 51 of the methods employed in teaching the language. The old system of spending a very long time in picking out, word by word, the sense of a short passage, selected generally from a somewhat tedious and uninteresting work, — tedious and un- interesting precisely because it was not studied or treated in the way that its merits demanded, — could not possibly induce men to pursue their studies with anything like the enthusiasm that must be excited if rapid and satisfactory progress is to be made. To know French, — and in these notes it is French simply that will be treated of, — to know French is not simply to be acquainted with the elements of the grammar, and to have read, with more or less trouble and difficulty, one or two texts selected from the many treasures which the literature of France possesses ; but it is to have a real acquaintance with the genius and forms of the language ; to penetrate into the spirit of the literature ; to become familiar with the modes of thought and the manner of expressing them ; to feel, in a word, that instead of a hesitating progress, such as that of a child tottering in his walk, one's onward march is firm and decided as that of the grown man who presses forward to a distinct^ clearly defined goal. There are, broadly speaking, two ways in which the study of the French language may be conducted. The one which has just been alluded to consists in minute and over-careful attention to every detail from the very outset, demanding an accurate comprehension of every point as it comes up. This method assumes that in the acquisition of the French lan- guage the intellect is capable of doing what it absolutely refuses to do in any other branch of knowledge. In none would it find it possible to grasp at once, fully and com- pletely, and to retain permanently, every detail as it presents itself. The other method is intended to lead the student to an ac- quaintance with the language, such as that of the child when 0- NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH, it first begins to learn '^ords. to distiuguisli things, and to give them names. The idea which nnderlies this theory is a cap- tivating one. Its very simplicity attracts sympathy and ap- proval, and at first sight it seems as though it vrere the one right and proper mode of imparting a knowledge of the French tongue in a manner which will be at once agreeable and effectual. It is not. however, capable of fulfilling all that is claimed for or expected of it. The child learning to lisp its own mother tongue is a different being intellectually from the student whose mind has been more or less tlioroughly trained, and Avho is capable of very much greater effort ; who understands the value of time ; who is anxious to progress ; who wishes to become master of the language in as short a time as possible. Any system which aims at thorough teaching of French, which seeks to combine simplicity of method with accuracy of knowledge and rapidit}* of grasp, cannot leave out of sight the facts that the grammar bears a most important relation to the language ; that the literature is, after all, the one great treasure-house which must be opened to the student ; that the best teachers will be the great writers, classical and modern ; that the student's vocabul^y will be most usefully and most rapidly enlarged by the perusal of numerous works by the best authors. Another point is. that precisely the same course cannot be followed in its entirety- with every learner. Purposes are different. Some may wish to acquire simply reading knowl- edge : others to add to this some slight conversational facility, to be developed subsequently by residence in France, or inter- course with French people. Others, again, are anxious to make a thorough study of the language, and to become fully acquainted with its resources and riches. Taking, then, the grammar as the basis of the work, the question arises. How should that grammar be taught ? The use of a text-book becomes a* necessity, and of text-books KOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 53 there is, of course, no end. Admirable grammars in the French language are to be had quite easily. Very good grammars written in English, Methods or Courses of greater or less excellence, to say nothing of the very numerous books which are mere collections of clippings from other works — are ready to tlie hand ; and it would seem as though every possible system had been tried by wliich an acquisition of the elements of the language might be facilitated. And yet, while recognizing the value of many books which have become standard in educational institutions, teachers and students alike are forced to recognize the fact that of all the gram- mars or methods published, there is not yet one the author of which has grasped the principle which must underlie any grammatical text-book intended to be used by Americans or Englishmen in the study of French. The general plan of the grannuai'S, properly so called, is simply that on which gram- mars written for French pupils are constructed. Chapters on the article, the substantive, the adjective, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjec- tion, follow each other in regular procession, as a pi-eface to that body of rules which, with its not infrequent exceptions, forms the French syntax. The Methods do not, as a ride, conform strictly to this arrangement, although they also begin with that old friend, the article, which, from being placed in the very fore front of the instruction, assumes an importance which certainly should never have belonged to it ; a fact so well recognized by students in general, that they very speedily forget all they learned about the combinations of the article and the preposition, and even when far advanced in their studies continue to translate literally ''of the" and "to the " by de le, a le. de les and a les. A further fault of ^lethods, probably inseparable from the plan, is that a certain difficulty is experienced in referring to particular rules re- quired to elucidate difficulties which must constantly present themselves to an English-speaking student. 54 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. The fact that it is English-speakiug people -who are to be taught the French language, gives the key to the true method of teaching. This will be better understood, perhaps, by an illustration taken from actual practice in teaching. A constant stumbling-block to English-speaking students is the agreement of the article and adjective with the substan- tive in French. Theoreficalh/, the rule is alike in both lan- guages ; 2^nicficani/. there is nothing in English to show the agreement. In other words, the substantive in French has a visible effect upon article and adjective ; it h-as no?ie in English. This is an important difference, which must be taught at the outset ; and the plan adopted by the writer is as follows : — On the blackboard are written two English substantives : — Boy. Girl. and the class informs the teacher that the first is masculine singular, and the second feminine singular. Below each is then written the French word : — Gargon. FlUe. and the class is then asked to supply a definite article for each noun : — The boy. The girl. Attention is at once drawn to the fact that the form of the article is identical in each case ; then the French comes : — The boy, The girl, Le gar(^on. La Jille. A difference in form : impossible to mistake one for the other. Add an adjective, say •• good : " — The good boy. The good girl. NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 55 No difference in the fonn of the adjective, any more than in that of the article ; but note the French : — The good boy, The good girl, Le bon garden. La bonne Jille. Here again the adjective changes its form and clearly indi- cates the gender. Now comes number. The rule in both languages is alike : add s for the plural (exceptions disregarded at the outset) ; so : — Boys, Girls, Gar<^ons. Filles. Add first the article and next the adjective, and the English shows no change whatever in these words, although they are plural ; but the French plainly indicates difference in gender and number : — The good boys. The good girls, Les bons gar<;ons. Les bonnes filles. The fact can now be, is now impressed upon the student that the agreement of the article and the adjective with the substantive means something visible in French, — an operation to be performed ; a change to be effected. And the lesson is repeated with the possessive adjective, the demonstrative, the interrogative, and, again, with the pronoun, whether personal, possessive, demonstrative, or relative ; and the idea sinks into the mind and stays there. This is not a grammar, or a method either, else it would be proper to show how many points can thus be made clear and striking. Besides, they will readily occur to any one familiar with both tongues and teaching them. The supposedly ter- rible French ''irregular" verb can be stripped of its terrors even more emphatically. The grammar of the language must be learned in conjunction ■with as large a number as possible of words in common use, in 56 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. order to form a vocabulary by means of which the student will in a comparatively short space of time be enabled not merely to read ordinary French with facility but to translate English into French, and, at no distant time, to express directly in French the thoughts which he wishes to utter. The two lan- guages, English and French, are not only dissimilar in their origin ; they are essentially distinct in their genius and modes of expression. What is important in the one is less so in the other. The English-speaking student employs, naturally, the modes of thought and of expression which he has learned from childhood, and these differ so greatly from the French that, u.nless the fact is borne in mind constantly in the course of teaching, it is not French that will be given, but a bastard dialect which has nothing whatever to recommend it save an occasional quaint turn or absurd mistranslation. To teach French as it should be taught necessarily involves on the part of the teacher a thorough knowledge of both tongues. How else is he to seize the characteristic points of each, and to present them cle_arly and definitely, so that they may be readily grasped by the intelligence of his students ? The object, then, is to dwell leas upon those points of grammar which are alike in the two languages, than to impress strongly the diiferences, so that the characteristic features of the lan- guage will be thoroughly learned, and become part and parcel of the intellectual stock-in-trade of the student, which he can call upon readily at anytime without fear of becoming obscure or unintelligible. This is the very basis of successful teaching which aims at bringing on a pupil rapidly, while grounding him thoroughly. Every part of the work may be turned to advantage in this respect ; not merely those grammatical exer- cises which are necessary to impress upon the mind the particular points they illustrate, but such spoken sentences, such ordinary expressions, as may, and indeed should, be used from the outset to accustom the ear and the understanding 9,like to the different language which it is seeking to acquire. NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 57 And also the reading of French itself, which should never be made an unpleasant, ungrateful task, involving an amount of labor which simply destroys any possible interest in the work itself, — not that French, any more than anything else, can be acquired without labor and dilRculty ; but what is meant is that mere labor for labor's sake should not be allowed to pre- vail in the system pursued ; that it should be definitely kept in view that the work is to bring results encouraging to the student ; for no matter how excellent the teacher, how thor- oughly equipped, how interesting in his illustrations, how clear and precise in his expressions, it is not he who is to acquire the language, it is not he who can put it into the mind of the learner, but it is that learner who must by his own work make himself the possessor of the stores of knowl- edge presented to him. THE TEACHER. It has been said above that " to teach French as it should be taught necessarily involves on the part of the teacher a thorough knowledge of both tongues." This point is worth considering a little more fully. Macaulay says, in effect, that no man can ever acquire a foreign language perfectly ; experience proves the contrary. It is possible to know two languages thoroughly, and, given a good "ear," to pronounce in both accurately. But perfect pronunciation of the language to be taught is a necessity ; one may sin in English, but not in French. Here is a difiiculty in the way of American teachers ; a serious one. Here is now a difficulty in the way of foreign born teachers, — imperfect knowledge of English, and consequent confusion in explana- tions given in that tongue. Which is the better, then, the American or the French born teacher ? The odds are now, and always will be, in favor of the latter, provided he knows English well, so as to under- stand the spirit of the language, and to make plain, quite plaiu^ 58 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. his meaning when, perforce, his explanations must be given in English. But if an American has really mastered French, and by a residence abroad has succeeded in speaking it fluently and pronouncing it correctly, he is the equal of the Frenchman for all that part of the work which does not include literature. The spirit of the literature is not to be so easily appropriated. Too strong a warning can scarcely be given to Frenchmen who, because they know, as the saying is, their mother tongue, imagine they can teach it, and readily seek and obtain positions in which they at least have a chance of learning English, if they do not teach much French. An intelligent knowledge of English is a reqidsite. But, on the other hand, the fact that a man is an American gives him absolutely no advantage over the foreigner, so far as handling a class goes, or in the placing himself en rapport with the students. These gifts do not pertain to any one national- ity, and an American may prove a flat failure as well as a foreigner. The only advantage he has, if it be one, is that he can talk English easily ; and when troubled with his acquired French can take refuge in that ; but the student suffers more retardation in his progress from good English than from good French, and the foreigner can at least talk that. In brief, the question of nationality has absolutely no business in this matter ; personal fitness alone should be the test. The business of the teacher is strictly that of helper, espe- cially in the beginnings of the study. He can only make plain, but that he must do, whatever presents any difficulty ; he can only intelligently discuss whatever points present themselves to his mind or that of the pupils ; he can only show how best to attack and solve a particular problem, indicate why certain turns, certain forms, are used in preference to others ; he must remove from the minds of the students that very absurd but deep-rooted belief that every foreign language should in all respects conform to the structure of English, and that where NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. 59 differences occur, as occur of course they must, there is some- thing radically wrong about that foreign language. Whatever is essentially different between the two must be dwelt upon and nuide absolutely clear. In a word, the teacher must strive from the outset to make the learners understand the genius of the language, and induce them, by every means in his power, to become as familiar as may be with it. This method, if conscientiously, carefully, and diligently pursued, will, in every case, result not only in a rapidity of progress fairly astonish- ing to adherents of the older methods, but in a much more intimate acquaintance with, and a greater grasp of, the forms peculiar to French than is possible in any other way. This grammatical teaching must be done, as has been observed, not only by intelligent explanation, — repeated as often as is neces- sary, and that will always be oftener than most teachers think it necessary, — but by careful reading and writing of exercises by the "pupils. There is nothing which so firmly impresses a point on the mind as a written exercise upon it, and nothing which will enable the pupil to make satisfactory progress more than attention on the part of the teacher to the correctness of that written work. This, no doubt, involves on his part an amount of labor which, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, will be considered useless drudgery ; but it is not : it is a ne- cessary part of the business, which must be done as faithfully as another. It is not showy, it is not interesting perhaps ; but it is of the utmost importance that the student should not be permitted to carry away uncorrected work, if by any means within the power of the teacher that work can be made per- fect. Besides, every instructor of experience will agree that the mistakes of the students are the helps of the teacher. A man most thoroughly at home in two or more languages, and such men are by no means rare, may not always recognize at the first glance the peculiar difficulties which a learner has to contend with ; what to him is exceedingly simple and plain, may be, and very likely is, exceedingly obscure and difficult to 60 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. another; and it is ouly by constant study of the errors com- mitted by students that the teacher can perfect himself in the work he has undertaken. If, therefore, he avoids the study of those mistakes, whether made in recitation or in written exer- cises, he voluntarily casts away a most important means of promoting his own success. PRONUNCIATION. Reading must, or should, be taken up almost at the begin- ning, and here, of course, a very grave difficulty presents itself, that of pronunciation. Most grammars and Methods prepared for use in American or British colleges and schools contain a prefatory chapter purporting to give, approximately at all events, the pronunciation of French sounds. No doubt a demand has arisen for some such help to those who are unable to obtain the pronunciatioTi from some one well qualified, but a moment's reflection will show the hopelessness of attempting to learn or teach pronunciation by such means. If all persons were equally trained to speak their own language, English, for instance, correctly and properly, and if, in addition, they all possessed the power of distinguishing differences of sound, which are as marked to the trained ear as difference of notes in music; and if, further, combinations of English letters could always be relied on to give exactly the same sound, then pro- nunciation could be taught by such means ; or if BeU's " Visible Speech " were universally employed in all schools and colleges as an available and additional aid to the teaching of languages, it would be easy to print directions which, carefully followed, would enable the student to pronounce French correctly ; but facts are all the other way. Of the thousands of students who annually begin the study of a foreign language, a very large proportion pronounce their mother tongue in a most peculiar manner. The ear has to be trained, and the learner has to be rid of another idea commonly implanted in his brain, — that because a language is foreign it must be, necessarily, intricate NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 61 in its pronunciation. Practically, unless the vocal organs or the "ear " of an individual are defective, there should be no difficulty in any one pronouncing correctly any ordinary modern language, leaving out of the question that characteristic tone which we call the accent, and which betrays so quickly the mother-tongue of the speaker. Pronunciation, therefore, must be taught at present orally, if it is to approximate to the correct sound; and it is well worth while spending some little time on this point, in order to encourage the learner to make use of sounds with which he is somewhat unfamiliar, and to break down that wide-spread objection to hearing one's self make mistakes. Still, for those who merely desire a reading knowledge, as well as for those who wish to speak the language, there is no necessity for dwelling at too great length at the outset upon the obtaining of a correct pronunciation ; that is only a matter of time : it is little by little that the new sounds will be acquired and pro- nounced fluently. Much reading aloud is desirable, but still more desirable is a great deal of reading, of that reading which will furnish the student with a varied and useful vocabulary, and make him acquainted with turns of expression, with forms of phrase, with syntactical constructions, and idiomatic com- binations, Reading not carried on in microscopic fashion by carefully turning up every word in the dictionary, but based upon the fact that there are many words identical, or nearly so, in form and meaning in both languages, thanks to that long intercourse between England and France which brought about, in the language of the former country, the use of many French words, or of words derived from the Latin through the French. SIGHT-READING. — COMPOSITION. Sight-reading, in short, is what must be aimed at quite early. Even if the instructor has to explain many a locution and many a word, he must first and foremost interest his students ; 62 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. he must create in them a desire to know more ; and for that purpose he must not keep them dwelling upon any one point so long that their attention lags through fatigue. There exist in French works enough of the character particularly suited to this plan of study, works which can be put into the hands of young people with the utmost safety, and which they will enjoy, because to the interest of the story itself is added the charm of that artistic style for which French writers are noted above all others, and which makes itself felt even by those who cannot fully appreciate the beauties of the work they are studying. This is no mere hypothesis, no mere theory, but the result of experience. Students do begin the study of French with- out knowing a word of the language, without having the faint- est notion of its genius or construction, who, in the brief space of four months, are able to translate at sight a piece of or- dinary French ; are able to follow intelligently the reading, by an instructor, of a French book which they have not pre- viously opened ; and who, before their first year of study has elapsed, can of themselves enjoy the perusal of many charm- ing stories Avhich, under the old plan of carefully digging out and polishing every word, with the assistance of that frequently misleading authority, the dictionary, would have remained closed to them for many years ; would, indeed, have never been sought by them, because long before they could have acquired any facility in reading, they would have been disgusted and driven from the study by the numerous obstacles and difficulties that presented themselves. Let it be remem- bered, also, that with the acquisition of a vocabulary of French words, with the familiarity thus gained with French idioms and constructions, comes naturally the power of constructing in good French what one has to say. The translation of English into French, or French composition as it is usually called, should also be carried on on similar principles, though here, of course, the effort required will be a harder one, and NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 63 the progress cannot be expected to be quite as rapid ; for there is great difficulty in persuading students to abandon the use of those forms to wliich they are wedded from childhood for those which are new to them, and the vigor and force of which they neither grasp nor appreciate readily. But after a time it will be found, if the system of carefully explaining on every occasion the essential differences between the two languages is followed, that it is possible to do in French composition what has been done already in French reading ; namely, to take an English work and translate it at sight into good French. Such a result should be attained with college students of ordinary intelligence, willing to give up a suffi- cient amount of time to the preparation of their work, in the course of a couple of years. By this time their reading of French books should have made them familiar with a large number of the simpler works of good authors, and they should be prepared to enter upon the study of the literature as a lit- erature with just as much interest as they would take in the literature of their own language ; feeling themselves capable of understanding intelligently a lecture delivered in French, or of following readily the reading of a play, an oration, or a discourse, and of perceiving the beauties which the classic age of French literature, the philosophical period of the eighteenth century, and the splendid cycle of the nineteenth, present, GROUNDWORK. Qiii trop embrasse, mal etrelnt. If a student is to learn French, let not the whole grammar, accidence, and syntax, all the idioms of the language, all the difficulties of pronunciation be poured into him at once. The fault of many grammars, methods, introductions, and teachers, is a desire to be erudite and to show how much the author or instructor knows. There are even some of the latter who would feel unhappy if they were inhibited from exhibiting their scholarship. Enough is enough, and too much should never be expected 64 NOTES ON THE TEACHIKG OF FRENCH. or asked of a pupil, young or old. If in the course of two years in a preparatory school, or of one year in college (stu- dents more mature and capable of being driven harder), a solid groundwork has been laid, success has been attained. The knowledge of broad outlines, the main points of the gram- matical structure of the language, a moderate but well-acquired vocabulary, the power to understand easy spoken Erench, the ability to compose in simplest French, these are the points to be sought after, the ends to be attained. In succeeding years it is easy to build up on such a foundation ; to add, progres- sively, needed details ; to fill in the outline, and to make the pupil know French, that is, use it easily. It is desirable to avoid excess of detail at first, and yet it is this excess of detail that is most noticeable in text-books. It is of very little practical importance to place before the beginner all the varieties of use of the preposition de, for instance; or all the exceptions to the general rule for the formation of the plural of substantives ; or long lists of adjectives, the feminine of which is irregular; or, finally, pages of verbs, most of which he will not come across more tha,n once or twice, if at all, during his first year or two of study. It simply bothers and torments a student to have a number of forms and rules set before him which he can neither understand, digest, nor remember. Elementary work should be elementary ; free from all trace of erudition ; free from all that is not absolutely necessary. To illustrate : A beginner in French is in the same condi- tion as a stranger dropped by train or steamer in one of our large cities. He starts out from his hotel for a walk, goes through a number of streets, notices only a few, a very few, of the principal buildings and monuments, and usually cannot quite tell how he got from one point to another. The second day he marks some points near his hotel, gets a better idea of the lay of the city ; in the course of a week he knows the main thoroughfares, and probably does not board too often the NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 65 wrong street-car. But if he becomes a resident, it takes him still a good deal of time .before he is quite familiar with the highways and byways of the place, before he learns the short cuts, and gets to know the best stores. He acquires his knowl- edge progressively, and would be very much amused were he furnished with a map and directory, and told to get up all the streets and most of the addresses before venturing out ; or even were he told it was necessary for him to know the names of all the residents in the street he inhabits. Few rules, therefore, should be given a learner at the outset. Text-books crammed full of information are favored by insuf- ficiently prepared or indifferent and lazy teachers. They rely on the book ; they cram the book down the pupil's throat ; they close his mouth with it when he asks a question — the book is everything. Well, that is quite wrong ! No book can teach like a living man or woman ; no printed page can explain as pleasantly and interestingly as a well-posted, earnest teacher. The book is dead matter — the living being is preferable when living beings are to be instructed. The teacher himself must be the text-book ; he, not the printed pages, must be the spring of knowledge for the students. Text-books are very useful, very necessary, but not indispensable for beginners. A good teacher with a small class could wholly dispense with a printed grammar or method, and give all the instruction, rules and exercises to boot, himself. A. text-book is an aid, and a sec- ondary one, and should, therefore, never usurp the first place. Even with few rules, the simple, needed ones, much repeti- tion must be resorted to. It cannot be helped ; it is not exhilarating to the teacher, but it is indispensable for the pupil. And when the teacher feels the least inclination to impatience, because a rule, a remark already many times re- peated, has been apparently forgotten, just let him remember, or, if he cannot remember, let him be absolutely sure that he, when learning, forgot just as readily the very same things, and 66 NOTES ON tHE TEACHING OF FRENCH. many more perhaps. Then quietly, pleasantly, gladly, give the needed information. It takes no more time to repeat information than to get mad because it has been forgotten. And it is pleasanter all round. Teachers — and men in general — are apt not to observe themselves closely enough, and, therefore, to ascribe stupidity, carelessness, laziness, to pupils when they themselves are really in fault. There are, of course, and always will be, stupid, careless, and lazy boys and girls, young men and maidens, men and women ; but the proportion of these is by no means so large as some instructors would maintain. What is apparently stupidity in many a pnpil, is, in reality, lack of clearness in the teaching. If difficulties are not clearly and intelligently explained, the student cannot master them, and the fault is not his at all. This is very much more frequently the case than many imagine. The writer has seen a great deal of teaching, not of French only, and has been amazed at the numerous imperfections of teachers visited upon the heads of pupils. Carelessness in pupils often arises from carelessness in the teacher ; and laziness visible in a class may be traced not too seldom to the fountain-head. A teacher of French must not spare himself. It is not easy for an American or an Englishman to learn a foreign language. All the help that can be given should be given. It is a mistake to suppose that by refusing the help asked for the student is compelled to do better work. He does not do better ; he does Avorse. The sole purpose of a teacher's existence in that blessed state is to help. Assistance properly and promptly given, explanations cheerfully vouchsafed and gladly repeated over and over and over again, will bring on pupils much faster and much more surely than a policy of "find out for yourself — explained it before — so simple any fool would know it." Again, in all elementary work, which involves a serious NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. 67 amount of drudgery on the part of the pupil, — uo matter how much aided by his instructor, — it is of prime importance to keep up the interest. A class must be always wide awake. If the teacher is sleepy, the pupils will snore ; if he is bright and alive, the pupils will be the same. The teacher makes tlie class what it is. He has no one to blame but himself if it turns out poor with the average material furnished him. He must work, if the students are to work ; and he must work harder than they, whether they know it or not. He must lead; always stimulate, encourage. And he must take great care to avoid monotony — it is fatal to success. No one exer- cise should last too long. Students will do a great deal of work if it is skilfully varied for them. They may not under- stand this ; it is not necessary they should : but the teacher must understand and practise it. The teacher may tire himself; if he is good he will: he must avoid tiring his pupils. He is not a preacher who has the right to be dull and wearisome ; he is an instructor whose •first business is to keep his pupils constantly awake, constantly interested, constantly learning and progressing. Therefore he will vary the study ; some grammar, not over much at a time ; some written exercises, as a basis for future composition ; some reading and translation; much speaking of French ; plenty of explanations. SIGHT-READING. Sight-reading may be begun the first week. Because sight-reading is not only very interesting to students, who derive from it a real sense of progress, but because there is a French element in English ; and words alike or nearly alike in both languages are sufficiently numerous to make a short exercise in sight-reading possible and profitable. Needless to say that in the course of the first few lessons in sight- reading, frequent translation of words and phrases even will be required ; but very soon the necessity for this will diminish, 68 KOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. and before many weeks are over the class will be able to follow the reading without much translation. In sight-reading the object is at once to give a vocabulary to students, and to enable them to read French without neces- sarily translating it into English. They are to be told ex- pressly that they are not expected to understand every word, but to grasp the sense of the passage being read. This is doing in Erench what nearly everybody does in English, Very few persons, probably, if the test were applied, could give the exact meaning of every English word they read ; one need only glance at much of the writing published nowadays to be sure of that point, and also that writers themselves do not always understand the meaning of the words they use. Sight-reading is a sure means of interesting students. In- stead of wearying them by the dry and repellent old-time method of painfully digging out the meaning of each separate word in ten lines of Fenelon's " Telemaque " or Voltaire's " Charles XII.," it enables them to read, understand, and enjoy complete books. First year students in Harvard, for instance, read through Halevy's "■ L'Abbe Constantin," Erckmann-Chatrian's '' Ma- dame Therese," Labiche's "LaPoudre auxYeux" and "Le Voyage de M. Perrichon," George Sand's " La Mare au Diable," besides Merimee's " L' Enlevement de la Redoute," and ex- tracts from Souvestre and other writers. In short, students being interested willingly do an amount of work which, under the old method, could never have been got out of them. Translation goes hand in hand with sight-reading, but it must be translation, not transliteration. The plan of giving the exact dictionary meaning of each successive word is bar- barous and productive of all manner of evil results. What a student must be taught to do is to avoid literal translation, and to give instead an equivalent in good English of the French original. A single example will suffice to illustrate the diiference ; and be it noted that the literal translation is NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 69 by no means exaggerated ; it is just the kind of thing that teachers have heard over and over again : — " Noil, voyez-vous, Monsieur r Abbe, vous avez tort de prendre les choses au tiagique. . . . Teiiez, regardez ma petite jument, comme elle trotte! coniuie elle leve les pattes! Vous ne la connaissiez pas. Savez- vous ce que je I'ai payee? Quatre cents francs. Je I'ai denichee, il y a quinze jours, dans les brancards d'une charette de maraiclier. Une fois que c'est bien dans son train, (;a vous fait quatre lieues a I'heure, et on en a plein les mains, tout le temps." Here is the literal translation, such as the student is likely to give it with the help of the dictionary : — " No, see you. Mr. Abbe, you are wrong to take things tragically. Hold, look at my little mare, how she trots! how she raises the paws, hoofs! You did not know it. Do you know that which I have paid? Four hundred francs! I found it out, there are fifteen days, in the shafts of a cart of a market-gardener. One time that it is well in its train it makes you four leagues to the hour, and one has the hands full of it, all the time." Now, the student who is trained to sight-reading and to trans- late the sense of the passage and not the mere words, irrespec- tive of their idiomatic meaning, will more nearly approximate this : — "Now, look here, sir ; you should not look at the dark side of things. . . . Why, look at that little mare of mine, how she steps out! Didn't know I had her, did you ? Guess what I paid for her ? Four hundred francs. Picked her up a fortnight ago from a market-gardener. Once she gets into her gait she does her twelve miles an liour, and it is all you can do to hold her too." All allusions met with in the course of the reading should be explained, wheth.er they refer to customs, manners, books, men, or history — and they should be explained slowly in French, repeating words or sentences if necessary; using simple language ; speaking distinctly, and pitching the voice so that it will reach every part of the room. It may be ad- visable occasionally, but only occasionally, to briefly recapitu- late in English what has been said in French; but this should 70 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. not often be done ; much better stimulate the curiosity of the students. If they have not understood once, they will be anxious to understand the next time. The test of sight-reading and good translation is not ex- amination on a book already read in class, but on passages wholly new to the pupils. That test should be applied pretty frequently. It is a mistake to take it for granted that the students are progressing because they appear to work hard and the system employed by the instructor is good. The in- structor must knoiv that progress is being made ; he must, therefore, use frequent tests to ascertain the exact standing of each pupil. COMPOSITION. The term " French composition " is often misunderstood in practice to mean transliteration from English into French. It is scarcely possible to commit a Avorse error, or one fraught with more disastrous consequences to students. To turn a passage in English into French words is neither translation nor composition. It may approach the former ; it is wide of the latter. Composition means writing good French, and in the French way, with the French stamp. This is not what is usually done. Instead, the dictionary is called upon, and about the first w^ord found is accepted as sufficient and put down. The work thus done is invariably bad — no exception whatever obtains to this rule. The first thing to be done when a passage in English is set for transposition into French, is to make sure that the pupils understand the meaning of the English. It is presumed the teacher does ; it is certain that ninety-eight per cent of the pupils seldom or never take the trouble to assure themselves that they thoroughly grasp the sense of the passage. This is the main obstacle to good work. It must be impressed upon teachers and pupils alike that the NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 71 object to be attained is the reproduction, in another language, of the se7ise of the passage, of the ideas contained iu it, as clearly, as plainly as possible. That is the first and most important point. The next, which is secondary, is to follow, as closely as the first point will permit, the form and style of the original. Literal translation must be condemned. It is destructive of all truth and fidelity. It proceeds on the principle that the same words arranged in the same order give the same meaning in both languages. This is so utterly false that one cannot help wondering that any teacher should tolerate literal translation for a moment. Generally speaking the use of elision is more frequent in English than in French. The tendency of the pupil is, natur- ally, to follow the English fashion. The teacher niust not be surprised if it takes a long time to eradicate that habit — - it has grown up with the student ; it is part and parcel of his mode of thought. French is richer in forms than English. That point has already been referred to with regard to the noun, article, and adjective. It is true, likewise, of the pronoun and the verb. Compare, for instance : — Masc. sing, mine le mien Fem. " mine lamienne Masc. phir. ours le notre, les notres Fem. " ours la notre, les notres And in the verb : — I had j'avais Thou hadst tu avals He had il avait We had nous avions You had vous aviez They had ils avaient The tendency of the pupil is to use one form only, or two or three at most, as in English. This also must be checked ; and 72 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. while the training will begin during the year of elementary- work, it will be found that it takes time to accustom the pupil to the difference between the two tongues. The varied meanings of an English word are another source of trouble, complicated by unintelligent use of the dictionary. Here is one instance out of very many : " A stout German who leans on the railing," was actually translated : " Un gros Allemand qui s'appuie sur la meclisance." The words 7)iai/ and might and could are constantly mis- apprehended and no distinction recognized in their use as independent or auxiliary verbs. Idioms are troublesome, but mainly because teachers are apt to yield to the silly requ.est to know " what it means liter- alhj.'" An idiom never has any literal meaning, and the at- tempt to reproduce it literally is an exercise only fit for idiots. What possible good is done by translating literally — Qiv'est- ce que c'est que cela? when What is that? is the real meaning of the longer phrase. Or, II se tordait les cotes de rive — He ttvisted his 7'ibs with lazcghing, which does not convey at all exactly the sense of the original, while. He split his sides laugh- ing, does. One can only give equivalents of idioms, and for this pur- pose, among others, it is requisite that the teacher should have a thorough knowledge of both tongues. In composition, as in every other part of the work, explana- tion should be given freely and fully, all questions answered, all doubts cleared up. It is an applied, a practical way of teaching grammar, and can be made very useful if the teacher does not spare himself. Repetition will be needed, and a good deal of it ; but it is fruitful in good results, and, besides, an instructor must never weary of restating a rule. It is very important that the transcribed exercises should be read over by the instructor himself, even if he does not actually correct them, so that he may see exactly the nature and number of mistakes made. This will enable him to ex- NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 73 plain corrections in future lessons and to lay stress upon the particular points in which he finds the average of his pupils weak. Particularly weak pupils should be taken in hand separately and shown exactly what their mistakes are, how to correct and, above all, how to avoid them. Many pupils fail from not knowing how to set about their work ; they start wrong, and all the explanations given in class are Greek to them be- cause they cannot see the object of them. A very little private work with such students is certain to bring them up to the level of their class and to transform them from appar- ently dull into intelligently receptive individuals. It will generally be found that they do not understand the use of the dictionary ; that they are not well grounded in the elements of grammar, or that, being fairly well grounded, they do not know how to apply what they have learned ; and, finally, that they are totally ignorant of construction, a serious drawback in the study of a language in which clearness of expression is the prime requisite. Few persons, among those whose mother-tongue is English, have any idea of how very loose and inaccurate is much of the so-called good English met with in books. The great free- dom which the vigor and richness of the language allow of in its use, the frequency of ellipsis, the boldness of inversion, the large employment of figures and similes, are very apt to induce considerable carelessness in the expression of the meaning sought to be conveyed, resulting frequently in Bheer obscurity. Now, this is utterly foreign to the spirit of the French language. A French writer knows and feels that he must be clear, and no piece of prose or verse which lacks this quality has any chance of being rated good. Hence the instructor must take special pains to make cer- tain that his students understand the meaning of the passage they are called upon to reproduce in French, and this is little attended to as a rule. There is apt to be a blind belief that 74 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. because an extract is taken from the works of a celebrated writer, the English is all right. It ought to be ; it generally is, but not always ; and. even if it is, it by no means follows that the student understands it. Ignorance is very willing to let things go, and if a pupil does not care to take the trouble to grasp the sense of the extract, he simply makes a trans- literation of it — a hideous abomination. Here, by way of illustration, is an extract from " Pictures of Places," by Henry James, Jr. It reads very well at the first glance, but on examination, for the purpose of reproduction in French, the involved nature of some of the sentences and the very curious figures used become strikingly apparent : — " The standpoint you are likely to choose first is that on the Canada Cliff, a little way above the suspension bridge. The great fall faces you, enshrined in its own surging incense. Already you see the world-famous green, baffling painters, baffling poets, shining on the lip of the precipice; the more so, of course, for the clouds of silver and snow into which it speedily resolves itself. The whole picture before you is admirably sim- ple. The Horseshoe glares and boils and smokes from the centre to the right, drumming itself into powder and thunder; in the centre the dark pedestal of Goat Island divides the double flood; to the left booms in vaporous dimness the minor battery of the American Fall ; while on a level with the eye, above the still crest of either cataract, appear the white faces of the hithermost rapids. The circle of weltering froth at the base of the Horseshoe, emerging from the dead-white vapors — abso- lutely white, as moonless midnight is absolutely black — which muffle impenetrably the crash of the river upon the lower bed, melts slowly into the darker shades of green. " Two very brief extracts from James Russell Lowell's "Essays" will make quite clear the necessity of understand- ing the author's meaning before attempting to reproduce it : — "His ' French Kevolution' is a series of lurid pictures, unmatched for vehement power, in which the figures of such sons of earth as Mirabeau and Danton loom gigantic and terrible, as in the glare of an eruption, their shadows swaying far and wide grotesquely awful. But all is painted by eruption-flashes in violent light and shade. There are no half-tints, no gradations, and one finds it impossible to account for the continuance NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 75 in power of less Titauic actors in the tragedy, like Robespierre, on any theory whether of human nature or of individual character supplied by Mr. Carlyle. Of his success, however, in accomplishing what he aimed at, which was to haunt the mind with memories of a horrible political nightmare, there can be no doubt." Translate any part of this literally, and the result is incom- prehensible nonsense. " Eruption-flashes," for instance. Or this, which, at first sight, appears quite easy : — Burke and Johnson were both of them sincere men, both of them men of character as well as of intellectual force; and I cite their opinions of Rousseau with the respect due to an honest conviction which has appar- ent grounds for its adoption, whether we agree with it or no. Burke et Johnson etaient tous les deux homnies sinceres, tous les deux hommes de caractere aussi bien que deforce intellectuelle; et je cite leurs opinions de Rousseau avec le respect dii a une honnete conviction qui a des raisons apparentes pour son adoption, soit que nous nous accordions avec ou non — which is very easy to do indeed, but is no more French than it is Chinese. From the very outset pupils must be taught to use the sim- plest construction possible ; to avoid lengthy sentences, abrupt inversions, obscure figures or similes. The art of composing in any language is not easily acquired, and to attempt to rival masters of language and style in the earlier stages of study is a piece of folly. These masters will furnish useful models, gradually improving the taste ; but the main object of the teacher must be to enable his students to express themselves clearly and readily. For it must not be forgotten that trans- lation of extracts is not the ultimate end to be attained. It is only a means to it, the end itself being the power, on the part of the student, to express himself at once in written French without first putting down his thoughts in English, Then, and then only, does he compose ; but if he is constantly kept to English models, he will always want English to lean on — in other words, he will never master French. Therefore students — and this applies to pupils in secondary 76 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. schools equally as mucli as to students in colleges — must be early set simple exercises in original composition. These may be a few lines only in length ; consist of detached sentences even, but they must be written without the interposition of English. With the gradual progress made, the exercises in- crease in length and difficulty. The class hears read a short stor}^, and writes a summary of it. Later still, a book having been finished, — say "La Mare au Diable " — the pupils are asked to write doAvn either a scene from it, or a description of one of the characters, or a sketch of the plot. Again, after a vaca- tion, they can be called upon for a short letter, telling how they spent their time. The results will often be crude, so crude, perhaps, as to discourage the teacher. He inust not he discouraged. That anything has been produced is of itself a satisfactory result, and a guaranty that the students are ca- pable, with careful instruction and inexhaustible patience, of doing better work. By way of illustrating what is actually obtained from students, here are a couple of notes written, the one on De- cember 20, the other on December 23, by two students who entered the elementary class in Fi'ench at the beginning of October, neither of them having ever learned a word of the language at that time : — I, " Avec cette meme malle, je vous envoie cinq livres bleus des exer- cises fran(;ais. Fidelement, mon coeur est plus leger depuis ils sont partis. J'espere que vous chercherez en vain des erreurs, mais j'ai pressentment de mal." II. " J'ai reQu votre lettre ce matin, et je serai tres heureux accepter votre invitation obligeante, sur lesoir de Noel, le 25Decembre, quoique je suis chagrin que mes aims Japons sont occup^s ce soir la." The first of these was written by an American, the second by a Japanese. The more pains an instructor takes, the better the results will be ; consequently, as pupils advance in composition work. NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 77 it is advisable to adopt something like the seminar plan. The asking of questions must be encouraged to the utmost, for even the cleverest and most experienced teacher can never remem- ber all the difficulties. When the work thus corrected viva voce in class has been transcribed, the instructor should, before proceeding to a new- piece of work, re-read the correct form and again give expla- nations, if called upon — which he will be if the class is good. The reason of changes should always be explained; a pupil should know why a certain expression or term is right and another wrong. In more advanced work where themes or summaries are written by the students, the corrections will be made out of class, as it would manifestly be impossible to correct each theme with the whole class and retain their attention ; but arrangements should be made to meet a certain small, very small, number of the students separately at another hour, and there and then explain carefully the why and wherefore of each correction or substitution. Merely to correct in red ink is to assume a knowledge of grammar and style on the part of the student which he evidently does not possess, or he would not have needed corrections on his work. Composition thus taught, in conjunction with much reading of French texts and with constant hearing of spoken French, will result in such marked progress that the student will gladly do any amount of work, do it well, and become really proficient in French. MEMORIZING. Memorizing passages of verse or prose is an exercise little relished, usually, by students, but it is a very useful one in three respects. First, it increases the vocabulary of the pupil, and this is of great importance. All words are not retained, of course, but 78 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FKENCH. those recurring frequently are well fixed in the memory, and it is these very words which are most needed by the learner. Secondly, forms and locutions are acquired with comparative facility, and the more they are unlike those of the pupil's mother tongue, the more readily will they strike him and stimulate the desire to learn their exact force. Thirdly, if the passages are recited aloud to an instructor, an excellent opportunity is afforded to correct and improve the pronunciation, always a difficult task, and one which must be constantly attended to. The passages may usually be left to the choice of pupils themselves, controlled by the teacher's advice that such ex- tracts should be preferred as are from good writers and usually referred to in books or conversation. To make memorizing compulsory is probably unwise. Some people lack the peculiar power of memory which enables one to learn extracts by heart ; it is wasting time and trouble to compel such individuals to memorize even a short fable of La Fontaine. They will stumble over the lines, mispronounce the words, lose the connection, make a mess of the sense, and irritate the instructor possibly, themselves certainly. In this, as in all other methods employed, due attention must be paid to the individual peculiarities of the pupil. Machine work, routine system, are quite inadmissible if success is to be obtained. DICTATION. This exercise is not open to the reservation made in the case of memorizing. It is good for all classes of pupils, and may profitably be employed even in the most advanced classes. Its primary use lies in accustoming beginners to recognize sounds and translate them into orthography. Beginners al- ways mispronounce French when called upon to read aloud ; they mispronounce it infinitely more when reading to them- selves : what they go by is the look of the printed or written NOTES OX THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 79 word ; what they recognize is the combination of characters, a familiar termination : they do not readily or correctly appre- hend the words when spoken. Eeading aloud by the instructor is an excellent means of helping pupils to connect the written or printed word with the sound of it when spoken ; but it has one drawback in this respect : the student seeks to gather and follow the sense of the passage rather than to catch the sound of the words. Particularly is this the case when the class has the text to look at ; then there is very little real work done in the way of connecting sound and jirint. In dictation, on the other hand, the main object, at first, is to accustom the pupil to note carefully the sound of the spoken words and to write these sounds correctly. The sense of the passage is relatively unimportant in earlier exercises of this nature ; it has to be taken into consideration, that goes without saying, but if it is not grasped no harm is done. All dictations in the early part of a course in French should be directed to one end, — recognizing printed or written words by the sounds. It is the training of the ear, not of the eye. This training is a necessary adjunct to the teaching of pro- nunciation. The pupil cannot imitate what he does not hear ; therefore he must be taught to hear, to distinguish one sound from the other, so that he may reproduce it correctly. A large amount of patience is needed here by both instructor and learner. The latter must apply himself attentively to catch the sounds actually emitted by the instructor, and he must beware of anticipating the sound ; that is, taking it for granted that a particular combination of letters is pronounced in the way he has adopted for himself. As long as he does that he is sure to err ; he will hear, not the pronunciation given by the instructor, but the pronunciation he has fixed upon in his own mind. It is like the jangling of bells — they ring whatever refrain happens to be trotting in one's head. The instructor must be patient, particularly in repeating as frequently as necessary the words dictated, and in pronoun- 80 NOTES ON f BTE TEACHING OB* FRENCIt. cing them distinctly. And here he must not forget that there are two ways of uttering words, and that he must use both if the pupil is to be properly helped along. There is the ordi- nary utterance, that used in conversation, in reading, where many syllables are slurred ; and there is the syllabic, in which each member of the word is pronounced separately. C^est un enfant extravagant pronounced in both fashions will illustrate the point. Pronounced currently, the pupil will hear the phrase as in conversation ; pronounced in sylla- bles, he will have a better idea of the component members of each word, — but the instructor must always end by pro- nouncing the words conversationally, since that is the way in which they will usually be heard by the student. Elementary dictations should bear upon those sounds which are alike in French and in English ; there are, strictly speak- ing, no sounds exactly alike, but in practice many sufficiently resemble each other. Next, words in which similar or nearly similar combinations of letters occur in both languages should be practised on, e. g. : nation, nation ; historien, historian ; ca- nal, canal ; scie7ice, science ; etc. Then sounds wholly French, comprising the whole range of nasals, the liquid I, the y in the middle of a word, and so on. After this, distinction between similar terminations in French, bon, vont, aiment, souvent. With the progress of the pupil the dictations must assume a different character ; rapidity of enunciation must be grad- ually introduced and the understanding of the sense of the passage insisted upon. Here, too, help must be given. When entering upon this part of the work the substance of the pas- sage to be dictated may be explained briefly in English ; the subject indicated at least. Then the whole passage should be read slowly and distinctly in French, to give the class an opportunity of understanding it, as far as possible ; next the dictation proper, not many words at once ; these repeated three or four times over, and the punctuation indicated, care having NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 81 been taken to inscribe on the blackboard the signs of punctua- tion, with their names in French. Finally, the passage should be re-read throughout. All this means trouble, but without trouble and painstaking no teacher can succeed. He needs to take both, and intelligently. Correction of the dictation may be done in many ways. A very bad way, preferred by lazy instructors, is to have the work passed on to the next pupil, a general interchange thus taking place, and the pupils themselves being told to correct from the text if they have it. This plan invariably results in numerous mistakes being left uncorrected and in many miscorrections. The proper corrector is the instructor. He should make a point of looking at every separate exercise, so as to see for himself not merely the number, but, what is in- finitely more important, the nature of the mistakes. It is an excellent lesson for him ; a mode of obtaining very valuable information. Once he has ascertained in this way what are the individual faults, which are the sounds most generally misapprehended, he can proceed to correct in class, using the blackboard largely to supplement his viva voce spelling. In thus correcting — it is understood that each pupil has had his exercise returned to him — the instructor must lay stress upon the more com- mon mistakes he has noticed and illustrate by pronunciation and writing the difference between the right and the wrong way. Dictations should never be very long ; if they are they become tiresome to the pupil and do harm instead of good. Teachers who give long dictations do not correct them. SPEAKING FRENCH. There are many teachers, and very good ones among them too, who believe that in teaching a foreign language English should be used for all explanations. 82 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. The writer believes that on the very first day a beginner should hear the sound of the language he desires to learn, and that he should be taught in that language as far as possible. Not that English need be proscribed ; it cannot be in large classes if progress is to be made, but it should be entirely secondary ; used as little as possible, and only when repeated attempts to make intelligible an explanation in French have failed. Pupils will quickly pick up the ordinary phrases used in the work of the class-room ; more difficult expressions, longer explanations, they will understand pretty readily if the black- board is used as it should be, and especially if the teacher is patient and has sense enough to remember that Rome was not built in a day. Reading at sight will greatly aid students in understanding spoken French, but the best means of making them do so is, after all, to speak it. If the teacher takes pains to speak slowly and distinctly at first, choosing easy words, using sim- ple expressions and the simplest possible constructions, it is quite astonishing how rapidly a large class will learn to understand him. Students should be encouraged to ask their questions in French ; they will bungle very often, and some strange sounds will be heard, impossible, perhaps, to understand. In that case, let the teacher ask that the question be put in English, and then repeat it himself in French, drawing attention to the words used and to their pronunciation. The next time the student speaks, an improvement will be noticed. If teachers only knew it — those who do not believe in speaking French — they could interest their class very greatly by talking about a point of grammar in French, or explaining an allusion, a word even. One of the pleasantest sights is to see some hundred and odd students listening ''with all their ears " to a ten or twelve minutes' talk in French ; students who, three or four months before, had never heard a word of the lancruage. notp:s on the teaching of fkench. 83 But it may be objected that tlie understanding is only apparent, and that in reality the pupils thus addressed have not a ghost of an idea of what is being said. Very good; only when pupils do not understand, they do one of two things, sometimes both ; they cease to listen, or tliey speak right out in meeting, and say they do not comprehend. The American student is not bashful, as a rule. But foolish indeed is the teacher who neglects to test his pupils. The exercise of speaking to the class can be easily proved useful ; in this way : talk for five, ten, fifteen minutes in French ; tlien straightway make every pupil write down in English the substance of what has been said. This test has been applied over and over again with invariably good results, the percentage of failures being rarely more than two or three per cent. The summaries are of course collected at once. A class so taught will prefer to be talked to in French, and every member of it feels that he has made distinct progress. He becomes more and more interested, and the teacher can be sure that all the work he wants done will be done. Further, pupils thus prepared in their first year will be capable of acquiring a speaking knowledge of French much more quickly, and they will soon learn to follow and under- stand not only readings, but lectures in French. The language is then a living one to them. It is a language, a tool, a help in reality. CONVERSATION. A college student who learns Latin or Greek may be satis- fied to read and write it with facility ; but if he studies a modern language he ought also to be able to speak it. No training in modern languages is complete which does not include these three points, — facility in reading, writing, speaking. Unfortunately, speaking cannot be taught in classes as 84 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. numerous as are those in most colleges, and especially in some of the larger institutions. Hence the failure of these institutions to turn out as many completely fitted men as they should. The success of the language schools, so-called, arises from the classes being restricted in numbers. The idea is not origi- nal with them, but they have had the sense to apply it ; and they deserve, consequently, all the patronage they get, even if they do not always succeed in carrying pupils very far. When it comes to trying to teach more than a dozen per- sons at a time to speak in a foreign language, the task is so much beyond the powers of even very good instructors, that they tire themselves out without any corresponding good results. Students can be taught to speak a foreign language, even if they have not the opportunity of going abroad ; but it can only be done by capable instructors handling a restricted num- ber of pupils, and meeting their class frequently during the week. No class should exceed twelve in number : eight is quite enough; but a smart, competent teacher, with plenty of "snap," capable of mflking the lesson bright, lively, and in- teresting, can handle ten or twelve without too much over- expenditure of nervous force. The first difficulty the teacher has to contend with in pupils is shyness. The sound of his own voice uttering foreign words is usually sufficient to " rattle " the most self-possessed student ; and it is very difficult to make learners get over that feeling. It is worse in a large class ; it amounts, in practice, to frequent stoppage of effort on the part of pupils. A small class is therefore likely to do better : for one reason, each member of it gets to know the teacher more quickly, therefore better, and is more apt to acquire courage to speak out. The more tact a teacher has the better in this kind of IfOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 85 work. There must be no laughing at the student ; on the contrary, a visible and real interest in his progress, and a constant readiness, nay, eagerness, to assist, aid, correct. There is scarcely anything more trying to a student than the attempt to express himself in a foreign language in the pres- ence of others. Even if by a determined effort the feeling of shyness is overcome, there remains the difficulty of finding words to express the thought, of co-ordinating them, when found, in a properly constructed sentence, and of pronouncing the whole sentence in a way to make it partially intelligible. It is very important that the teacher should remember that these difficulties and obstacles present themselves each time that the student endeavors to speak ; and he must from this fact learn to be very patient indeed and helpful to the utmost. It is well, also, to explain to the' class that these difficulties exist, and must be met and overcome. When students see that their instructor knows thoroughly, and appreciates fully, the troubles they suffer from, they are at once encouraged. Encouragement, assistance, is what the teacher must give. The instruction in conversation classes is best given in French exclusively. The object must be to counteract the tendency of the pupils to fall back upon English ; a tendency so strong that no pains must be spared to check it. This is one of the reasons why conversation classes are so peculiarly* exhausting : there is a strain put upon the instructor greater perhaps than in any other part of his work. Another reason is the necessity of bearing in mind the vocabulary already taught the students, so that a regular progression may be maintained and new words introduced just when needed. In this branch of the teaching of French, system is indispensable. It will not do to get up at haphazard conversations on all subjects under the sun. That plan answers very well with advanced classes, the members of which have acquired a suf- ficient vocabulary, fluency of speech, and, consequently, self- reliance. In the earlier stages of the work the ground must 86 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. be carefully prepared, and the pupil brought along from one point to another with the feeling that he is capable of advan- cing. This necessitates not only system and memory on the part of the teacher, but very frequent repetition at first, until the fundamental groups of words and sentences are thoroughly mastered. Tedious, this, if not varied, but it is for the teacher to be constantly bright, quick, alive ; if he is, the class will be. If he be dull, the class will go to sleep. Recourse should not be had to plays and novels. The temptation to the teacher to simply read the scenes or pas- sages which he enjoys is very great, and the exercise is suddenly transformed from one in conversation to one in understanding reading. The better the teacher reads, the more he should avoid doing it. The pupils hear conversation read out; they are not themselves speaking. Indeed, it cannot be too often impressed upon a teacher that his business in a conversation class, is not to talk him- self, but to make the students talk. The former is easy, the latter is difficult; but it is the duty to be performed, and stu- dents should complain if the instructor indulges in mono- logues. It is not often that they will do it openly : they do it privately, among themselves, even when they have, for reasons of personal amusement or laziness, induced the mono- logue. Make the students talk — that is what the instructor of a conversation class must constantly repeat to himself. CLASSIC WRITERS. La Fontaine, Corneille, Moliere, Racine, are read to a small extent in most elementary classes — meaning by elementary, first, second, and third year work in secondary schools, and first and second in colleges. It would be better for the pupils, and certainly for the authors, if neither fables nor plays were included in the curriculum of those years. Seventeenth cen- tury French comes under the denomination of modern French, of course, but only by contrast with Old French. A person NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. 87 who can read nineteenth centnry French with ease will have little or no trouble in reading the classics of the golden age ; but the case is different with those who are practically be- ginners. They cannot tlioroughly appreciate the beauties of these writers because they are having a constant struggle with words whose meaning has changed, with forms and construc- tions which are obsolete. Their yet shaky knowledge of modern syntax is constantly being troubled by forms which they have been told they must not use, and which, neverthe- less, are declared right when employed by masters of litera- ture. They are apt to be interested in Moliere's comedies : " Le Bour- geois Gentilhomme " and " L'Avare " may always be depended upon to amuse a class, especially if read rapidly enough to enable the pupils to follow the fun : " Le Cid," in a minor degree, will captivate a portion at least ; but Corneille's other master- pieces or Racine's superb works are dull and prosy to them. These splendid works of art should not be lowered to the base use of mere reading-exercises, but kept for that time in the study of the language when the pupils having acquired su£&- cient familiarity with it, no longer stumble along, but read with facility without the necessity for translation. The7i the great writers may profitably be taken up and genuine enjoy- ment derived by students and teacher from intelligent study of comedy, tragedy, or fable. Of the four. La Fontaine is least fitted for elementary work spite of the fact that in France it is a recognized child's book. Nothing can be more dreary for the pupils, more painful for the teacher, than the translating of even the first book of the Fables as usually done. It is a grievous, wicked sacrifice of exquisitely beautiful work, resulting in no good to anybody, and generally inspiring the pupil with as profound a detesta- tion of La Fontaine as was formerly inspired for Fenelon by the misuse of his admirable prose poem. La Fontaine is es- sentially a writer for appreciative readers ; besides which his 88 NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF FRENCH. frequent use of archaisms and patois makes his fables partic- ularly difl&cult of understanding to beginners. If, however, La Fontaine, Corneille, Moliere, and Eacine are to be read, let them be read in such a way as will diminish as much as possible the objections raised above. To begin with the fabulist. Instead of simply starting on reading and translating " La Cigale et la Fourmi," explaining painfully what hise means ; that cicalas do not eat worms ; that out is spelt aout, and so on, let the hint given by the poet himself be taken, and the collection of fables be presented to the pupil as une ample comedie a cent actes divers. If the class is sufficiently advanced to understand spoken French, let the teacher, using that tongue, tell his pupils about the France of Louis the Fourteenth, its splendor and misery, its division into provinces almost as much separated the one from the other as if they were foreign countries, its magnificent court of Versailles, its nobility, its clergy, its bourgeoisie and its peasantry. Let him picture the times and the men ; let him make La Fontaine, the bonhomme, live again before the class ; show him wandering in woods, and by river and brook, or silent and observant in society, or bright and witty with the friends ; and then, taking each fable, make plain each different act, show the alternate farce and drama, comedy and tragedy ; the home scenes, the episodes of peasant life, the hits at king and courtier, the portraits of man, the mirror held up to nature. At once the class will brighten, and instead of voting La Fontaine a bore, follow with real interest and ever- renewed pleasure each successive scene. Let not the transla- tion be a desperately dull transliteration, but a vivacious, racy, idiomatic reproduction of the original, retaining as much of the bloom, of the beauty, of the esprit, subtle and keen, as may staffer transposition into another tongue. So with the dramatists. A vivid representation of the times, a clear exposition of the conditions under which they worked, a brief summary of the plot if desired, and a reading NOTES ON THE TEACHING OP FRENCH. 89 of the text from which monotony is carefully excluded. One can do serious and thorough work without preternatural gravity and excessive boring of pupils. Lighten the tragedy as much as possible — there is not one piece which will not bear this treatment; bring out strongly the fine passages, the striking scenes; summarize the duller and less important; read well when reading to the class ; possess your soul in patience when the class reads to you. As for the comedy, it will always take care of itself. PEACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS OF MODEEN LANGUAGE STUDY. BY PROFESSOR A. LODEMAN, MICHIGAN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. The student of educational affairs who has devoted any attention to the recent history of modern language study, must have been impressed with its progress and development during the last few decades in all civilized countries. The activity in this field has been such that it may well be com- pared with the revival of classical study in the sixteenth cen- tury ; more than one striking parallel might be drawn between that period and the present, and, as is so frequently the case, our less biased view of past conditions might make it easier for us to see things of immediate concern in their true light. The question what effect such an event is likely to have upon education in general, what relation it bears to the civil- ization of the age, is one in which all thoughtful people will easily be interested. In the minds of those who take an active part in educational affairs, this question naturally assumes a somewhat more definite and restricted form. We ask : Jlliy do ive teach modern languages ? and it is this question I will endeavor to answer. It seems advis- able, however, for the present purpose, to limit the term " modern languages " so as to exclude the vernacular ; not, in- deed, because the English does not deserve the first and inost earnest consideration in any discussion of the subject of living languages, but because, for that very_reason, and for others as well, it is more appropriately treated by itself. My remarks will also, for obvious reasons, have reference mainly to French and German only. " OF Mf'.DERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 91 The first ?:iswer to our question may be given in the words of another : ^■'' IVe tearh modern languages, ^^essentially because they are so sujjvemehj useful" Let no one, not even the votary of the sublimest idealism, for a moment be shocked by this confession ! We say we teach modern languages be- cause they are useful ; who will advocate the teaching of use- less things ? We do not say, however, that we teach French and German because they can under all circumstances be put to immediate use in any special industry or trade ; that is im- possible, as will appear farther on. What we do claim is, first, that the modern languages are extremely useful as a means to literary culture and to a liberal education. "We believe," Macaulay wrote in 1837, "that the books which have been written in the languages of Western Europe during the last two hundred and fifty yea-rs are of greater value than all the books which at the beginning of that period were extant in the world." * If this statement miglit possibly have seemed too strong at the time when made, it certainly cannot be considered so now, with the immense additional literature of the last half century thrown into one scale of the balance. The languages which furnish the key to a large portion of this treasure are indeed useful ; and John Stuart Blackie, late professor of Greek in Edinburgh Uni- versity, may well say that "the languages which claim most loudly the regard of an« English-speaking gentleman of the present day, whether on the east or the west side of the Atlantic, are French and German." Next to the French and German he names the Latin, Greek, and Italian.^ The claims of modern literature, with reference to its aesthetic value and moral effect, and as a means of a more gen- eral diffusion of correct taste, have been discussed by able writers, who assign to it the first place in the intellectual cul- ture of our time.® Lowell has pointed out how much the great English writers are indebted for their style to other ' Essay on Lord Bacon. 2 N.Y. Independent, Nov. 26, 1891. 92 PEACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS moderns: "Did not Spenser . . . form himself on French models ? " he asks. •' Did not Chaucer and Gower, the shapers of our tongue, draw from the same sources ? ... Is not the verse of ' Paradise Lost ' moulded on that of the ' Divina Comedia ' ? Did not Dr3^den's prose and Pope's verse profit by Parisian example ? Nay, in our time is it not whis- pered that more than one of our masters of style in English, and they, too, among the chief apostles of classic culture, owe more of this mastery to Paris than to Athens and Rome ? " '' And as to ideas, the same great writer exclaims: "And shall we say that the literature of the last three centuries is incompetent to put a healthy strain upon the more strenuous faculties of the mind ? That it does not appeal to or satisfy the mind's loftier desires ? That Dante, Machiavelli, Mon- taigne, Bacon, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Pascal, Calderon, Les- sing, and he of Weimar, in whom Carlyle and so many others have found their University, — that none of these set our thinking gear in motion to as good purpose as any an- cient of them all ? Is it less instructive to study the growth of modern ideas than of ancient ? " '' I will dismiss this point with the words of President Cox, of the University of Cincin- nati, " I believe that Avhilst we could not afford to lose the old culture, we cannot afford to neglect the new." (^^ iv., 3.) It is further claimed that the modern languages are useful, nay, indispensable aids in the pursiiit of other branches of knowledge. First of all, I mention the study of English. " Disguise it as we may," wrote Professor Hunt of Princeton, ten years ago, "it is not the most consoling reflection of the patriotic Englishman or American, that as yet the ablest researches into our vernacular are the product of Continental, if not of German, scholarship. . . . English grammar, most especially, has been studied in Germany from the scientific standpoint, with constant reference to primitive principles and forms." ^ Not quite ten years later another high author- 1 Princeton Review, 1881, pp. 227, 231. OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 93 ity could make the statement that it was no longer necessary for the American student of English to go abroad to be taught the earlier forms of his mother tongue ; that Anglo- Saxon and other Teutonic languages were taught in all the centres of learning in tliis country. And the number of institutions which have in recent years extended their courses in English is indeed very great. On the other hand, a large proportion of the leading works on the English language and literature are still written in foreign languages, and the same is true of articles m periodicals. A glance at recent numbers of Englische Studien and Anglia shows that all contributions to the latter, and sixteen out of seventeen to the former, are in German. Aside from this use of foreign languages in the pursuit of advanced scholarship in English, the study of for- eign languages is itself one of the best means of learning one's own. " We have learned," says one of the greatest American scholars, "that the round-about course, through other tongues, to the comprehension and mastery of our own, is the shortest." '" The advanced student of the ancient classics, of philology, and of archaeology, can no more pursue his study without French and German, than an ocean steamer can run from New York to San Francisco by the overland route. In Mathematics we have it from good authority that ten valuable works in either French or German are published to one in English, so that it is impossible to make up a good mathematical library of English works alone. Books in the Physical and Natural Sciences are perhaps translated more frequently than those in other departments, but here, too, much that is of the highest value to the special- ist can be found only in some foreign language. There is a recent statement of Dr. S. Sheldon to the effect that Wie- dermann's Annalen der Physik, and the Jahresberichte of the German Chemical Society, "contain more original matter each month than is published in America during a whole year." ^ 1 Pedagogical Seminary, 111., p. 488. 94 I'RACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS Until recently the Science of Education might almost have been considered a German science. Within the last twenty- years, however, the contributions in English, French, and other languages to pedagogical literature have been numerous and important. Still, an examination of the monthly bulletins of publications in this field, or of educational bibliographies, shows a preponderance of German works ; and the references in English treatises on the science of education are mostly to German authorities. In an historical and critical work on Aryan Philology, published some twelve years ago by an Italian,^ about four- fifths of the books cited are German. In short, to use the words of President Eliot of Harvard, " the philologists, archaeologists, metaphysicians, physicians, physicists, naturalists, chemists, economists, engineers, archi- tects, artists, and musicians all agree that a knowledge of these languages is indispensable to the intelligent pursuit of any one of their respective subjects beyond its elements." ^^ Or, to quote the president of another great university, " A liberal edu- cation absolutely requires that every English-speaking person should have a knowledge of French and German also; for it is from the French and Germans that in these days we receive the most important contributions to literary and physical science." 32 I now pass to my second answer to the question " Why do we teach modern languages," which is, — On account of their disciplinary value. Here I must first of all guard against a misunderstanding. Mental discipline cannot be understood as something separate or separable from mental activity — every kind of mental activity, and hence the acquisition of any kind of useful knowledge, yields discipline. "The connection and interdependence of the two," says Professor W. D. Whitney, " are complete. No discipline without valuable knowledge ; 1 Pezzi ; " Aryan Philology." OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 95 all valuable knowledge available for discipline ; the discipline in proportion to the amount and value of the knowledge acquired : these are fundamental truths in the theory of education. . . . To ask what knowledge is disciplinary is the question of ignorance. The true question to ask is, What kind of discipline does any given knowledge afford, to what does it conduct ? " ^^ Discipline, as we shall see farther on, depends rather upon method than upon subject-matter; for even if we follow Professor Laurie and distinguish between discipline and training, and say that the mind is disciplined by fixing it on the formal or abstract, and trained by occu- pation with the real or concrete, it will be found that each branch of study has its formal and its real side, and it is a question of method which side is to be emphasized. Lan- guage, for example, may be taught "as a concrete subject; that is to say, with special reference to the substance of thought," in Avhich case the pupil's mind is carried through processes of thinking, and is thereby trained ; or it may be studied with reference to " the relations of the word-vestment," in which case the mind deals with the formal, the abstract, the grammatical, and thereby is disciplined. Q'^ Lectures II. and IV.) It goes without saying that the true method has to provide for both. I need not dwell upon the disciplinary value of language- study in general ; it is self-evident, since language is the instrument which renders all mental power effective, "the me- dium by which our thinking processes are carried on." The subject of my discussion calls only for a brief presentation of the relative disciplinary value of liring foreign languages. Mental discipline, in any higher sense, implies continued effort and use of the judgment. Therefore, a special disci- plinary power has been claimed for the ancient languages be- cause they are so difficult. But this superior difficulty is by no means conceded by those who, having acquired a thorough and tolerably complete knowledge of both ancient and modern 96 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS languages, have investigated the question of their relative difficulty. The distinguished classical scholar Madwig has recently been quoted by a committee of the Norwegian Diet as an authority for the superior pedagogical value of Latin and Greek ; and to what better authority could one appeal ? Yet Madwig does not claim for these languages a greater intrinsic disciplinary value or logical structure, but he attributes their special educational value to the circumstance that they are more foreign to us and cannot be acquired from others by mere practice."^ The same point had been made earlier by Beneke. In other Avords, the ancient languages, Avhen studied thoroughly, yield better intellectual results than living lan- guages taught superficially. According to Beneke, a profound thinker and one of the ablest defenders of ancient classical studies, Greek and Latin are decidedly more difficult than French and English ; ^^ but it is only too evident that his conception of the aims and methods of the study of French, as compared with those of Latin and Greek, is very low. So much has been written on the comparative pedagogical value of ^ the ancient and the modern languages, that a bibliography of the literature would fill a small volume. (See, e.g., "^ p. 375, and ^° p. 506.) But as far as my knowledge of the literature goes, it is only in recent times that men have renounced the unnecessary task of proving that little French, poorly taught, is not equal to much Latin, well taught. Beneke does not believe that the "outward elements'' of Greek and Latin possess much or any educational power; yet it is these elements that are often so highly praised as means of mental g3'mnastics ! As to an- cient literature, it is, in his judgment, superior to modern in grand simplicity and beauty of form, but far inferior in rich- ness and sublimity of thought. It is especially adapted to the young. " The educated ??^a?^," he says, " will, as a rule, derive richer and more vigorous food from German and English authors ; . . . but this richer and more vigorous food is not OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 97 yet suitable for the young." (" II., p. 122.) A similar thought has been expressed by an American scholar of our own clay, who says, " The study of modern life and the language in which it is crystallized, is not milk for babes, but meat for strong men." ® Professor Bernhard Schmitz, in his Encydopddle des philo- logischen Studiums der modernen Sprachen, admits the greater difficulty of Latin and Greek grammar, but does not con- sider the study of grammar the principal difficulty in learn- ing a language, but rather the wealth of the language it- self, especially the phraseology; and with respect to this he claims all languages are equally difficult.-^ Others who have made comparisons in the same direction do not even concede greater grammatical difficulties to the ancient lan- guages. And it would, indeed, be no easy matter to show why to comprehend the delicate shades in the use of tenses and moods in French " does not demand as severe and high an ex- ercise of the discriminating faculty as to comprehend the same in Latin, or even in Greek ; " " or why the correct use of the German prepositions does not call for as strict atten- tion as that of the Latin and Greek pi-epositions ; or why, in translating, " the powers of analysis and synthesis are not as much needed, and as much cultivated, by a thorough mastery of the German as of the Greek." ^® Does not a language like the French, which requires for an exhaustive, though brief treatment of the definite article twenty-six pages and forty- two different heads, and the conjugation of which contains forty-five more forms than the Latin, ^'^ offer sufficient oppor- tunity for mental discipline ? Dr. Wilhelm Schrader, Pro- fessor of Pedagogy in the University of Halle, justly ascribes eminent disciplinary value, both formal and real, to the study of French, if properly pursued. Q^ pp. 509-512.) Professor Babbitt, of Columbia College, who has had experience in teaching ancient and modern languages, has examined in detail the advantages to be derived from the 98 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS pursuit of either, and comes to the conclusion that the disci- pline in both cases is equally valuable : he introduces, how- ever, the question of pace, and believes that the opportunities for discipline lie at a more advanced stage in the modern languages than in the ancient; so that a modern language student, to gain the same amount of discipline, must go over more ground than the student of Latin and Greek ; and for this the course of study and the method must provide.^ We find that in every case where the disciplinary value of modern language study is depreciated, the reason is to be found in an unfair comparison in which the method is lost sight of : '' Just in proportion as methods have been bettered and the true spirit of linguistic training developed, the modern languages have risen higher in the scale of potent agencies for mind-culture." ^^ While feeling entirely free from any desire to detract from the merits of ancient language study as a means of higher education, we cannot but recognize the fact that our age is fast outgrowing the belief in any miraculous power of disci- pline peculiar to Latin and Greek. This change of opinion is going on in all civilized countries. ^* Before leaving this question, it may be well to enter a general protest against the false assumption that the more difficult study always yields the greater mental discipline. If such were the case, other languages would be far ahead of any we have been considering; as, for example, the Nahuatl of old Mexico, the verb of which has eight hundred and sixty- five regularly derived forms, or the Otchipwe, in which every verb is capable of eight million variations.^* And since the difficulty for the learner increases as the teacher deviates from the processes suggested by psychological laws, it would follow that, the poorer the teaching, the greater the discipline. But the truth is, there is scarcely anything hard for the average pupil, if the ideas are properly presented.^ The opinion may be held by some that, while the modern OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 99 languages are valuable for general mental discipline, they cannot furnish that special philological training resulting from the advanced study of Latin and Greek. But the least acquaintance with the history of the growth of such lan- guages as the English, German, and French , and with the literature and methods of modern philology, must convince any one that such a view is untenable. " The wealth of material they [the modern languages] offer for philological training and historical investigation is becoming more appre- ciated every day." ^^ " Had we nothing else with yet stronger recommendations to apply to," says Professor W. D. Whitney, "the German and French, especially the former, would answer to us all the essential disciplinary purposes of philological study ; as, indeed, to many they are and must be made to answer those purposes. As the case stands, they are among the indispensable parts of a disciplinary education." *° If we apply to the study of living languages the test of systematic psychology, it appears that there is not a single mental activity which is not called into play and stimulated in the pursuit of this study, if properly taught, beginning at the foot of the scale, with sensation, up to the highest uses of the reasoning power and the judgment. But such inquiry into the influence of modern language study upon special mental activities involves necessarily the question of methods, upon which it depends. I will therefore pass to the second question : — HOW SHOULD WE TEACH THE MODERN LANGUAGES ? The number of possible methods of teaching languages is infinite. The text-books may be counted by thousands : a bibliography, doubtless incomplete, of French grammars alone, published between the years 1500 and 1800, includes six hundred and fift}^ titles.^* A large proportion of such works bears the sub-title "A New Method." And if we take into account the various uses made of the same text-book by 100 PRACTICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS different teachers, the actual number of different methods of teaching, it would seem, must be legion. Many of the methods advocated or practised by eminent educators in the past have more than an historical interest to the teacher of to-day : the views of men like Erasmus, Melanchthon, Ratich, Comenius, Locke, the Jesuit teachers, of Jacotot, Hamilton, Marcel, Prendergast, Heness, Sauveur, and others, are suggest- ive and stimulating, and the history of their methods is in- structive. But in all the literature of this class we do not find the true answer to our question " How should we teach the modern languages ? " We must give it from our own standpoint, in the light of the knowledge and experience of the present age, being guided in the main by two considera- tions : The method, that is, the " ivay," must lead to the end in view, and it must he in harmony with the laws of mind-growth. The ultimate test of every method must be the psychological. Without it we are liable to commit the gravest errors and not be aware of them ; mere practical results cannot be con- sidered as decisive : the question how the results were obtained is of the utmost importance. The task of learning a language consists in the acquisition of the material (vocabulary, phraseology, idioms) and the mastery of the principles or rules which govern the use of the material (inflections, syntax). If we attack the material first, i.e., the living language itself, we follow the analytical method ; we begin, for instance, with a printed page or sen- tence, or a spoken sentence, and by analysis study the parts and their relations. If, on the other hand, we attack first the principles governing the use of the various parts of speech and their combinations, we proceed synthetically, construct- ing the language, i.e., the sentence, representing the unit of language, out of its elements, according to certain rules. The former method may also be called the practical, and the latter the theoretical, or grammar method. Then we may begin with either one of these two methods, and soon pass to the OF MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY. 101 other, and combine tlie two, so that we have, in addition, the analytico-synthetie and the syntlietico-anah/tic methods. (It should be remarked that the terms analytic and synthetic may also be applied to the language-material, instead of to the process ; in that case the meanings of the terms synthetic method and analytic method are reversed, the former denot- ing the method dealing with language in its synthetic form, the latter the method dealing with language in its analyzed, decomposed form. Thus Henry Sweet speaks of "the syn- thetic methods of the Middle Ages, by which sentences were grasped as wholes, .not analyzed diu6.put together like pieces ol mosaic work.") " I have set down as the principal aim in the teaching of modern languages, their %ise as a means of literary culture and of information in various departments of knowledge. Such use presupposes first of all the ability to read the languages. Psychology teaches that the mind proceeds from a knowl- edge of " wholes " to that of their parts (analysis), and from the concrete to the abstract. We are, then, forcibly pointed to the analytical and analytico-synthetie methods ; simple read- ing, not systematic grammar, forms the first step. An ele- mentary grammar method, with plenty of illustrations in the foreign language, is not, however, to be condemned, since it lends itself to the analytical way of procedure. Though we care at the start more for the printed than for the spoken language, ^)ro?«^ t Ger- man Grammar. We finished this faook in eight weeks. High schools can easily fin- ish it in two terms with one recitation a day. W. H. van der Smissen, I'-Aiv. of Toronto : I can speak of it in terms of the highest praise. W. H. Eraser, Prof, in Toronto Univ. Uffer Canada Coll., Toronto: For those who do not wish to learn to speak the language this book is a positive boon. Chas. B. Wilson, Instructor in Ger- man, Cornell Univ. : For brevity, clear- ness, and completeness, it is the best that has come to my notice. It is admirably adapted to students who have already ac- quired, by the study of foreign languages, some knowledge of terminology and gram- matical rules, and who wish to begin read- ing as soon as possible. W. H. Appleton, Prof, of Modern Langs., Swartlnnore Coll.: It has very great merits, and is admirably adapted for the purpose designed. 28 GERMAN. yoynes-Meissner German Grammar. A German Grammar for schools and colleges, based on the Public School Ger- man Grammar of Professor A. L. Meissner, of Queen's College, Belfast. By Edward S. Joynes, Prof, of Mod. Langs., S. C."College. Half leather. 390 pages. Price by mail, ^1.25. Introduction price, ^1.12. THIS book aims to supply a want not heretofore met — of ^ German grammar at once sufficiently elementary and progres- sive for the beginner, and sufficiently systematic and complete for the advanced scholar, yet within reasonable limits of size and price. The special circular on the book furnisJies ample evidence that it has taken its place in the very front rank of grammars intended for class-room nse. Frojn the many letters received and printed in the special circidar, we gnote the follo'wi7ig. Please note the strong words from those who have used the book. Calvin Thomas, Prof, of Germciii, Mich. U7tiv. : As a working grammar for the class-room, I know of nothing which appears to me quite as good. H. H. Boyesen, Prof, of Modern Languages, Columbia Coll., N . Y. : I find it a good and conscientious piece of work, and well adapted to college use. Franklin Carter, Pres. of Wil- liams Coll. : I am quite ready to speak well of it. It has neither too much nor too little for the working grammar of a college class. Carla Wenckebach, Prof, of Ger- man, Wellesley Coll. : The best book of its kind. It gives all necessary grammati- cal information in a well-arranged system and in a clear and concise form ; it is happy in illustration and practical in its exercises. I trust it will have the ex- tended use it so richly deserves. Sylvester Primer, Befl. of Mod- ern Latiguages , Uftiversity of Texas, Austin : I have used it and can give it my hearty recommendation as the very best text-book for acquiring a practical knowl- edge of German. It will prove the best German grammar either in America cr Europe. Scheie De Vere, Prof, of Modem La?iguages, Univ. of Virginia : I ex- pressed my very favorable opinion of it in strong terms. I prefer it to any other. C. W. Pearson, Prof of German, JVorth-westerfi Univ., III.: We put it down among the requirements for admission. Casimir Zdanowicz, Prof, of Ger- man, Vanderbilt Univ. : I am now using it, and find it the best practical working, grammar published in this country. J. A. Harrison, Prof, of Mod. Langs., Washington and Lee Univ.,Va.: It fullfils more thoroughly than any other, the demands for a complete, working, practical introduction to the study of Ger- man. D. Collin Wells, Teacher of Ger- mati, Phillips Acad., Andover: I am exceedingly pleased with it. We use it. Oscar Faulhaber, Teacher of Ger- man, Phillips Acad., Exeter: It is in my opinion a decided success. Mills Whittlesey. Master of Mod- ern La7iguages, Lawrenceville School, N. y. : Superior to any other similar work designed for the class-room. GERMAN. 31 A German Reader for Beginners in School or ColUge. By EuWARU S. JOYNES, Professor of Modern Languages in the University of South Carolina. Half leather. 282 pages. Price by mail, gi.oo. Introduction price, 90 cents. '["^HE most valuable qualities of this popular Reader are : — J. (i) It begins very simply, and is steadily progressive. (2) Thft selections are of general interest to all readers, and are of the highest order in literary merit. (3) It is representative in character, including some Roman type (35 pages out of 150), Schrift, and new and old orthography. (4) The notes are thoroughly helpful, and are sug- gestive and stimulating, as well as explanatory. (5) The vocabulary exhibits the formal relation of German words clearly to the eye : i.e. derivation, composition, etc., teaching the beginner to group words by form and meaning. (6) The brief appendixes include a unique list of Irregular Verbs, summary view of Accent, the Declension of Nouns, and the Order of Words, and of German and English cognates. Space permits only a brief selection from the tnany commendations received. A detailed pamphlet will be sent on application. Calvin Thomas, Prof, of German, Untv. of Mich. : The best Reader there is in the market. All three of my assist- ants will use it. O. Seidensticker, Prof of German, Univ. of Pa. : A superior book, excel- lently adapted for the object intended ; prepared with great care and judgment. H. S. White, Prof of German, Cor- nell Univ. : It matches well the Grammar. The two books have their place well defined and will do a good work. Waller Deering', Prof, of German, Vanderbilt Univ.: An admirable book for the purpose the author has in view, viz., to "smooth the way into German" for beginners, A. W. Spanhoofd, Teacher in St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H. : The Reader pleases me extraordinarily ; I shall make use of it here in my classes- W. H. Van der Smissen, Prof of German. Univ. of Toronto: A most admirable book. I am particularly pleased with the gradation in difficulty and with German script. F. E. Rice, /nst in German, III. Nor- mal School, Dixon, III. : We have used Joynes' German Reader for two terms and like it very much. We are satisfied that we have introduced the best text. Fred, Leop Schoenle, Teacher of German, High School, Louisville, Ky. : It is exactly the kind of class-book I have been looking for, ever since I began teaching German to American pupils. C. F. Kroeh, Prof, of Mod. Langs., Stevens Ins., Hoboken, N J. : Students will find in it excellent judgment and mature scholarship. Hermann Schonfeld, Teacher of German, Swain Free School, Nezv Bed- ford, Mass. : It could not be better arranged and annotated. Of its many merits, the principal one is its excellent gradation. 32 GERMAN: Selections for German Composition. By Charles Harris, Prof, of German Language and Literature in Oberlin College. 150 pages. Clotli. Introduction price, 50 cents. By mail, 60 cents. THIS book consists of progressive selections, eacli complete in itself, accompanied by notes and vocabulary. It is intended to give abundant material for exercise in the writing of simple German, and is compiled in the belief thg,t the first need of the student is much practice in easy exercises, rather than the slow and laborious writing of more difficult ones. Great pains have been taken to make the vo- cabular)^ complete and accurate. Alfred B. Nichols, Inst, in Ger- man., Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass. : I shall make use of the book, which seems to be well planned and exe- cuted. {Oct. II, 1S90.) Oswald Seidensticker, Prof of German, Univ. of Pennsylvattia, Phila- delphia : I have used the book in two classes since October and can now say that the favorable impression which it made upon me at the first and which led to its introduction has been confirmed and strengthened by three months' test. {fan. 12, 1S91.J German at Sight. Gustav Gruener, Instructor in Gej-man, Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn.; It strikes me as a very sensible book . I shall give it a trial. It is based on the right ideas. {Oct. 11, 1890.) S. Primer, Prof, of Modern Lan- guages, Color ado Coll., Colorado Springs: An excellent book ; just adapted to class work. {Oct. 19, 1890.) E. F. Norton. Prof . of Modern Lan- guages, Olivet Coll., Mich. : The variety and scope of the selections and care in the arrangement of notes all go to make up a most excellent book. {Oct. 11, 1890.) By Eugene H. Babbitt, recently Instructor in German, Harvard University. 30 pages. Paper. Price, 15 cents. THE object of this pamphlet is to serve as a sort of syllabus of elementary grammar, to be used in connection with Sheldon's, Brandt's or Whitney's Grammar (the usual grammar with exercises being designed for another purpose) . Every teacher or student using either of these grammars should have this valuable if not indispensable accompaniment. James A. Harrison, Prof, of Ger- man, Washington and Lee Univ., Va. : An interesting pamphlet, very ingenious in its way, which sums up for beginners the main difficulties in the acquisition of German. Mrs. J. B. Dietz, Prof, of German, State Univ., lozva, Iowa City : It is by far the best instruction I have ever seen upon the subject. I shall try to put it in the hands of every student I have. GERMAN. Goethe s Hermann nnd Dorothea. With introduction, commentary, bibliograpliy and index to notes by Water- MANN T. Hewett, M. a., Ph. D., Professor of the German Language and Lit- erature in Cornell University. Cloth. 293 pages. Introduction price, 90 cts. Price by mail, ^^i.oo. THE present edition is based on Goethe's final revision as contained in his collected worlcs, which were being pubHshed at the time of his death. It gives also the readings of the earlier editions. The editor, in the preparation of this edition, has sought to lead from the study of this poem to a larger knowledge of the language, and espe- cially to acquaintance with the thoughts of the author as illustrated in this and in his other writings. Hence the notes have not been confined to brief grammatical ex- planations, but an effort has been made to interpret the poem from the poet himself. The sources of the poem, the author's language and the language of the time have been carefully studied. The history of the composition of the poem has been shown more fully by the recent publications of the Weimar Goethe Society, especially as contained in Goethe's Diary and Letters, and use has been made of these fresh materials. It is believed that this edition will not only guide to an intelligent knowledge of the poem itself, but afford useful material for the critical study of the language and writings of the author. Dr. G. Von Loeper, the distinguished editor of Goethe'' s Works : Professor Hewett's edition of Hermann und Dor- othea has given me a very high opinion of the standard of literary studies in America. Professor Hewett in Amer- ica, and M. Chuquet in France have attained the highest plane of excellence in those studies in the domain of classical German. Prof. Edward Dowden, LL.D., of the University of Dublin^ and Presi- de)it of the English G ethe Society: It seems to me admirable edited and very valuable both for student and teacher. I am exceedingly glad to have it among my Goethe books. Dr. C. Ruland, Director of the Goethe Museum in Weimar: I have read your excellent introduction and looked through some of your notes and can only con- gratulate your countrymen on having Goethe's poem brought near to them in such a superior manner. Such editions do infinitely more good than a great deal of our dry-as-dust Goethe philology. H. H. Boyesen, Prof. Germanic Languages and Literature, Columbia College, New York: I have already de- monstrated my appreciation of Professor Hewett's excellent edition of Hermann und Dorothea by adopting it as a text- book in my classes. It is a beautiful book and exceedingly well done. GERMAN. 55 Heath' s New German Dictionary. In two parts : German-English and English-German. By Elizabeth Weir. Cloth. 1 126 pages. Retail price, |i. 50. German-Englisli part alone. Cloth. 654 pages. Retail price, |;i.oo. Special prices for class use. THIS handy new dictionary, which has already won great success in England, meets a demand that has long existed in our, schools and colleges. It is concise and compact, represents the latest schol- arship, contains a large vocabulary, and is sold at a low price. It is based on the standard dictionaries of Lucas, Fliigel, Hilpert, Kohler and others. Prof. Nagel's treatise and other more recent authorities have been consulted on pronunciation. Each word has been care- fully translated, and a very large and varied collection of idioms has been added. Recondite details have been excluded, and instead ex- plicit, practical information is given. Distinctions among synonyms have been madft clear by examples, and the points in which the two languages differ have been carefully illustrated. The English-German part (471 pages), includes a twelve page ap- pendix on German orthography, as prescribed for schools in 1880, by the Prussian minister of Education. The arrangement of the syno- nyms is so clear that the English speaking student has no difficulty in selecting from several German words the equivalent of a given English word, as he does in English-German dictionaries compiled by Germans. Since the English-German part was chiefly written in Germany, the compiler, with the help of German friends, has included many technical expressions and idioms of every-day occurrence, not found in most dictionaries. Specimen pages sent on application. Calvin Thomas, Proj. of Germanic Langs, and Lits., Univ. of Mich.: I have no hesitation in pronouncing your New German Dictionary a first rate piece of work. One great objection to all small German dictionaries is that the type is necessarily very small. This book is de- cidedly better on this score than most of the dictionaries which are several times larger and cost several times as much. The definitions are well written, concise and correct. Of course no small German Dictionary (big one either, for that mat- ter) contains everything. This one will prove adequate for all ordinary purposes in school and college, and the wonder is how so good a dictionary can be sold so cheap. H. S. White, Prof, of German, Cor- nell Univ.: The Dictionary, as a whole, is remarkably fresh and comprehensive and the price puts it within range of most classes. The effect should be to improve the character of the study of German in the schools, where the books ought to ba widely employed. French. A Ca/npe7idioits French Grammar. In two independent parts, Introductory and Advanced, by A. Hjalmar Edgreii, Professor of Modern Languages and Sanscrit in the University of Nebraska, author of English and Sanscrit grammars, etc. Cloth. . Price of Part I, 35 cents. Mailing price of complete book, $\.2.'^. Introduction price, ^1.12. THIS Grammar was prepared with general reference to the needs of our American schools and colleges. Its limit is determined by the average time devoted to French in such institutions, and its method, by practical as well as critical aims. The First Pa?'t is devoted to such a brief, practical introduction to the French language as will make the learner familiar with its first essentials and enable him to begin reading with profit in half a term, or even less time. It contains only 66 pages, exercises included. The Second Part contains a methodical presentation of French etymology, syntax (with exercises at the end of the book), and versifi- cation, as well as a brief sketch of the relation of French to the Romance element in English. In the formation of rules the results of modern philological research have always, as far as practicable, been considered. An abundant collection of examples, arranged in columns, have been introduced to illustrate the rules of Syntax. To aid the Latin student especially and quicken philological investiga- tion, each chapter is preceded, parenthetically and unobtrusively, by a brief historical survey of the subject under consideration. Two sizes of type have been consistently used to denote what should be studied in 2i first course, and what be left for a second, or be used' for reference only. TJie Second Part, contains about 300 pages. The portion in heavy type is calculated to furnish work accessory to reading for about a term and a half. J. A. Harrison, Pt-of. of Mod. Langs., Washington and Lee Univ., Va.: I have subjected the Edgren's French Grammar to a careful examination and must say that I like it. It is, in my opinion, an excellent work, practical, well developed and concise. M. C. Gile, Prof, of Mod. Langs., Phillips Acad., Andover, Mass. : No book with which I am acquainted pre- sents so clearly and concisely the essen- tials of French Grammar for the beginner and a thoroughly scholarly treatment for the advanced student. (Feb. 9, i8gi.) FRENCH. 59 Preparatory French Reader. By O. B. Super, Ph.D., Professor of Modern Languages, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. 232 pages. I/2 leather. Price by mail, 90 cents. Introduction price, 80 cents. MANY teachers of French have complained of the lack of easy and interesting reading suitable for beginners, and this book is intended to supply this want. It is not a "Classic French Reader," consisting of extracts in prose and poetry, but contains easy and en- tertaining stories of some length, — long enough to give the pupil a chance to become interested in them. The book aims to develop facility in reading, — to teach not literature but language, and thus to prepare for the appreciation of literature. The text, therefore, is so simple that translation will not be a burden, and so arranged that a vocabulary will be fixed, progress seen, and moderate facility in reading easily acquired. The selections are progressive in character, beginning with short translations from Andersen's tales, continuing with one from the Grimm Brothers and another from Mme. de Girardin. The second part is more advanced, containing tales or selections from Erckmann- Chatrian, A. Dumas, A. Daudet, Mery, and Mme. Foa, averaging some eight pages each. The third part consists of "Les Prisonniers du Caucase," by Xavier de Maistre. The poems are pleasing, and have been chosen chiefly on account of their simplicity. Notes and a vocabulary are added. The vocabulary contains one feature believed to be new; viz., the showing, as far as a difference in type would permit, the indebtedness of the English language to the French. Our special circular on this book shows that it has been received i7t all parts of the country with the appreciation to which its merits entitle it. The circular also shows that the book is in successful use in more than three hundred schools and colleges. Thos. McCabe, Ph.D., Prof, of Mod. Langs., hid. State Univ.: This book, which is admirably printed and exceedingly convenient, is well adapted to the wants of strictly junior students, for whom it has been produced. Hermann Sohoenfeld, Prof, of French, Swain Free School, New Bed- ford: Jel'aitrouve excellent tant pour la parfaite traduction des meilleures pieces d' Andersen et la matiere extremement bonne que pour le plan entier qui est logique et conforme k toutes les lois de 1' instruction moderne. Certainement je me servirai de ce livre k 1' occasion donnee. 6o FRENCH. French by Reading. By Mrs. Louise S. Houghton and Miss Mary Houghton, New York City. 348 pages. Half leather. Introduction price, ^1.12. Price by mail, ^1.25. THE method of this book is based upon reading with a view to the rapid and easy acquisition of a vocabulary. Grammatical rules are given as the need for them arrives, such rules being the more likely to be understood and remembered' because they have been needed. Four charming French stories by modern autliors form the basis of the method, giving altogether a vocabulary of more than three thousand French words. Especially recommended for home study and instruction. Charles E. Fay, Prof . of French, Ttifts College, Mass., (in address before the Mass. Teachers' Association) : I have recently seen a book called "French by Reading " which I believe to be a good thing. It presents the facts of the lan- guage in connection with- extracts for reading, thus making evident their rela- tion to the living whole, instead of giving the impression that grammar is an arbi- trary set of forms to which language must be made to conform. Materials for French Composition. By Charles H. Grandgent, Director of Modern Language Instruction in the Boston High and Latin Schools. In four parts. Part I. Based on L'Abb6 Constantin. 26 pages. Part II. Based on Peppino, 26 pages. Part III. Based on Le Siege de Berlin. 25 pages. Part IV. Based on La Derniere Classe. 25 pages. Paper. Price, each 12 cents. By Miss A. C. Kimball, Teacher in Girls' High School, Boston. Based on La Belle Nivernaise. 26 pages. Paper. 12 cents. THESE e.xercises, originally made for use in the Boston High Schools, were composed in the belief that pupils can succeed in writing idiomatic French only through the careful study and imitation of French models. For each exercise the author has taken as a basis about a page of the French book used by the class, and has con- structed in English, from the words and phrases it contains, a new conversation or narrative. The pupil first studies thoroughly the original page, and then, with the help of this text and of his gram- mar, but without consulting a dictionary, translates the English into French. The pamphlets are graded, No. IV. being the easiest, and the one on La Belle Nivernaise the most difficult. Emile Achert, Prof, of French, to composition I have tried hitherto Vassar College., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. : I have disappointed me. This is the first am delighted with Grandgent's French step in the right direction, and must Composition, and have already ordered prove a boon to both students and in- it for class use. All the 50-called aids structors. FRENCH. 6i Coittes de Fees: Classic French Fairy Tales, with Notes and Vocabulary by Edward S. JOYNES, Professor of Modern Languages in the University of Soutli Carolina. Paper. 155 pages. Introduction price, 35 cents. By mail, 40 cents. A SELECTION of the most familiar and favorite Fairy Tales, from the French of Perrault, Mme. D'Aulnoy, etc. An easy and cliarming text, edited for beginners of any age, also, especially, as an introduction to sight reading ior ir\or& advanced students. The editor's experience and skill as a teacher of French are notably shown in the helpful and stimulating notes, and especially in the vo- cabulary, which contains new and striking features. Pierre et Cainille. By Alfred de Musset. Edited, with notes, by O. B. Super, Ph. D., Profes- sor in Dickinson College, Pa. Paper. 65 pages. Price, 20 cents. THIS beautiful and touching story is one of the best in the whole range of De Musset's prose writings, and is entirely free from all those objectional features which render many stories unsuitable for the class-room. Pierre and Camille were deaf-mutes, pupils of the celebrated Abb6 de PEp6e, who was one of the first to try and teach such unfortunates, and the story thus becomes historically interesting. The style is pure and the language simple. Sandeaus Mile, de la Seigliere. Edited by F. M. Warren, Professor of Modern Languages in Adelbert Col- lege, Cleveland, O. 15S pages. Paper. Introduction price, 30 cents. Price by mail, 35 cents. THIS edition of a text-book, now recommended in the requirements for the New England colleges, is prepared with the demands of rapid reading in mind. The notes lay especial stress on the social and historical setting, and, while furnishing abundant translations, en- deavor to keep before the student the literary excellences of this popu- lar comedy. In the Introduction has been gathered what is essen- tial to the understanding of Sandeau's life and works, together with a comparison of the plot and treatment of subject in both novel and play. Jules Luquiens, Assoc. Prof. Mod. book, which are excellent, I must say that Langs., Mass. Institute Technology : Not Dr. Warren's work strikes me as a model •Speaking of the outward features of the specimen of editorial tact and care. FRENCH. 63 Historiettes Modernes, Vohtnie I. An intermediate Reader with etymological, historical, and explanatory notes, selected and annotated by C. FONTAINE, B. L., L. D., Professor of French in Mt. Vernon Seminary, Washington, D. C. 160 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, 65 cents. Introduction price, 60 cents. THIRTEEN short, pure, and unusually interesting stories, for early reading. As they were all first published in 1887, they are em- phatically modern French. In his choice of selections the author was ever influenced by a desire to produce such as dealt with the every- day occurrences of life, thus affording teachers as well as students the best material for varied topics of conversation. The notes are very full and are well calculated to lead the student to a knowledge of the spirit and idioms of the French language. Alc6e Portier, Prof, of French, Tulane Univ., Nezu Orleans : J'ai lu votre livre avec beaucoup de plaisir ; votre choix d'histoires est tr6s-bien fait, et je tacherai de trouver moyen de m'en servir dans mon cours. J. H. Westcott, Prof, of French, Princeton Coll., N.J.: The Historiettes Modernes please me very much. We want a great deal more of this living French prose, small unities, as distinguished from extracts. Historiettes Modernes, Volume II. An intermediate Reader with etymological, historical, and explanatory notes, selected and annotated by C. Fontaine, B. L., L. D., Professor of French in Mt. Vernon Seminary, Washington, D. C. 164 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, 65 cents. Introduction price, 60 cents. THE purpose and plan of this volume is the same as that of Volume I. It contains fifteen new French stories of every-day life for easy reading, representing the following authors : Andre Theuriet, Jean Rameau, Jean Richepin, Guy de Maupassant, Paul Perret, Emmanuel Arfene, Erckmann-Chatrain, Jules Simon, C. H. Nuitter, F. Beissier, and J. Lemaitre. Short biographical sketches in French are prefixed to the stories of the various authors. B. Li. Bowen, Professor of French, Ohio State University : I have intro- duced the book, and find the selections even more attractive than the first volume. I am sure it will prove a most satisfactory book for second year work. ( Oct. 7, 1890.) Mills Whittlesey, Modern Lan- guage Master, Lawrcnceville School, N. J. : These stories need no commen- dation of mine. They will be used by every teacher who sees them. There is not an objectionable word or phrase in either volume. {J'^h' 1°. 1890.) FRENCH. 65 Victor Hugos Hemiani. Edited by John E. Matzke, Professor of French in Indiana University, Bloomington. 228 pa^es. Cloth. Introduction price, 70 cents. Price by mail, 80 cents. Paper. Introduction price, 40 cents. Price by mail, 50 cents. NO literary production of the first half of the present century forms as convenient a point of departure for the study of the Romantic movement in France as Victor Hugo's Hernani. This drama embodies both the excellences and the faults of the French romanticists, and the literary feud, which is inaugurated, was equal to the famous quarrel about the Cid in the seventeenth century. This edition is to meet the wants of college students. It contains an introduction intended to show the true position of the play in the his- tory of the French drama, and the notes furnish the information neces- sary to a correct appreciation of the text. Wm. K. Gillett, Prof, of French, Ufiiversity of City of New York : I am greatly pleased with it. I shall undoubt- edly use it in my class room before the close of the year. The introduction adds much to the value of the work. Merimees Colomba. Arthur G. Canfield, Prof of Fre7ich, Slate University, Kansas : I am very glad to see that the needs of those students who are after the literary meaning and value of the play have been attended to. Edited by John A. Fontaine, Professor of French in the University of Missis- sippi. 195 pages. Cloth. Price by mail, 70 cents. Introduction price, 60 cents. Paper. Price by mail, 40 cents. Introduction price, 35 cents. IN M6rim6e's Coloviba the student is presented with a very fine speci- men of the XlXth century French prose, as it is found in the best Contes and Nouvelles. M^rim^e's style is that of a careful writer aim- ing at artistic perfection within the bounds of simplicity and elegance. The sentence is classically constructed, and nothing obstructs the lucidity of either diction or thought. Moreover, the composition of Coloniba is symmetrically planned, all the characters are well delin- eated, and the vivid and realistic manner in which the story of the Corsican vendetta is told cannot fail to win the reader's interest. T. Logie, Prof, of French in Wil- liams College, in Modern Laiiguage Notes : It is refreshing to have an edition of one of the masterpieces of fiction — Merimee's Colomba — annotated by Dr. Fontaine. . . . These notes are excellent. E. S. Joynes, Prof, of French, South Carolina College : There is little room for any criticisms other than un- qualified praise. The notes show schol- arship, good taste and skill in an un- usual degree. 72 FRENCH. Introduction to Modern Fre^ich Lyrics. Edited, with Notes, by B. L. Bowen, Associate Professor of Romance Lan- guages in Oliio State University, Columbus. 198 pages. Cloth. Introduction price, 60 cents. Price by mail, 70 cents. THIS book contains about 150 pages of text, followed by copious notes. Its object is to offer to college classes in French a judicious collection, thoroughly annotated, of some of the most characteristic and best known of the modern lyrics of France. The patriotic song.^' of the Revolution are made the starting point ; such as the (^a ira, Marseillaise, Chant du Depart, and other typical poems, which it is thought the average student at present too seldom sees, are espe- cially emphasized. These are followed by selections from B^ranger, Victor Hugo, Musset, Gautier and others. The notes, which are preceded by general remarks on the character of the versification, will be full. They are largely etymological in character and aim to intro- duce the student to the principles underlying the development of the language. A. Guyot Cameron, Professor of French, Yale University (in Modern Language Notes) : The selection for the space is very harmonious. . . . The notes are full without being wearisome, the in- troductory notices of authors and poems being exceedingly good. . . . We can but Corneilles Polyeucte. thank the editor for a delightful, origina't and scholarly addition to our texts of the highest class. T. P. Crane, Prof. French, Cor ncll University. The selection seems ti me good and the work is excellentlji edited. Edited by Alcee Fortier, Professor of the French Language and Literature in Tulane University of Louisiana. Paper. 150 pages. Introduction pricej 30 cents. Price by mail, 35 cents. THIS sublime play placed on the stage the heroism of the Christian martyr. Though not as great as Le Cid, Polyeucte is a master- piece — one of the most inspiring of Corneille's works, — one of the most touching in French literature. In this edition the variants are given, as it is thought highly important to follow the workings of a great mind, and to observe to some extent the author at work. The notes are philological, grammatical, explanatory, but chiefly literary. An attempt has been made to explain thoroughly the character of the play, and also to call attention to the points of interest in th? Other works suggested by the tragedy analyzed. Modern Languages, BOOKS FOR BEGINNERS. GERMAN. — Sheldon's Short Gerfnan Grammar. (Price, 60 cents.) For those who have studied other languages and wish to learn to read German. Harris' German Lessons. -(Price, 60 cents.) An Elementary Grammar, adapted for a short course or as introductory. yoynes-Meissner German Grammar. Part I., "Shorter German Grammar," 80 cents; complete Grammar, Ji. 12. y Dynes' German Reader for Begittners. (Price, 90 cents.) An introduction to reading; with notes, vocabulary and English Exercises. DeutsMs Select German Reader. (Price, 90 cents.) With notes and vocabulary. May be used with or without a grammar. Boisen''s Preparatory German Prose. (Price, 90 cents.) Excellent selections of prose with full suggestive notes. Va7t der Sj?iissen''s Grimm's Marchen and Der Taucher. (75 cents.) In Roman type. With full notes and vocabulary. Super^s Andersen's Marchen. (Price, So cents.) Graded, as far as possible, and with notes and vocabulary. Fatdhaber's One Year Course in German. (Price, 60 cents.) A brief synopsis of German Grammar, with reading exercises. FRENCH. — Edgren's Compendious French Grammar. Part I., the essentials of French Grammar, 35 cents. Complete book, ^1.12. Grandgenfs Introductio7i to French Grafnmar. (Ready in 1893.) An Elementary Grammar, adapted for a short course or as introductory. Grandgenfs Materials for French Composition. (12 cents each.) Pamphlets based on Super's Reader and other texts. Super's Preparatory French Reader. (Price, 80 cents.) Graded and interesting reading for school or college. With notes and vocabulary. Houghton' s French by Reading. (Price, ^1.12.) For home or school. Elementary grammar and reading. Lyon and de Larpent's French Translation Book. (Price, 60 cents.) A very easy Reader with English exercises for reproduction. yoynes' French Fairy Tales. (Price, 35 cents.) With notes, vocabulary and English exercises based on the text. ITALIAN. — Grandgenfs Short Ltalian Grammar. (R-ice, 80 cents.) All the Grammar needed for a short course. Grandgenfs Italian Composition. (Price 60 cents.) SPANISH. — Edgrejt's Short Spanish Grammar. (Price, So cents.) All the grammar needed for a short course. Todd's Cervantes' Don Quixote. (In press.) Twelve chapters with notes and vocabulary. Ybarra's Practical Method in Spanish. (Price, ^1.20.) D. C. HEATH & CO, Publishers, BOSTON, NEW YORK, CHICAOO AND LONDON. French Texts. Edgren's French Grammar. Edgr ell's Grammar, Part I. Grandgenfs Materials for French Composition, Five graded pam- phlets. KimbaWs Materials for French Com- position. Storr^s Hints on French Syntax, with exercises. Houghtott's French by Reading. Heath^s French Dictionary. Heaths Fr.-Eng, Dictionary. (Part I. of the above.) Super's French Reader. French Fairy Tales. France's Abeille. De Mussel's Pierre et Camille. Lamartine' s yeanne d' Arc. Souvestre's Le Mari de Mm Solange. Souvestre's Toils. Souvestre's Ouvrier. Historieltes Vol. II. de Un Philosophe sous les Les Confessions d'un Modernes. Vol. I. and Sandeau's Aflle. de la Seigliere. Merimee's Colombo. De Vigny's Le Cachet Rouge, De Vigiiy's La Canne de yonc. De Vigny's Cinq ALars. Victor LLugo's La Chute. Victor LLugo's Bug yargal. Victor LLugo's LLernani. Trois Conies Choisis par Daudet. Daudefs La Belle-Nivernaise. Choix d'Extraits de Daudet. Sept Grands Auteurs de XLX' .Siecle. Racine's Esther, French Lyrics. Corneille's Polyeucle. ALoliere's Le Tartuffe. Moliere's Le Medecin ALalgre Lui. ALoliere's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Lamartine's Aleditations. • Piron's La ALelromStie. Warren's Primer of French Literature. LLisloire de la Litterature Fran^aise ^ Erckmann-Chatrian's Waterloo. 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