[7] Ch. Darwin had the strongest disbelief in the common idea that a
classical scholar must write good English; indeed he thought that,
the contrary was the case. (_Life and Letters_, i. 155.) See also
the strong expressions to the same effect in H. Spencer’s _Facts and
Comments_, 1902, p. 70.
[8] Der geist des schülers muss eine ganz wunderliche turnerei
treiben, immer hin- und herhüpfen zwischen den beiden sprachen, in
keiner recht zur ruhe kommen. Das mag eine treffliche übung sein zu
mancherlei anderen verstandesleistungen (? O. J.), nur gerade für die
spracherlernung ist der gewinn zweifelhaft.--G. v. d. Gabelentz, _Die
Sprachwissenschaft_, 1891, 73.
[9] F. Polle, _Wie denkt das volk über die sprache_. Leipzig, 1889,
p. 35. The languages are as different from each other as English and
Russian.
[10] Only by understanding the connexion in which they occur is it
possible to know what is meant by English _light_, or _bow_, French
_montre_ or _fin_, German _thor_ or _lieben_. So the language must be
understood before it can be translated.
V
But for all that translation might still be a useful and indispensable
_means_ in the service of language instruction. In order to judge of
this we must have a clear conception of the different ways in which
translation can be and really is used:
(_a_)--Translation _into English_ is a means of getting the pupil to
understand the foreign language, as for instance, when I tell him
that _cheval_ means “horse,” or when I translate a whole sentence for
him;
(_b_)--Translation into English is a means of testing whether the
pupil understands, as, for instance, when I ask him what _cheval_
means in English, or when I let him translate a whole sentence;
(_c_)--Translation _from English_ is a means of giving the pupil
practice in producing something in the foreign language;
(_d_)--Translation from English is a means of testing whether the
pupil can express himself in the foreign language. It is really
a subdivision of this when the teacher lets a pupil translate an
English sentence in order to see if he understands some grammatical
rule in the foreign language.
It is clear that _a_ and _b_ are right closely connected, likewise _c_
and _d_; yet it will be seen later that the one does not necessarily
presuppose the other, as is no doubt generally assumed.
Advocates of the routine-method will throw _a_, _b_, _c_, and _d_
together indiscriminately and say about them all that translation is an
excellent and indeed the only practical means.
But their opponents, now, maintain that in none of these four cases is
translation the only means--very far from it!--and that besides it is
not equally valuable in all instances.
(_a_)--There is always danger in translation; but in spite of this
there are many who in certain cases will use this means as being the
surest and quickest way of getting the pupils to understand, but in
other cases will try to do without it; some teachers even think that
in all cases they can find other and better means of getting the
pupils to comprehend the meaning of foreign expressions.
(_b_)--As a means of testing whether the pupil understands the
foreign language, it is a tolerably good thing to let him translate,
but only tolerably good; it is not always reliable, and ought in many
cases to be a last resort.
(_c_)--Translation from English is, for beginners at least, an
extremely poor means in comparison with the many other hitherto
generally neglected ways in which the teacher may get a pupil to say
(or write) something in the foreign language. “Das übersetzen in die
fremdsprache zum zwecke der erlernung derselben gehört einfach in das
gebiet pädagogischer sünden und verirrungen” (Bierbaum, _Die neueren
sprachen_, i. 57).
(_d_)--As a test of whether the pupil can express himself in the
other language, an oral or written exercise in translation is either
illusory or is at least suitable only for the most advanced pupils.
These assertions must now be made good, especially by the suggestion
of other means which may be substituted for translation. I shall
not continue strictly to observe the distinctions between the four
categories, _a_, _b_, _c_, _d_. In order to avoid tedious repetitions
of expressions like “the foreign language in question,” I shall in the
following pages say in short “the language” in contrast to English.
Are there other means by which I can get the pupil to comprehend the
meaning of foreign words and sentences? Yes; in the first place by
means of _direct observation_ or immediate perception (what the Germans
call anschauung). This applies to substantives which designate objects,
etc., to be found in the school-room: fenêtre, porte, banc, chaise,
tableau (noir), craie, livre, plume, crayon, montre, élève, maître
(professeur), etc. All that is necessary is to point to the objects
with such remarks as _c’est_ (or _voilà_) _la craie_, _on appelle
ça le tableau noir_, etc., and the pupil cannot mistake the meaning
of each word. Furthermore, this is the best way to teach the most
necessary words relating to the human body: tête, cheveux, nez, yeux,
bouche, lèvres, barbe, joue, oreille, bras, main, doigt, etc. But in
addition to the many substantives there are also a number of words of
other classes which can be learned in this manner: voilà une fenêtre,
et voilà une _autre_ fenêtre; Pierre est un élève, Paul est un autre
élève; words like _ici_, _là_; especially a number of verbs of action:
_j’écris_; Victor écrit. je _prends_ la craie; Jean prend la craie. je
me _lève_; Pierre se lève. _je m’assieds_, je _marche_ (vers la porte),
_j’ouvre_ la porte, je _ferme_ la porte; je _donne_ le livre à Pierre,
Pierre me donne le livre, etc. At the same time as the teacher or the
pupil says something or other, the teacher illustrates the action. In
that manner, already in the first stage, before the pupils have any
French vocabulary to operate with, a number of words and sentences
may be learned without the use of a single English word. Yes, even
the various tenses of the verbs can be explained by this method. If,
for instance, in the course of their reading, the pupils come across
_il a pris_ and they do not understand it, the teacher can show what
it means--this of course does not apply to the very first lessons--by
first taking the chalk and saying: je prends la craie, then a book: je
prends le livre de Jean, then his hand: je prends sa main, and then
saying: d’abord j’ai pris la craie, puis j’ai pris le livre de Jean,
et enfin j’ai pris sa main. With a little ingenuity a good deal can be
brought in in this way; some material in French has been well arranged
in P. Passy and T. Tostrup, Leçons de choses. I shall later come to
the question as to whether and how the pupils are to repeat what the
teacher says in this way, as likewise to the objection that the pupils
in reality understand these words in English. Here I shall merely
caution against taking too much material of this kind at a stretch; it
is best to intersperse it with other things.
In the second place, the meaning of the words may be communicated
through _mediate perception_, through pictures. This is what Miss
Goldschmidt with so much energy has put into practice in her
“picture-words” and in other books on the same plan, which have been
edited partly by her and partly by others. Each page contains a
collection of pictures representing a series of objects belonging to
the same sphere of ideas. Sometimes they are joined together to make
a whole scene; sometimes the objects remain separated, without being
brought into connection with each other; some of the pictures are well
put together; others present several curiosities, as, for instance, a
telescope freely hovering in a rainbow. Each object is supplied with
a number referring to lists where the corresponding French (English,
etc.) words are given. In many German schools, and in several places
in Denmark now too, large picture-charts are used to hang upon the
schoolroom wall, especially the Hölzel charts, where, for instance, on
a winter-picture are collected representations of the most important
things belonging to winter. Then the teacher can point to one of these
things and at the same time explain it in the language which is being
studied. Finally pictures can also be used to illustrate a narrative
or descriptive text, as in the English primers published by Sarauw and
myself.
There have been several objections raised against the
perception-method. Thus Sweet says that the idea is not so sharply
defined as in the case of translation. If we see _chapeau_ by the side
of (the picture of) a silk hat, we do not know if it merely designates
that kind of hat or other kinds too, so that the translation “hat” is
more apt to suggest the correct idea. Or if the teacher points to
his mouth and says _bouche_, the pupils might just as well think that
it means lip, etc. The objection comes from a closet philosopher, who
has not seen the thing in practice; there is almost no danger except
for one who would try to learn a language by himself and exclusively
through pictures. In oral instruction, such mistakes are scarcely
frequent enough to be worth mentioning, even if it might be a good
thing perhaps for teachers to realize that they are possible--they even
occur now and then in a child’s apprehension of his native language,
which in large part follows exactly these same paths. If the teacher
understands his business, no mistake at all occurs or else it is soon
corrected, for of course he will never stop at merely pointing to the
object and giving the word, but he will immediately use it in sentences
and connections in which the meaning becomes perfectly clear; for
instance, if he only says _tu as une bouche et deux lèvres_, or, after
having pointed to his mouth and said _bouche_, he asks one of the boys:
_Combien as-tu de bouches?_ there will be no danger of such mistakes;
indeed all danger is generally precluded from the very beginning, for
when the teacher points to his mouth, he is not apt to say merely
_bouche_, but _voilà la bouche_ or _voilà ma bouche_, where the
singular form _la_, _ma_ unmistakably indicates the correct meaning.
Such misunderstandings as in the case of _chapeau_ are no doubt of
rare occurrence, but at all events, the teacher may prevent them too
by talking about his own and the pupils’ hats with the use of the same
word.
Another opponent of the perception-method has said that it causes
disturbance in the class when the teachers in modern languages now get
up, now sit down, open the door, close the door, blow their noses, pull
their boots off and on (?) etc.
A third opponent carefully depicts all the asides a pupil will think
of when the teacher, in order to teach him the word _gants_, pulls his
gloves out of his pocket: “They are pretty bad specimens,” or “Oho! he
has brought his best ones along to-day because he knew he was going to
use them,” etc. Of course the method can be driven to caricature, and
of course the discipline can become lax if the teacher goes through the
various actions with too much restlessness, but in general the method
does not require very different or more disturbing movements than those
which take place in every or every other lesson: a pupil goes to the
blackboard or the door or opens a window. And if there is any spirit in
the teaching, the pupils indulge in no more irrelevant asides than in
other lessons.
There seems to be greater weight in the objection that only apparently
is the foreign word directly attached to the idea by means of the
perception-method, since either a real hat or a picture of one
immediately suggests to the pupil the English word _hat_, so that after
all we do not avoid the roundabout way through the native language,
as we desire; the hobgoblin moves with us. Well, if we think it is
possible entirely to prevent English words from turning up in the
children’s consciousness, we certainly deceive ourselves. But if we
are more modest in our demands and simply want the foreign language
to be kept as much as possible in the foreground and English in the
background, then it cannot be denied that it must make for this end
when it is not necessary for either the teacher or the pupil to mention
the English word. And the more they both become accustomed to this
method of teaching, the more previously learned words there are for the
new ones to be associated with, and the more ingenious the teacher is
to vary the whole, the more seldom do the English words occur to the
pupil.
With the pictures as a basis of suggestion, there can and ought to be
conducted talks in the language, at least after the very first lessons
are past. It is but seldom necessary to resort to the native language,
and the time is almost exclusively occupied in hearing and saying
something in the language. But this can best be done when the pictures
not only suggest single words but are rich in content. Thus Mrs.
Freudenthal, in Finland, has to a large extent in her teaching used
reproductions of genre paintings, which give occasion for spinning out
whole narratives suggested by the pictures. Perhaps it is still better,
as Sarauw and I have done in our book for beginners in English, to
supply the tales (or other selections) with little illustrations; they
may occasion conversations which have more or less to do with the text
and which can be conducted with essentially the same vocabulary; and
the teacher ought also to return now and then to previously discussed
pictures, which may be treated more fully than before on account of the
progress made by the pupils in the meanwhile.
Pictures, then, are of undoubted significance in the teaching of
languages, even if their scope must not be overrated and they must
not be used as the only means of explanation--all one-sidedness
is hurtful. But the pictures ought to be characteristic of the
foreign land and people, especially when they are to be used
beyond the beginner stage. I am not the first one to reproach Miss
Goldschmidt because she gives pictures showing, for instance, a
Danish sitting-room, a Danish postman, etc., and lets the pupils use
the same pictures in learning all three foreign languages, something
which is not exactly calculated to win interest but must be pretty
monotonous whereas exactly what should be done is to open the pupil’s
eyes to the manifold and characteristic differences existing between
the various nations. Schools ought to be well supplied with pictures
on the walls and illustrated works which may serve to give the pupils
some enlightenment about French and German conditions of life, natural
scenery, buildings, art, institutions. Foreign illustrated papers
will be found to contain much useful material, and the teacher ought
frequently to use 5-10 minutes or more of the lesson to discuss such a
picture in the language with the pupils. That would be an excellent way
in which to supplement the teaching based on the text-book.
But not only such ready-made pictures may be used in teaching
languages. The teacher can often, by means of rough chalk-drawings on
the blackboard, illustrate various things in the text which is being
read and base his explanations (in the language) on them. The few times
I have done it, the pupils immediately took to it, so that I began to
deplore my great lack of skill in drawing. If there was any subject
that was neglected when I went to school, it was drawing. Now people
have, fortunately, begun to get their eyes open to the importance of
this branch, first and foremost for teachers of all subjects as a help
in their teaching, and, secondly, for the pupils as the good thing it
is from an educational point of view for them to learn to see an object
correctly and to reproduce what they see in a drawing. And just as in
the case of natural history and geography, the drawings of the pupils
now are an important feature of the instruction, so they might play a
similar part in the teaching of languages. It is a splendid idea that
has been put into practice in “Det danske selskabs skole.” I shall
quote from its “Beretning,” 1900:
“Exercises in drawing have also played an important part. Before the
lesson begins there is written on the blackboard one subject for each
pupil to illustrate by a drawing. Each one has a certain amount of
space apportioned to him. The pupil is ordered to draw only such things
as he can mention and explain in German. But of course the intention is
that much more is to be drawn. For instance, if the subject is a wagon,
the pupil naturally draws both wheels, wagon-pole, stud-stave, side
pieces, seat, driver with whip, horses, harness, etc. The pupil has to
explain his drawing to the class, and of course he gets into a tight
place; the result is that his interest is aroused for what all the
things are called, and he pays close attention to the words when the
teacher says them. Fourteen boys in a class can finish their drawings
in 10 minutes, and it takes 30 minutes to go through the 14 drawings.”
(C. Lambek.)
Here it looks as if the subject were given in Danish; and perhaps the
words learned in the exercise have been taken up too much in detail. I
should think it might be still better to announce the subject orally
and rather fully in the language, to say, for instance, to a Danish
pupil who is learning English--You draw a picture of a two-storied
house with three windows in each story and one door; outside the house
a man is to stand smoking his pipe; or, you draw a carriage and pair,
inside the carriage is a gentleman, but you see only the tip of his
nose; a dog is running fast behind the carriage. If there is--as there
always ought to be--blackboard space enough for several pupils to
execute their drawings at the same time, so much the better; the rest
of the class can be occupied with something else until the drawings
are finished; then they are first explained by the drawer, thereupon
by one or several of the other pupils; of course both the teacher and
the pupils call attention to anything that has been forgotten in the
drawing, and new points are brought up, as suggested by Mr. Lambek.
Also in connection with little stories, the pupils may be asked to make
drawings to show that they have understood what they have been reading.
In speaking about the use of pictures, I have wandered a little from my
point of departure, namely, the ways in which (aside from translation)
the pupil may be taught the meaning of a foreign word.
All of us who are further advanced must confess to ourselves that in
reading foreign books we have often omitted to look up an unfamiliar
word in the dictionary, because its meaning was perfectly clear from
the _context_. And we have all learned thousands of words in our
mother-tongue in the same way. Then why not use this experience in
the teaching of foreign languages? Because it leads to guesswork,
to carelessness in studying, to an approximate and uncertain
comprehension, is the answer we get. Granted--as far as some cases
are concerned! There are many combinations where the meaning of a
word may be “scented” through the context, and where a conscientious
teacher cannot remain satisfied without some proof that the pupil
really understands the word; and there are cases where the teacher
imagines that the pupils cannot help seeing the meaning immediately,
and yet their guesses are all wrong. But still the ability to arrive
at the meaning of an unfamiliar word through the text is valuable and
does not deserve to be neglected, but should, on the contrary, be
cultivated--under control, of course. At all events, there can be no
danger in using really self-interpreting sentences where the meaning of
an unfamiliar word may be assumed with unfailing certainty and without
guesswork. In a sentence like “Il y a _douze mois_ dans _l’année_,” the
pupil who is acquainted with any two of the three italicized words will
be able to reason out the meaning of the third with as great accuracy
as in the equation a + b = c the unknown quantity may be found when the
two are given. And if you continue: le premier s’appelle janvier, le
second s’appelle février, le troisième s’appelle mars, etc., then it
is no guesswork at all if the pupils gather both the ordinal numerals
and the names of the months. The same may be said of the following
sentences--
Le jour se divise en vingt-quatre heures; l’heure se divise en soixante
minutes, et la minute en soixante secondes.
Soixante secondes font une minute; soixante minutes font une heure;
vingt-quatre heures font un jour; sept jours font une semaine;
cinquante-deux semaines et quelques jours font une année; cent années
font un siècle.
Here the pupil can infer the meaning of a number of words without
needing the teacher’s translation. So it is only a waste of time to let
the pupil himself translate such pieces--for he can do that half-asleep
without looking very much at the French, and he does not learn much
that way. No; let him repeat them in French until he can say them
fluently, then let him isolate the ordinals: le premier, le second ...,
thereupon the names of the months: janvier, février ...; thereupon go
through both series backwards, and then finally answer questions at
random: Comment s’appelle le troisième mois? Quel est le dixième mois?
etc. Or in connexion with the second selection, let him go through
all the divisions of time, first beginning with the smallest and then
with the largest (with the use of the article _un_, _une_); then ask:
Comment se divise l’heure? Comment se divise le jour? Combien de
secondes a une minute? Trois heures, combien de minutes? Deux années,
combien de mois? etc., etc. In this way it seems as if a teacher can
with complete confidence continue for a long time to keep even those
pupils occupied who do not know much French, without needing to mention
a single English word.[11]
Now of course there are only few subjects which can thus be talked
about in one self-interpreting sentence after the other: Sweet has,
in his Elementarbuch, got hold of more of that sort of thing than
any other author of similar text-books that I know of; but almost
any text will be found to contain sentences where the general sense
unmistakably indicates the meaning of the new words; the more of that
kind of combinations the pupil commits to memory the better for him.
The ability to infer the meaning from the context ought rather to be
encouraged and practised than ought the tendency to go by resemblances
to words in the mother-tongue or in other languages; even if much may
be learned in this way (Eng. _send_, German _senden_; Eng. _ruin_, Ger.
French _ruine_, etc.), yet there is still reason to caution against too
much confidence in resemblances, for they often lead us astray (even
in the case of “etymologically identical words”). Most of the really
valuable associations of this kind come of their own accord.
But to continue, the new words may simply be explained in the language
to the pupil--this of course really means that the teacher puts the
word into a self-interpreting sentence, so it is merely a subdivision
of what we have just been speaking about. Anyone who has been
accustomed to use the excellent French and English dictionaries, large
or small, all the way from Littré and Murray to the little Larousse
or Annandale’s Concise, knows how often he has been able to find in
them quite sufficient explanations of unfamiliar words. Why not use
this experience too in the teaching of foreign languages? Thus, for
instance, explain _veuf_: Un veuf est un homme dont la femme est morte;
une veuve est une femme dont le mari est mort. This explanation, to
be sure, contains no more information than is to be got out of the
simple translation “widower” (“widow”); but there are cases where an
explanation gives better information than a translation. It is not
improbable that many Englishmen, when given the translation _primage_
or _hat-money_ for German _kapplaken_, will remain just as wise as they
were before, but they will immediately understand it if it is explained
in German: prämiengeld, das früher dem schiffskapitän ausser der fracht
gezahlt wurde, ursprünglich freiwilliges geschenk, dann vertragsmässig
bestimmt. The English word _dentil_ is in English-German dictionaries
translated by _kälberzahn_, but I suppose that most Germans would
get more out of Annandale’s definition: “the name of the little
cubes or square blocks often cut for ornament on Greek cornices,” or
Funk-Wagnalls’ definition: “One of a series of small square tooth-like
ornamental blocks in the bed-moulding of the cornices of some Ionic
and other entablatures” (here even an instructive illustration). Well,
such technical words, where we do not even know the English term, we
shall scarcely have much use for in school; but sometimes on account of
the chance vagaries of language a translation does not give as exact
an idea as an explanation. If I say that _stockwerk_ means _floor_, I
run the risk of getting an exercise with _stockwerk_ used where there
ought to be _fussboden_; but if I explain it as “eine der horizontalen
einteilungen eines hauses,” or something like that, there is no danger
of any misunderstanding.
On the other hand, it must of course be admitted that there are many
words where an English translation gives the information required more
quickly and more clearly than it could be given in a long explanation
in the foreign language; and the teacher ought to consider in each
separate case which of the two ways of helping the pupil is to be
preferred. Still he must not let laziness influence him to give the
translation, which of course is always easiest for him, but he must
remember that an explanation in the language always has the great
advantage that the pupil, in addition to the new words, hears a number
of others which he thereby reviews, as it were, and that the pupil is
for the time being wholly occupied with the foreign language. Besides,
these explanations amuse the pupils because they get more intellectual
work out of them than out of translations, which are given to them
gratis.
However, such explanations ought perhaps not to be used to any great
extent in the glossaries of text-books, especially in readers for
beginners; here it is best to weave them into the text itself. In the
first place, in such glossaries or notes, the explanations naturally
become drier and more like definitions than is necessary; in the second
place, the pupil who does not feel inclined to read those few lines
through is tempted to get some comrade, a parent, or a sister to tell
him in short the meaning of the word: that is, to translate it. To
counteract this by _always_ requiring the pupil to commit the given
explanation to memory is not exactly a wise plan, since it may easily
lead to mere thoughtless memory-work. For the glossary ought to play
no more important part in really good teaching for beginners than as a
help to the forgetful pupil in his home-preparation, where he can look
up the meaning (and pronunciation) of a word which he cannot remember,
I do not hesitate to use translation there.[12]
The explanations in the foreign language are especially in place
when the teacher assigns the lesson and goes through it orally. This
must be done with the greatest care and with a view to giving the
pupils a really full and all round insight into the new selection to
be read--with as much life and as few English words and sentences as
possible. Much depends upon the way in which the teacher reads the
piece; many pieces can be read in such a way that the pupils cannot
help understanding them: for instance, by the use of stress, emphasis
of contrasts, change of voice, etc. And then he can point to various
things by way of illustration--and it does no harm to point at the
window, for instance, on coming across the word _fenêtre_, even if the
class has had that word before. Many words can be made clear by means
of gestures, etc.; _scie_, for instance, can be illustrated by a sawing
movement accompanied by a wheezing sound; for _tailler_, it is only
necessary to cut for half a second with an imaginary knife; thus the
meaning of _boire_, _chanter_, _coup de pied_, _grimper_, _joyeux_,
_mécontent_, _pleurer_, _dormir_, _taper_, and many other words can be
given; as a rule, merely little (not noisy!) suggestions are necessary
for the class to understand immediately.
Finally there are circumlocutions in the language, not straightforward
definitions as in the dictionaries, but also other explanations;
often it is only necessary to lead the thoughts of the pupils in upon
the right track. On coming across German _hauptstadt_, for instance,
the teacher can say: London ist die hauptstadt Englands, Paris
ist die hauptstadt Frankreichs, und Kopenhagen ist die hauptstadt
Dänemarks--and then ask one of the pupils: Heinrich, weisst du jetzt
was hauptstadt bedeutet? Perhaps he will answer, “Capital,” but then
the teacher can say: Ganz richtig, aber kannst du nicht das wort
auf deutsch erklären? The pupil: Ja, die hauptstadt ist die grösste
stadt eines landes. The teacher: Ja wohl, es ist die erste stadt, die
grösste stadt, die wichtigste oder bedeutendste stadt eines landes.
Then he may add: Nun, Johan, kannst du andere hauptstädte Europas
anführen, and when he has mentioned a few, the teacher says: Schön,
das genügt, and passes on. Even if many words are used, yet they are
not superfluous because they are foreign words, and therefore a few
minutes’ conversation in this manner is about just as useful as if a
whole page had been read in the language. And the pupils will ever
after remember the meaning of the word _hauptstadt_ much better than
if the teacher had simply told them the translation and then continued
with the reading. In every separate case, the teacher must feel his way
to decide where there yet remains something that is not understood, and
where further explanation would be superfluous or tiresome; that is
also one of the reasons why such circumlocutions had better be left to
the teacher than included in the text-book.
Of course it is necessary to have practice and a good deal of tact
in order to give this kind of explanations naturally and well, and
carefully adapted to the needs and standpoint of the class; the teacher
must have a pretty good idea of what the class knows beforehand, and
thereby which words and expressions he may use with certainty; the
easier and the more colloquial the words are which are used in the
circumlocution, and the more concretely it is expressed, the better.
It is better to explain too much than too little, and one must not be
afraid of using a number of words when they only are in the foreign
language. There is some truth in Gabelentz’ remark: “Gesprächige
leute von engem gedankenkreise sind für den anfang die besten
lehrmeister”[13]; the teacher must not exactly make himself stupid, but
he must admit that no matter how high he himself stands intellectually,
he can very well learn something from the nursery-method of teaching
languages: for instance, that taciturnity or conciseness of expression
do not lead to the goal. It pays to give some attention to this form
of instruction and to find out what kind of explanations are of the
greatest linguistic benefit to the pupils. It is not difficult, as a
rule--even without direct questions, which, however, the teacher ought
not to be sparing of[14]--to feel what is understood and what is not,
just as the boys can easily be trained to say so immediately when
there is something that they do not understand. All that is necessary
is to make them feel confident that their teacher is always willing and
glad to answer their questions, and that they will never be made fun of
for asking. Sometimes, of course, he may also make another pupil answer
the question if it is an easy one.
The following may serve as a connected specimen of the method of
procedure, even if I have, perhaps, explained a word or two which for
an English class would need no explanation.
_Devant la porte d’une maison forestière_ [c’est à dire une maison
située dans une forêt. Vous ne savez pas ce que c’est qu’une forêt?
Eh, bien, c’est plus grand qu’un bois, une très grande collection
d’arbres, ça s’appelle une forêt. Adolphe, peux-tu me nommer une
forêt en Angleterre? La maison dont nous allons parler, était située
dans le milieu d’une forêt, et devant la porte] _une jeune femme, les
bras nus, cassait du bois à coups de hache sur une pierre_. [Elle
avait les bras nus, il n’y avait rien pour couvrir ses bras, elle
n’avait pas de manches. Pierre, dis-moi si Jean a les bras nus? Elle
cassait du bois (shown by a gesture) et elle employait pour ça une
hache (if the word is not known, and is not understood at once, you
may give the translation); chaque fois qu’elle fait un coup de hache
elle casse un morceau de bois.] _Elle était grande et bien faite, une
fille de forêt, fille et femme de forestiers_ [son père et son mari
étaient des forestiers, ils avaient des emplois dans la forêt; et
elle avait été élevée dans la forêt de sorte qu’elle appartenait tout
à fait à la forêt. C’est ce qu’on a exprimé en l’appelant fille de
forêt.] _Une voix cria de l’intérieur de la maison_:
_Nous sommes seules ce soir, Berthine, il faut rentrer_ [il faut que
tu rentres], _voilà la nuit_ [il commence à se faire tard]; _il y
a peut-être des Prussiens_ [les Prussiens sont les habitants de la
Prusse; ceci se passe pendant la guerre entre les Allemands et les
Français--il y a peut-être des Prussiens] _et des loups qui rôdent_
[qui vont çà et là; le mot rôder s’emploie très souvent en parlant de
bêtes féroces].
_J’ai fini, maman, répond la jeune femme, n’aie pas peur; il fait
encore jour._ [Elle dit que la nuit n’est pas encore arrivée; elle y
voit encore, et elle n’a pas peur, elle; mais, du reste, elle a fini
son travail; il n’y a plus de bois à casser.]
_Puis elle ferma les volets_ [les volets, ce sont les pièces de bois
qu’on applique sur les fenêtres pour les protéger. Paul, dis-moi s’il
y a des volets sur les fenêtres de cette salle-ci? Il y en avait dans
la maison dont nous parlons dans l’histoire; Berthine les ferma],
_rentra, et poussa les lourds verrous de la porte_ [un verrou est
fait de fer, on le pousse pour empêcher d’ouvrir la porte.]
_Sa mère filait auprès du feu._ [To explain _filer_, a gesture and
the imitation of the sound of the wheel may be employed, or else
the translation supplemented, perhaps, by: filer, ça vient de fil
puisqu’en filant on fait des fils.]
_Je ne suis pas tranquille, dit-elle, quand le père est dehors._
[Vous voyez que la mère a plus peur, elle, que la fille. C’est que
son mari n’est pas là.] _Deux femmes, ça n’est pas fort._ [Ce n’est
pas beaucoup; c’est si peu de chose que deux femmes si les Prussiens
viennent.]
_La jeune répondit:_
_Oh! je tuerais bien un loup ou un Prussien tout de même._
_Et elle montrait du doigt un gros revolver suspendu au-dessus de la
cheminée._ [La cheminée, c’est là où on fait du feu.]
_Son mari s’était engagé dans l’armée_ [il s’était fait soldat] _au
commencement de la guerre, et les deux femmes étaient demeurées
seules avec le père, le vieux Nicolas Pichon, qui avait refusé de
quitter sa demeure pour rentrer en ville_ [refusé? Si tu dis à Alfred
de te prêter son canif, il refuse s’il dit: “Non, je ne veux pas te
prêter mon canif.” On avait dit à Pichon d’aller en ville, mais il
avait dit: “Non, je ne veux pas quitter ma maison”; donc il avait
refusé].
_La ville prochaine, c’était Rethel. On y était patriote_ [vous
savez que celui qui aime sa patrie, est nommé patriote]; _et les
bourgeois_ [les habitants de la ville] _avaient décidé de résister
à l’ennemi. Tous--boulangers, épiciers, bouchers, menuisiers,
libraires, pharmaciens, manœuvraient à des heures régulières_ [Tout
le monde s’était fait soldats; le boulanger, c’est celui qui vend du
pain; l’épicier vend des épices, du thé, du café, du chocolat, et
mille autres choses; le menuisier fait des tables et des chaises; le
libraire vend des livres; le pharmacien vend tout ce dont on a besoin
quand on est malade--donc vous voyez que tous les hommes, de toutes
occupations et de toutes classes, allaient manœuvrer tous les jours à
une heure fixe] _sous les ordres de M. Lavigne, ancien sous-officier
de dragons_ [il n’était plus sous-officier, mais il l’avait été;
c’est ce qui est indiqué par le mot ancien], etc., etc.
It is best to go through the lesson for the next time in the beginning
of the hour, when both the teacher’s and the pupils’ powers are
freshest, and when there is sure to be plenty of time for it; at the
end of the hour the teacher may be too hurried and nervous in his
anxiety to get through the proper amount before the bell rings. In
going through it, the teacher may either let the pupils look at their
books or require all books to be closed. The latter is the better
way, since then the pupils can give more undivided attention to the
teacher; for they must drink in all his words and follow his slightest
movements. In that case it is no doubt always best for him to write
down on the blackboard each new word as he explains it, and after
everything has been explained he may close either by reading the piece
aloud himself (without interpolations) or by letting one of the pupils
read it. Yet it is not well to follow one method of procedure all the
time; and if the piece is easy, so that there are only a few new words,
it may immediately be read aloud by one of the pupils (slowly, not in
a forced way!), who may stop and ask whenever there is anything that
he does not understand. If a sentence contains two or three unfamiliar
words or some other difficulty which has given occasion for a question,
it must by all means be read again connectedly without interruption as
soon as a period has been reached. Finally the teacher can, if it seems
necessary, as a further guarantee, let one of the pupils give a free
rendering of the contents in his native language; that is a sort of
control, at all events until the class has become quite accustomed to
having the lesson gone through in this way.
Let me suggest here that, in going through the new lesson, the teacher
can also counteract the injury which an unusual order of words or
expression occurring in a selection of poetry might do to the pupil’s
instinct for the natural language, by giving the prose order of words
and explaining it. For instance, the lines: “And everybody in the
house On tip-toe has to creep” can first be explained as if they ran:
“And everybody in the house has to creep on tip-toe”; again, such an
expression as _at eve_ may be altered to _in the evening_. Then when
the pupil sees the changed order of words and the unusual expression in
his book, he will understand that they are due to the poetical form.
Therefore he will not be tempted to imitate them; if he should do so
in later exercises, the teacher must correct him, since there is no
earthly reason why the pupil should practise _using_ anything else but
everyday language. It is, however, a matter of course that whenever I
have used verses in my own books for beginners in English, I have tried
to find such as contained very few deviations from the usual form of
the language.