The right method of teaching a language.The right method of teaching a language may be put in a nutshell: grammar, reading, writing and conversation should go side by side. For convenience, and because of the importance of the subjects, grammar and exercises in composition will naturally have special times assigned to them; but they should never be left out of sight. No construing lesson ought to be done without some grammatical drill, or without a few sentences of conversation, which is in fact composition in brief. (1) Grammar.The importance of grammar can hardly be overestimated; and the first thing the learner must understand is that the skeleton of the language, the inflections, have to be known by heart. A knowledge of cognate languages may help, and comparative tables of forms may help both intelligence and memory, but in the end it all comes to the same thing: however the pupil may have learnt them, he must be prepared to say off his declensions and conjugations from memory in the usual tabular form. There are, in this slipshod age, those who affect to despise precise knowledge, such as geographical names and facts, historical dates, and the paradigms of a grammar. To “learn by reading” not sufficient.“Learn by reading” is their motto in language; a most false and pernicious principle, as I can testify from sad experience. It has been my lot to learn one or two languages sufficiently well to enable me to read in them, and I grieve to relate that in these I shirked the drudgery of the grammar. The result is that although a certain amount of grammar has soaked in, I cannot yet read without a manual by my side. The most such a method can do is to give the general sense of a sentence; but it often fails to do even that, inasmuch as the general sense of a sentence is made up of the precise sense of its parts. Exactness in understanding is not to be had without paying the price, and the price is an exact knowledge of grammar. The rottenness of this system is shown when it comes to writing; and the productions of these empirics might well make Quintilian stare and gasp. Thus, however the grammar may be taught to begin with, the class should always have handy some book containing just the facts of the language, arranged in the usual fashion, and not encumbered with exercises. They will need this in the end, and they may as well have it at the beginning. The most useful books of the kind are Kennedy’s Revised Latin Primer (or Postgate’s New Latin Primer, which is in some respects better, notably in the marking of quantities) and Abbott and Mansfield’s Greek Grammar. If no book of exercises is used, it is hardly necessary to say that these books cannot be learnt straight through from cover to cover. Indeed, the very first pages of both are unintelligible to beginners. In that case the teacher must himself select what is to be learnt; and the tables which follow ([pp. 87-8]) are meant to assist in this.
(2) Reading to be begun as soon as possible.As soon as the pupil is able to understand a simple sentence, he should begin to use some reading book. One of the most satisfactory Latin readers I have had to do with is Abbott’s Dux Latinus; some of the books err in not being simple enough in the structure of the sentences. Equally good and more easy to work with are the cheap Single Term Readers of Messrs. Rivington. The sooner the pupil can be put on to a genuine classical author, the better. Eutropius, Nepos or Phædrus is better suited for beginners than Cæsar; Cæsar will come next. Stories from Ovid may follow, and some of Cicero’s lucid and interesting narrative; the best selection is that of Walford (Clarendon Press). Virgil may be well begun in Allcroft’s Story of Æneas (Blackie). Once the pupil has attained this stage, further selection should be easy; only, be it said, too many notes spoil the scholar.
The student will be able sooner to tackle an author in Greek than in Latin, because of the greater simplicity of the language. In a very short time he ought to pass on to the excellent Clarendon Press Easy Selections from Xenophon, or some adaptation of stories from Herodotus, or parts of Lucian. He may then take one of the Rugby Scenes from Greek Plays (Rivingtons), and the easier parts of Thucydides, as edited in Rivington’s Middle Form Greek Readers.
Construing.In the construing lesson, the teacher will of course try to give each pupil a small portion to translate; and with a class of twenty-five this can easily be done in three quarters of an hour, leaving time for questions. He will then go through the passage himself, asking a question or two now and then to rivet their attention; and then one and another should be called upon to decline or conjugate as many of the words (regular as well as irregular) as can be got into the time. It is needless to insist that constant practice is necessary in grammar and parsing. In this manner the accidence will be kept fresh in the mind, and at last (it is to be hoped) firmly impressed upon it. But one most important aid to learning is so often neglected, that it will be necessary to speak about it rather fully. (3) Conversation.This is conversation. First let me say that nothing is meant resembling the method of Gouin. What may be the merits of that method in the case of French or German, it is needless to ask here; but I am confident that a syntax and accidence so elaborate as those of Greek could not possibly be taught by that method in any reasonable time, and I do not believe they could be so taught at all. Simple conversation can be begun as soon as the pupil begins to read. We will suppose the reading book contains the sentence, Post triduum Cæsar equitatum ad Labienum misit. How to be used.The teacher will ask, Quid fecit Cæsar? and the pupil must be made to answer, at first by prompting if necessary, Misit equitatum Cæsar. The next question may be, Ad quem misit equitatum? the reply, Ad Labienum misit equitatum Cæsar. Other questions may be got out of this short sentence; such as Quis misit? quid? quando? The class should be made to give always a complete sentence in reply. At first they may have the book open before them; but so soon as they are used to the sound of the words, they should be made to shut the book and answer from memory. Five minutes at the end of a lesson is not much to give, and it is surprising how this kind of thing quickens interest and memory. Its great advantages.The pupils find the advantage when they sit down to write their exercises, for now the words and constructions come quickly into the mind. Moreover, they will find that they have learnt unconsciously the difference in emphasis which position makes; for it will be observed that in the simple answers given above, the words which answer the question, and are therefore the most important, come first in the answer. The teacher should ring the changes on his reading exercise in this way, until after a term or two he will be able to begin talking to them on other subjects: such as the weather, the pictures on the walls, the pupils’ dress, their inky fingers, anything that occurs to him. He must take every opportunity of dropping in the accusative and infinitive, a phrase of purpose or consequence, or the like; and thus, without much trouble, these bugbears will be got rid of. If a pupil can answer no more than Nescio quid dicas, it is something that he uses the subjunctive in a dependent question.
But it will be asked, where are the teachers to be found who can do this? A difficulty met.The answer is, that it is perfectly easy to learn, and only needs practice. The teacher will have his own book open before him, and need not go beyond its words till he has gained confidence; then by degrees he will do it more and more easily, and in a while talking will come quite naturally to him. In more discursive conversations, it is true, some preparation will be necessary, but it is quite worth the while. There are one or two little books that teachers will find useful,[8] but they will best make their own collections. A few hours’ reading will give an ample store of colloquialisms from Plato, Aristophanes and Lucian, from Plautus, Terence, and Cicero’s letters. It is not a bad plan to compile lists of colloquial sentences, say a hundred, and make every pupil learn them by heart.
[8] Sprechen Sie Attisch? Ioannides: Koch, Leipzig, 1889. Sprechen Sie Lateinisch? Id. Sargent, Greek Prose Composition. Blackie, Gr. Conversation.
A practical test.It may be worth while saying that the writer has tested this method, and found it practicable with young and old. Moreover it has been applied, within his knowledge, to the teaching of Russian, a language hardly less difficult than Greek; and it is found possible, by combining conversation, reading, writing and learning by heart, to teach even obtuse persons how to read an ordinary novel or newspaper, to write a social or official letter, and to converse on ordinary topics, in three months, although before they began this course they knew not even the Russian alphabet.
(4) Composition.For Latin composition the teacher can hardly do better than begin with Abbott’s Via Latina; for Greek, Ritchie’s Practical Greek Method is to be recommended, though not so unreservedly. What books are best to follow up with may be seen from the lists given below. But after all, it is not books that teach, so much as the teacher; and he had better fix on the subjects that are to be taught at each stage, and select or make the exercises necessary to teach them.
Every exercise will of course be corrected, and the pupil should never pass on without having written out a correct translation of the exercise himself. Practical hints for teaching it.If it is practicable, the best thing is for him to be told his mistakes, and then to rewrite the exercise, doing it again and again until it is right. But if time permits not this, the teacher may do a good deal to encourage self-help by going round the class whilst they are writing, and underlining all mistakes, which the pupils are then to correct, if they can. As soon as possible, pieces of continuous prose should be done as well as sentences; and this can be begun quite early, in fact after a couple of terms’ work. The same plan of underlining mistakes may be followed with these; but it will be found advantageous, as the work increases in difficulty, to give more and more often fair copies of the teacher’s, or by some other competent person. In all composition it is useful to dictate the fair copy, and then to give a few minutes for the class to learn it. The class should then be called up, the copy taken away, and the English should be translated viva voce. Of course any reasonable translation will be accepted; it is not meant that only the very words of the copy given will do. Let the old pieces be done over now and again at sight; and the results cannot fail to be good.
Type-sentences to be learnt by heart.Most of the exercise books have explanations prefixed to each exercise, with examples. All such examples, or at least one of each construction, should be learnt by heart. The same should be done with the syntax rules of any grammar which may be in use. These should all be so well drilled into the pupils, that when a rule is given, or a heading, or (for beginners) the English meaning, the pupils should be able to reel off the example without hesitation. A certain portion of syntax, or of the exercise book, or both, should be set for each stage; and the classes which are studying that part of the subject must learn these, and keep up the old work. The reading book will give plenty of opportunity to ask for these quotations, and it should constantly be done. The oftener the pupil repeats his example of the instrumental ablative, or whatever it may be, the better he will know it; and he cannot know it too well. The pupil should be tested and kept up to the mark by regular grammar papers, at least twice a term.