The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1912-10-31
Prof. Bell Writes On
German for Children
CRITIC IN MODEL SCHOOL URGES
THAT LANGUAGE BE STUDIED
EARLY.

as TO meLuOQS, dlulS, anu U1IAMdLe
object, there is unanimity of feeling
among teachers that new language
is best begun at an age lower than
that of the usual high school pupil
German schools have long recognized
this, and have commenced their
French or English at twelve, while
Latin begins two years earlier still.
Here in the Model school German is
offered as an elective, to begin in the
seventh grade; and with this arrange.
ment the present writer is in full &C.
cord, although he does not agree with
the general opinion shared even by
such writer's as Bolton and O'Shea,
that the child will learn new Ian
guage faster than grown person can.
| 1t is matter of very common OBJ
servation that the foreign born child
of five or six years arriving in this
country with his parents, can enter an
! American school, and in few months
have no trouble in carrying on with
his American playmates all the con-
! versation he desires. In year or two
he prefers to use English altogether in
replying to the German, Scandinavian,
or other native tongue in which his
parents address him at home.
Children Do Not Learn Faster.
Now it is true that no adult is like
ly to make any such notable progress
in so short a time after arriving
among us, nor could the adult Ameri-
can do so if he should be thrown
among people with strange Ian
guage; hence it appears at first sight
| that the child has much the best of
it. But there is another phase of the
matter that should not be overlooked.
! The little child's ability in the new
! language is, after all, only child's
ability; and the same facility of ex-
preston with a no greater completely
! of ideas on the part of the parents
| would strike us as ridiculously made
quate.
| In fact, if one of our own children
! should cease to develop in the use
of his own language after the age of
live or six, his ability remaining sta
tionary thereafter, his linguistic short
comings at the age of twelve would
be likely to classify him as only half
| witted. The same would be true of
an adult whose power of expression
never grew after the age of twelve. It
is because the small child has so much
less to learn in order to meet all con-
he learns faster, that he appears to
outstrip the adult in language learn
ing.
No Royal Road to Language.
| The writer's agreement with the
idea of beginning German as low as
the seventh grade (if not earlier) is
in part due to the fact that no royal
road to language has ever been dis
covered, and no hopes of one are held
out except by charlatans of the French
in ten lessons type. Our agreement is
strengthened by the conviction that
| "Sprachgefuehl'' as often mentioned
vaguely in connection with mere high
school courses of study, is an absurd
| impossibility, and that Presiden. Hall
| is right when he states that the "traEs.
| 1o% Sc, b h.
ent. even after one has dealt with a
| new language for years.
Study German Aloud.
E If those pupils who elect German
in the Model school use a fair amount
OF: diligence in mastering the daily as
signments, doing much of their home
study aloud, to the end that the ear as
| we'll as the eye may become accustom-
! ed to the words and infections, unless
they are different from most students
of German in other schools they will
| have a strong desire at the end of
! their two-year course to go on with it
through the Normal school; and a
good four-year course is usually suf1l-
cient to make the student capable and
DESTROYS of keeping up the subject of
| his own accord thereafter. On the
other hand, ones interest in other &C.
tivities of life are so apt to take the
time and attention of maturer years
that it is unsafe to postpone beyond
!, childhood the beginning of so exten.
! sive and important task as the &C.
| QUESTION of a new language.