| Popis: |
When Mr. Senger's article "A Comparison of the First-Year Courses in Latin and German" (May number of the School Review) was brought to my attention, my first thought was: "Well, no one but a teacher of the classics would have tried to make such a comparison, for only a teacher of Latin or Greek would hold to the opinion that learning a language is learning a certain number of facts." The modern teacher of modern languages realizes that teaching a language is not synonymous with drilling a certain number of facts into a pupil's head, although that is a well-defined part of the process. I presume there is some justice in Mr. Senger's comparison, but one will have to bear in mind throughout that oral work plays a much greater part in modern-language instruction than in the Latin or Greek class. We may compare the grammar work done in the German class with the grammar work of the Latin class, but we must at the same time be fully conscious of the fact that, whereas the instruction in grammar and the reading and translation of a text constitute the entire work of a Latin class, in a German class these are regarded merely as the foundation on which is to be built up a feeling for German and the ability to use simple German in the classroom in preparation for a fuller and more extended actual practical use of German in the following years. Another fact to be borne in mind when one is reading the conclusions reached in the article is that one cannot conclude that more facts are actually learned in one language than in another even though there be more to be learned. In fact, if we consider the mentality of the pupil as a constant, it would stand to reason that the pupil learns as much in one five-hour course as in another, presupposing the teachers of equal power and skill, as we shall have to do in such a general case; or we might say, the greater the amount |
