Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-08-31
TO LEARN A LANGUAGE.
q New Method-The Chnd's Way u the
Best Way.

. ScN "chuOu-Ah Sufoe WY - y
Best Way.
The baby comes into the world with
cut any language 70 talk with. Not a
word can IL say 10 its father or mother,
tns beguihng 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 ls natural life, il Is all the same
whether IL begins TO say. Il you IL have
given, . as in French; or. Il have il you
gwen" as in German; or. IL have given
n 10 you. as in English.
In this regard 1t is fortunate that the
baby does n bring with 1t into the world
q language from the celestial sphere,
whence all mothers think il calne 10 be-
wilder and confuse II in the acquisition
OF It's terrestrial mother tongue. No o b
sIacie OF construction. sound Of novels,
even the u u Of the language
80 that In the matter of learning a
foreign language il were evidently better
that. at least, we could, pro tem.. utterly
forget IL and be practically children
again
The older methods Of learning a foreign
language are af1lictively known to all Of
Us. II was dug out Of a dictionary and
framed with a grammar. The outcome
OF all THIS laborious work wa at best to
read q language. but for every day
practical purposes. and TO converse in it,
80 as TO be at all Ineligible To a native
ear was a failure.
And, after all. we never poke a diction-
ary and grammar al young children TO
learn their mother tongue. Why should
I'VE do SC with children Of a larger growth
IN learning a new ~languageS Natures
method Is TO learn 10 talk first, and then
confirm and complete, intellectually,
what we already know practically
Even h latter. albeit. was resented
by the Toy, who. after being prodded
and punished through the English gram
mar was disguised TO find that all he
had suffered was TO teach him what he
knew before-how 10 talk.
The fundamental principle Of this
method Is 10 learn a language out OF IL
self Just as a child learns Its mother
tongue. Therefore. the instruction given
Is entirely IN the language studied. The
vernacuiar Is ignored Every other Ian.
guage Is ignored, but Just as much SO as
though there were no osher language in
the world.
You enter q class room, OF a small
room for private instruction. and you
are at nee In France, In Germany, or
wherever, and there stands a foreign
gentleman who neither speaks nor un.
derslands anything but the language Of
ms country Every child, man and
woman Is practically back IN the nursery
again without a language TO talk with.
Now. the first nursery lore, II any OF
US can think back 80 far. was learning
the names OF material objects immedi
auely around US. These were u play
things, our edibles, q table, a chair, the
carpet the floor. the wall. or whatever,
The names OF these things we learned AZ
they were gwen Us, or touched, or our
attention drawn TO them. Our child
wants stimulated US 10 know the names
OF things we wanted.
Meantime, people all around US were
talking. and the ear, though perhaps not
seemingly so. wa 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 ii by
hearing II spoken, like a tune,
In imitation Of this. the hrst instruc.
o gwen lie object teaching To facib.
tate tins. the teacher Is provided with o
text book. carefully thought out, o
tanning a vocabulary OF words mos.
needed IN conversatIon-whicb is the
drst thing aimed at.
But n the teacher goes on talk
ing. his articulation being very slow and
accenuated. each word and each syllable
OF a word clean cut and distinct SimI'
larly as with the child, some words are
understood some learned by context
expressions and phrases caught by ear
and the vocal lnflexion. or tune to which
they are set equally caught--this last an
important requisite In speaking intelli
gibly 10 native ears.
The matureI mind OF a more advanced
period. however offers Q certain al.
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
and these occasions are sought in III,
skllfuliy framed text book or the con
versation OF the teacher. Something d
learned Of construction and nflexiona
endings
BY this method Of teaching, CONDENSED
and abbreviated, both as TO elementa
knowledge and time, il will readily b
seer that the progress Is vastly NOR
RAPID than that OF the child who learn
u a desultory way. and with whom con
siderable time Is necessary, and by tn
end OF the first term tn, student has
command OF the language sufficient 70
shopping and travelling purposes.
A second term succeeds, In which tn
vocabulary Is enlarged by further con
versatons, anecdotes, correspondence
literary selections, etc. As 10 the con
versations, they are not all questions an,
an immediate answer But an answer
gwen 10 which the pupil must frame th
question. and a question 10 which b
must form the nswer Many pupilt
otherwise taught, may be able 10 answe