Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-05-09

NOT TO BE THOROUGHLY ACQUIRED
FROM TEXT BOOKS ALONE.

The Prime Necessity Of Teaching a Ian
guage by Esr-Beginning "a; tn" Wrong
End Of the Line Easy to Teach
baby to Talk Correctly.
NJ Michel Breal delivered before the Sor
bOnne a noteworthy lecture upon the method
Of learning foreign languages, in which he
boldly condemned all scientific systems IN
vogue, and declared to his Partisan auditors
that II he himself knew how to sp ak Ve-y
few languages, although he could read
number, it was owing To the lmperfecu"n OF
his early linguistic training. Some Of his
remarks will have much interest tor Amer
lean readers.
The main point he attempted to establish
i'll his lecture repl o luecd 10y The Revue
fOlitique ct Literature, was the prime ne
cesslty of teaching language hy ar 10
teaching living language 10y the eye, ac-
coriing to any system, no matter now
scholarly the method or how apt the pupil,
was likely to produce very indifferent re
sults-for the simple reason that such svs-
tenn itself is a subversiOn Of the natural law
Speech being the primitive II edIum Of the
communi alton Of ideas by sounds, and
written language only the subse Iuently de
velopsd art of fixing those ideas by durable
signs, it is obviously contruverting nature
commencing at the wrong end of the
line-to attempt to teach language first by
the eye The conse Iuences of this false
method in educational establishments are
truly lam entabla In the French lycres. ac-
cording to NJ. Baenl, 1t is he ID that ten
years study are requisite for the learning
Of English.
NOT LEARNED FROM books ALONE.
The French government has learned to
appreciate the impUssibiIity Of thoroughly
learning a foreign language out OF books
alone; and those public school instructors
who are educated by the state are now sent
to England TO learn English to Germany 10
learn German They are pIa ed in privat'
families, and generally earn the Language
tolerably we'll in one year, very well in tive
years To be able TO read a language is one
thing, to speak it another, The german,
seem to recognize that sTeaking is rather :.
question of mental haiti than learning
they do not say he knows French, but he
can French, '-er kann franzOslsh-
language should be learned by the
adult just as it is acquired by the ctild
This too much ignored truth is well mani.
servants, mechanics and others masfe. an
iliom during a comparatively briet sojourn
in foreign country. And when a la lguage
has thus been ac Iuire orally. it hecumeS
easy enough then for any educated person
to learn its orthography, its grarnmati a.
laws and niceties. and the beauties Of 1t,
literature But let it lie well understood
that no book can teach pronounCiat. .on-that
no printed system can train the ear,-that
no cabinet study can ever teach one to
think in anoth r language than one own
and this it is absolutely Necessary TO do he
fore a language can be thorous hly mastered
THE TINE TO TEACH LANGUAGES.
The time to teach languages, then, is not
after the mini has become well developed
but while it is still shaping 1t is rs easy 10
teach baby to speak i'll two or three Ian
guages as i'll one Suppos', also, the case
of a father who always talks French to the
child, while the mother always talks Eng.
lish The child, says NJ Breal, is not at all
astonished because his mother speaks a diff
ent language from the other Peopl- whom he
knows
He simply thinks that is his mothers
way of talking that is the way his mother
calls things ali the acts of his life have an.
In his little head there is develop specia!
group or repre- ,entative ideas, of which the
figure of hi mother forms the center. The
child does not translate he does not know
what translating means he does not know
that h. is speaking two languages nor even
what a language Is. He ouly knows that
his mother will not answer him if he calls
his doll poupee instead Of doll Chill
dren have been known TO eviuce the great
est anna. ement ON hearing utner persons
speak the very language which they had
thought to be the unique and special idiom
of their mother,-so intimately were the
two ideas associated for them. Let the
years ass-let the same eiu alton continue.
and the two languages ar at the chilli 5 dis
p' sition They are developed 10 sether but
in paralrl way, and without iutermlxing
New Orleans Times democrat
English Hospitals Built by Charity.