THIS course is an attempt to apply the Direct
Method to the teaching of Latin. The method, when
used for modern language teaching, is based on a
psychological principle of imitation; the learner learns
by imitating his master, by saying what he says, the
grammar only coming in afterwards to explain practice.
In the teaching of Latin, this method is modified
in an essential particular by the character of the Latin
language itself; Latin is so highly inflected, and so
much of its syntax is strange to the learner, that the
grammar must form the basis throughout and determine
to some extent the arrangement of subject-matter.
In using the present book, the teacher will generally
find a certain sequence of treatment convenient, or even
necessary:
(1) Before a new exercise (or story) is touched, a new
point of grammar has to be explained. This is put
before the class by means of concrete examples, and
then elucidated by reference to Pure Grammar; it is
then applied by frequent and varied oral practice,
drawn not from the story but from the vocabulary
already possessed by the class; e.g. if the Accusative
of Extent is under consideration the oral practice will
consist of questions like the following: 'Quamdiū in
lūdō sumus cottīdiē?' 'Quam longe tū abes ā magistrō?'
'Quam longē tabula distat ā iānua?' and the like. In
this way faults will be prevented from taking root; the
oral practice should at any rate be continued until the
new point of grammar is thoroughly understood and
can be accurately applied.
(2) The story is now taken in hand, and is explained
in the first instance (with books closed) by the master,
in Latin, and driven home by repeated questions put
to the class. It is important, in this stage, that the
class shall not merely listen and understand but shall
also speak; where they cannot explain anything themselves
they must repeat the explanation given by the
master. When they have got on a little way in the
course they will begin to take down explanations of
important words in their notebooks and learn them by
heart.
(3) The story can now be read in class from the
book; this should never be done until it can be
attempted with confidence, and when it is done the
teacher should insist upon intelligent expression. The
subject-matter and vocabulary can now be set for
homework; the hearing of it will usually lead to the
story being reconstructed by means of question and
answer, the questions being varied in every possible
way to ensure plasticity and liveliness of mind.
Each teacher will use his own discretion about the
'pensa' bearing in mind the great principle that
nothing is to be written down until it has been understood
and practised.
It may be found difficult to apply the above rules
at first, but they will become almost mechanical with
the teacher as the work progresses; and as regards
the first lessons of all in this book, it will be obvious
that they are mere adumbrations, which leave the
teacher scope for 'filling in'. It has been our experience
that the use of the Direct Method in Latin
awakens keen interest on the part of the learner.
This interest is not necessarily an end in itself, but
a good teacher will make it his business to take advantage
of it in order to get out of the Latin lessons
that exact and rigorous intellectual discipline which
they ought to afford. One sometimes hears teachers
say that the Direct Method makes a foreign language
easy; such men betray themselves when they say so,
for anybody who has seriously tried it knows that the
new method is far more exacting, for teacher and
learner alike, than the old. Yet boys take to it eagerly,
for they cannot forget at any stage of it that they are
occupied with something real.
S. O. ANDREW.
WHITGIFT SCHOOL, CROYDON.