To learn to understand the language when spoken, one must hear it spoken; to learn to speak it, one must speak it. It may even have its advantages if such conversation keep within the range of the pupil’s knowledge. He thus feels that he ought, must, and can understand, if he try.
If the pupil speak to himself both these results are attained. This he can do by studying aloud. His tongue will educate his ear and familiarise it with the new sounds, whilst the ear will correct the tongue. I assume, of course, that he is under the
guidance of a teacher; in this case with attention to the teacher’s pronunciation and care, and a little effort on his own part, he should soon pronounce correctly, easily, and well. By translating the exercises aloud, from five to twenty times, they should become as familiar to him as English. But whether translating into or from English, the foreign sentences should always be uttered aloud clearly and distinctly. It is, of course, a drawback, that in this translation aloud and alone of the exercises, the eye should anticipate the ear in conveying the words to the brain, but, when full allowance has been made for this, the gain for the pupil is still immense as compared with the silent method of study.
The learner should not be satisfied with being able to translate the exercises, he should aim at being able to use his new tongue with the same ease, readiness and fluency, as his native language. At each successive translation, he gains in this respect whilst engraving his newly acquired knowledge more deeply on his memory. The exercise which the first time required fifteen minutes to translate, the fifth time will probably take but three.
A chief difficulty being the education of the ear, and the time spent with the teacher being the pupil’s best opportunity for this, the lesson for the pupil so far as possible should be aural, the exercises being spoken by the teacher to the pupil for translation and the pupil’s translations likewise being spoken. The pupil’s book should be kept closed during the translation.
Supposing the pupil to be studying French. The teacher should first speak the French exercise in French, the pupil translating each sentence as spoken, into English.
2. Then taking the English exercise, the teacher should translate it aloud into French, the pupil retranslating each sentence, when spoken, into English.
3. The teacher should then speak each sentence of the English exercise in English; the pupil translating each sentence in a distinct voice into French.
4. The teacher should then translate aloud sentence by sentence, the French exercise into English; the pupil retranslating each sentence into French.
This will double the exercises, which are usually rather scanty. As we see, this part of the lesson is for the pupil exclusively aural and oral; he works through the ear and tongue only, his book being kept closed.