(2) Habit-forming.—Language-study is essentially a habit-forming process; the teacher will therefore not only assist the student in utilizing his previously formed habits, but will also cause him to acquire new ones appropriate to the work he is to perform.
(3) Accuracy.—No form of work is to be adopted which may lead to inaccurate habits of language-using, for habit-forming without accuracy means the forming of bad habits.
(4) Gradation.—The teacher will cause the student to pass from the known to the unknown by easy stages, each of which will serve as a preparation for the next, and thereby secure a constantly increasing rate of progress.
(5) Proportion.—The various aspects of language (i.e. understanding, speaking, reading, and writing) as well as the various branches of the study (i.e. phonetics, orthography, etymology, syntax, and semantics) to receive an appropriate measure of attention.
(6) Concreteness.—The student will proceed from the concrete to the abstract, and will therefore be furnished with an abundance of well-chosen examples.
(7) Interest.—The methods are to be devised in such a way that the interest of the student is always secured, for without interest there can be little progress.
(8) Order of Progression.—The student should first be taught to hear and to articulate correctly, then to use sentences, then to make sentences, then to make (i.e. to inflect or to derive) words. In this way he will secure rapid and yet permanent results.
(9) Multiple Line of Approach.—The language should be approached simultaneously from many different sides in many different ways, by means of many different forms of work.
Text-books may differ in the sort of material supplied; teachers may differ in their mode of presentation; there will be room for individuality and personality. For years to come we shall not secure perfect uniformity and ideal results, but if these nine essential principles are understood and reasonably well observed by the method-writer, course-designer, and teacher, the resultant teaching is bound to be good and the results are bound to be satisfactory.