MAX A. LURIA
HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH, DEWITT CLINTON
HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY
LECTURER IN SPANISH, EXTENSION TEACHING, HUNTER COLLEGE
NEW YORK CITY
| SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY | ||
| BOSTON | NEW YORK | CHICAGO |
Copyright, 1916,
By SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY.
La Giralda de Sevilla
PREFACE
THIS book is the result of the conviction of the authors, after several years of experience teaching the Spanish language, that it is discouraging to the students of that language, as well as a contravention of all common-sense pedagogy, to place before them as reading material in the first year or year and a half, selections from classic Spanish novelists and short story writers. Such writings can only be understood and appreciated after considerable training in the fundamentals of Spanish, a language abounding in intricate idiomatic expressions and having great wealth of vocabulary. Such writings do not provide the student with a working vocabulary of the more common and practical terms. To read, for instance, Alarcón's Capitán Veneno or even Valera's El Pájaro Verde in the second or third semester of the study of Spanish in high schools, seems a sheer tour de force, resulting in neither a practical vocabulary nor a proper appreciation of these little masterpieces. Yet the strongest claim, at least at present, that can be made for a place for Spanish in the educational scheme of the United States is that it is a "practical" language for North Americans to know (being, as a mother-tongue in the New World, second in importance only to English), while at the same time affording as good linguistic training as does a study of either French or German. But the task of the Spanish teacher has for many years been complicated in this country because no material other than that of a purely literary nature has been available for the reading work in elementary classes.
The present volume, it is believed, provides in every-day, idiomatic Spanish, stories and articles that are simple and yet not childish, that can be readily appreciated by the beginner and yet withal are "muy español." It is suggested that it be used in the second and third semesters of the high school or in the first and second semesters of college, a proper place for it being determined by the age of the students and their previous linguistic training.
The first part, Sección de Cuentos Europeos, is based chiefly upon the Libro Segundo de Lectura and the Libro Tercero de Lectura of the series published by Silver, Burdett & Company for use in the schools of Spanish-speaking countries. Our thanks are given to this company for permission to use this material and for aid in preparing this part of the manuscript.
The second part, Sección Panamericana, provides in Spanish interesting information about Latin-American countries and will serve, it is hoped, to increase, in some slight measure at least, the awakening realization among North Americans, especially among young people, of the important place held by our sister republics of America in the resources and commerce of the world. Those articles upon Argentina, Brazil, Cuenca, Costa Rica, and Peru are adapted from various articles appearing in the publications of the Pan American Union, to the officers of which society, especially to Mr. Francisco J. Yánes, the Assistant Director, our thanks are extended for permission to use this material in this way; also for permission to reproduce in this part several of their photographs of South American scenes.
Upon the selections in both parts of the book are based exercises of various types. The authors believe that especial value is attached to that form of exercise which requires working over in various ways the idioms found in the text. These idioms, selected by means of footnotes, not only aid the student in reading the text, but are of still greater importance in furnishing a basis for the exercises on Spanish locutions given in connection with nearly every story or article. It will be found that the same idiom has in some cases been selected several times in the book, but this has been done purposely for one or both of two reasons: the idiom is important and frequent in the language, or other stories of the book containing the idiom may not have been read before by the class. Other exercises are: cuestionarios to be answered orally or in writing; verb drills consisting chiefly of writing synopses of verbs; plans for the dramatization of stories; directions for giving summaries, oral and written, of stories read; word-studies (English and Spanish cognates, grouping of Spanish words of the same root, etc.); observation and description of the pictures of the text; memory passages; the completion of incomplete sentences based on a story read; all of which, especially in high school classes, the instructor will find desirable to have the students work out fully.
It will be found that each English-Spanish exercise can be done by reference to the idioms and vocabulary of the article upon which it is based. For that reason no English-Spanish vocabulary has been provided.
The important proper nouns that occur in the text are amply explained in the Spanish-English vocabulary.
It is believed that the very full conjugations of the type-verbs of the regular conjugations given in the Apéndice de Verbos may prove to be a great help as also may the outlines of all the common irregular verbs and the type classes of the radical-changing and orthographical-changing verbs included in this appendix. Reference may be made to these paradigms, if necessary, when the pupil writes out the synopses and other verb drills asked for in the exercises.
The reading matter in the first section of the book is arranged in increasing order of difficulty, but after the first few stories have been covered the selections may be read in any order. Many will be found suitable for sight reading, especially the informational articles on Spanish-American countries.
Finally, it is hoped that in the use of this reader and its exercises, together with its section of classroom expressions and grammatical nomenclature in Spanish, the "read and translate" method may be relegated to at least second—may we hope to third?—place in the list of the many possible ways of covering a reading lesson in Spanish.
To our colleague Mr. Modesto Solé y Andreu, we are especially indebted for reading the book in manuscript and for helpful suggestions given from time to time in the preparation thereof. Needless to say, he is in no sense responsible for its shortcomings.
L. A. W.
M. A. L.
September, 1916.
Mapa de España
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SECCIÓN DE CUENTOS EUROPEOS
LECTURAS FÁCILES
[Transcriber's note: The spelling and accentuation of the Spanish in the original, hard book have been retained. A small number of words which appear here with accent are no longer accented in modern-day Spanish: vi (ví) vio (vió) fui (fuí) fue (fué) and dio (dió) construido (construído) heroica (heróica).]