The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1897-12-11

a epSCldL ledture OF CurIenL 1lCcHACEKe'S DEC
ember number is the interspersion Of the text in
the space devoted to acorsideration Of holiday
books, with specimen Illustrations from their
pages. The result is pleasing combination OF
! aesthetic and International values. Other season
able TEXTURES are page Of Christmas verse. and
sslectiou entitled Legends Of the Christ
Childr s' - =.a.-
"A practical course with the Spanish langua 2
| by n. M. Monsanto A. M. and Louis Langueller
L. L. D. 1913 pages, Price 81 IS. American Book
Co., New York, Cincinnati and Chicago In pre-
pairing this work it has been the aim Of the auth
OFFS, while excluding nothing ofpractieal value
which has already been placed before the public,
to combine with the best features, of the most ap
proved methods tho resultsof their own experie
| ence, While endeavoring to render this work
valuable assistant in the classroom, they have
| sought at the same time to adaptit to- the pur-
poses of private instruction, and in sodoing have
availed themselves to great extent of the admir-
| able plan presented in Woodbury's PRACTICAL
Course with the German Language, According
I the lessons are arranged in the following order
i. The subject of the lesson,
q Examples, accompanied by their nearest
English equivalents, and made to- illustrate the
grammatical and idiomatic' principles which are
involved in the Lessons. -t..
u Spanish exercises. The sentences In Span-
sh reqnire only the application Of the instructions
containedi In the Lesson, or in the preceding ones
for their translation into English.
SEnglish exercises. The analogous sentences in,
English are presented in immediate connection
with the preceding ones in Spanish, The prin-
eiples applied in the Spanish Exercises are thus
made most convenient and effective auxiliary in
the still more advanced and difficult work of
translating Englishin into Spanish
D. Grammatical and idicmatic principals. This
division may be employed by means of the refer
ence either in connections with the preceding
instructions. or, when not thus reqnired
may be applied both as test of the
pupils previous deductions, acd at the same time
The Conversation Method for Speaking. Read
Ing and Writing French by Edmond Gastineau
A. M. American Book Company, New YORK.
Cincinnati, Chicago. How many people after
years Of study in ordinary text books discover on
going abroad or meeting foreigners in this country
that they can neither speak nor understand n
word of the language studied This proves thu,
there ia something radically wrong in the methods
used. Children and adults Of ordinary capacitv
when thrown among foreigners. acquire in a few
TO understand others. Yet these same children
and adults, when taught by prevailing methods,
Will spend years Of arduous labor in the study of
language, only 10 find. in the vast majority Of
cases, that they are unable. to saw the, simn1es,
things or to understand the simplest questions in
1t. The rearon for this is that they have not fol-
lowed the way OF nature. The old methods at-
tempt too much They attempt to familiarize.the
pupil with an immense stock Of useless words. q
vocabulary far larger than the greatest writer's
could or would have used inthe ordinary walks NJ
Life. The number Of words necessary for the ex-
preston OF our general thoughts is placed nv
philologists at less than 1000 and of these there
are from 200 to *oO'wordsi in every language some
OF which occur in every colloquial sentence. Tn
the case OF child surrounded by those who con-
stantly speak to or before it, the ear s fncessapt
ly struck with the sounds, not of single words
but OF complete sentences. Some of these fna]lv
impress themselves on the memory and according
to need or impulse the child attempts to use one
or the other: At first ii is in crippled sort Of
way. but the perfect form is aimed,at. Sc with
greater perfection with each effort, at last the
difficult idiom is used with ease and accuracy. |
In this manner q collection OF sentences is gather
ed. Thus do we insensibly yet Quickly find our !
selves masters of spoken tongue. This ia the |
plan OF the Conversation Method" which il do
stned to work revolution In the teaching OF the
French language. '... ....