, 1888-06-26
TO LEARN A LANGUAGE.
a New niethod-The ChndH Way Ii the
Best Way.

Now nteIhOd@Ihe ChtldA way IL the
Best Way.
The baby comes into the world with
out any language to talk with. Not a
word can il say to its father or mother,
its beguiling nurse or admiring visitors.
Yet with plenty of voice, las nobody will
deny" for any language under the sun,
and an equal capacity for all At this
blessed period, which never comes again
In its natural life, it Is all the same
whether it begins to say, a you it have
gwen, " as in French; or, 81 ave it you
given as in German; or, II have given
il to you, as in English.
In this regard it Is fortunate that the
baby does not bring with it into the world
a language from the celestial sphere,
whence all mothers think it came, to be-
wilder and confuse it In the acquisition
OF its terrestrial mother tongue. No OBJ
stacle Of construction, sound Of vowels,
even the tune of the language.
So that In the matter of learning a
foreign language it were evidently better
that we had no mother tongue at all
that, at least, we could, pro tenn, utterly
forget it and be practically children
again.
The older methods of learning q foreign
language are afflictively known to all of
US II was dug out of a dictionary and
framed with a grammar. The outcome
OF all this laborious work was at best to
read a language; but for every day
practical purposes, and to converse In il,
so as to lie at all Ineligible to q native
ear was a failure.
And, after all, we poke q diction-
airy and grammar at young children to
learn their mother tongue. Why should
we do so with children of a larger growth
In learning a new language? Natures
method is to learn to talk first and then
confirm and complete, intellectually.
what we already know practically.
Even this Inter, albeit, was resented
by the boy, who, after being prodded
and punished through the English gram
mar was disguised TO find that all be
mad suffered was to teach hin what he
knew beforezhow to talk.
The fundamental principle of this
method is to learn a language out of it
self = just as a child learns its mother
tongue. Therefore, the instruction given
is entirely in the language studied. The
vefnacular is ignored Every other Ian
guage is ignored. but just as much so as
though there were 10 other language in
the world.
You enter a class room, or q small
room for private instruction, and you
are at once In France, in Germany, or
wherever, and there stands a foreign
gentleman who neither speaks nor I'M
derstands anything but tho language of
his country. Every child, man and
woman lie practically back In the nursery
again without a language to talk with.
Now, the first nursery lore, II any of
us can think back so far, was learning
the names of material objects immedi-
ately around US. These were our play
things, our edibles, a table, a chair, the
carpet, the floor, the wall, or whatever.
The names Of these things we learned as
they were given us, or touched, or our
attention drawn to them. Our child
mi stimulated us to know the names
OF things we wanted.
Meantime, people all around us were
talking, and the ear, though perhaps not
seemingly so. was ever listening. Some
words, perhaps, we understood, and the
meaning OF others we learned by context
Expressions and phrases were caught,
and though not understood fully, parrot
like repeated. Gradually the language
opened to us We were learning it by
hearing 1t spoken, like q tune.
In imitation of this, the first instruc-
ton given Is object teaching. To facili-
tate this, the teacher is provided with a
text book, carefully thought out, con-
tanning a vocabulary of words most
needed In conversation-which Is the
first thing aimed at
But meantime the teacher goes on talk
ing, his articulation being very slow and
accentuated, each word and each syllable
OF a word clean cut and distinct SINH
larry as with the child, some words are
understood, some learned by context,
expressions and phrases caught by ear
and the vocal infexion. or tune to which
they are set, equally caught-this last an
important requisite in speaking intelli-
gibly to native ears.
The maturer mind of a more advanced
period, however. offers a certain ad-
vantage over the capacity Of childhood,
and even with these first lessons the rudi-
ments OF grammar are casually intro
duced, as occasion comes up for them;
n these occasions are sought In the
skillfully framed text book or the con-
versation OF the teacher. Something Is
learned of construction and inflexional
endings.
By this method of teaching, condensed
and abbreviated, both as to elemental
knowledge and time, it will readily be
seer that the progress is vastly more
rapid than hat Of the child who learns
in a desultory way, and with whom con-
siderable time is necessary; and by the
end OF the first term the student has n
command OF the language sufficient for
%shoTping and travelling purposes.
A second term succeeds, In which the
vocabulary is enlarged by further SON
Versationa anecdotes, correspondence,
literary selections, etc. As TO the con-
versations, they are not all questions and
an Immediate answer. But an answer is
given TO which the pupil must frame the
question, and a question to which he
must form the answer. Many pupils,
otherwise taught, may be able to answer
question in a foreign tongue, but are
puzzled To ask one.
The third and last term introduces the
pupil to the higher walks Of literature
and. conversationaIly. to the phraseology
and finish of an educated person--De
troit Free Press.
a Case OF Natural Justice
uiTp nnca a1rpnrnAnaI har husband