Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-07-18
10 LAIN A IANs.AsE.
a ssw siethod-rhe Chnd's Way L. the
Rest Way.

word car IL say TO It's father or mother,
in oeguiling nurse or admiring visitors
YET with plenty OF voice. ''as nobody will
deny, tor any language under the sun,
and an equal capacity for all AT this
blessed period, which never comes again
10 It's natural life, il is all the same
whether IL begins TO say. Il you il have
gwen. . a. in French; or, Il have il YOU
gwen. as In German; or, IL have given
d 10 you, +" as in English.
In this regard 1t is fortunate that the
baby does not bring with it into the world
o language from the celestial sphere,
shence all mothers think il caIne 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 il were evidently better
that we had nc mother tongue at all
that, al least, we could. pro tenn, utterly
forget IL and be practically children
again.
The older methods of learning a foreign
language are affiictively known to all Of
Us. IL 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,
sc as to be at all Ineligible TO a native
ear, was a failure.
And, after all. we never poke a diction-
ary and grammar at young children to
Ian -, Nla.r ,.aVHnv n,,, Mhr zla.,lA
we dc so with children OF a larger growth
IN learning a new language; Natures
method Is TO learn 10 talk first and then
confirm M complete, intellectually,
hat we already know practically
Even this latter. albeit was resented
by the boy, who. after being prodded
and punished through the English gram
mar was Disguised to find that all he
mad suffered was to teach him what he
knew before-ho how 70 talk.
The fundamental principle OF this
method Is 70 learn a language out of II.
self Just as a child learns its mother
tongue. Therefore. the instruction given
is entirely In the language studied. The
vernacSlaI is u lored Every other Ian
gusge is ,gnorer but Just as much so as
though there we're no other language In
the world.
You enter a class room, or a small
room for private instruction. and you
are at once in France, IN Germany, or
wherever. and there stands O foreign
gentleman whc neither speaks mol IN.
derstands anything but the language OF
his country Every child, man and
womab Is praclcally back In the nursery
again without q language to talk with.
Now. the first nursery lore, # any OF
Us can think back so far, was learning
he names OF material objects mmedi
ately around us. These were our play
things. ouT edibies, a table. a chair. the
carpet, the tiooI, the wall, or whatever,
The names OF these things We learned as
they were gwen us, or touched. or our
attention drawn to them, Our child
wants 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 even 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 1t 10y
hearing II spoken, like a tune.
In mutation OF tins. the first Instruc,
ton gwen s OBJECT teaching To tacih
tate thls. the teacher Is provided with q
text book, carefully thought out, o
tanning a vocabulary OF words most
needed IN conversatIoD-whlch Is the
first thing aimed at.
But the teacher goes on talk
ing. MS articulation belng very slow aud
accentuaUed each word and each syIlabl,
OF q word clean cut and distinct SIM
larry AZ with the child. some words are
understood some learned by context
expressions anu phrases caught by cal
and the vocal niieEIpn o. tune To whIC!.
they are set equally caught this lasl an
important requisite m speaking lHteli
gbly lC natys ears
The mItur"I mind OF a more advanced
period, however oilers . certain All
vantage Over tie capacity NJ childhood.
and even with thess lirst lesspns the rudi
nients OF grammar are casually nitro
duced. a. OCCASION comes up tor them
and these UcraSlDns are sought In the
s~klllfully framed tex took o. the cou
Versation OF tie teacher SoHetllug d
learned u construction and mtiexiona
endIngs
BY this method OF teaching. condeusei
and abbreviated. both a. to elementa
knowledge and time, il will readily b
seen thai the progress Is vastly NOR
rapid than that Ut the Child who learn
m q desultory way. and with whom col
siderable time Is necessary aud by I'll
end OF the first term the student has
command Of the language sufficient IL
shopping and travelling purposes
A second term succeeds, m which II
vocabulary is enlarged by further COZ
versauons, anecdotes. correspondents
literary selections. etc. AZ ~ the COZ
versations. they are not all questions an
an immediate answer But AN answer
gwen 70 which the pupil u frame d
question. and a QUESTION Ia which b
must torn the answer Many pupil
Otherwise taught, NAV he able "a answt
q question ~ a foreign tongue, but az
puzzled 70 ask one.
The third aDd last term introduces III
pupil 20 the higher walks Of ltoratuI
and. conversauUnally, 10 the phHlseUlog
g.. IN