The Principles of Language-Study

by Harold E. Palmer

To teach to adults ‘child-like words’ before the words used by adults is another misinterpretation of gradation. We do indeed see classes in which boys or girls of twelve or thirteen learn to recite foreign nursery rhymes, but we doubt whether any teacher would seriously maintain that words such as dog or sheep should be preceded by bow-wow or baa-baa.

Having examined some faulty and vicious manners of interpreting the term gradation, let us now proceed to epitomize a few rational applications of the principle we have set forth, and let us assure the reader that each one of these has been proved to be psychologically sound.

(a) Ears before Eyes.—All fresh language-material should be presented in its oral form and not in its written form. Sounds should first be practised without any reference to any graphic forms of representation; the ear, not the eye, is the organ provided by nature for recognizing and assimilating sounds. Words should first be heard and imitated orally, for ideal assimilation is not helped but hindered when the written form is present.

Fresh word-groups and sentences should also as far as possible be first introduced and learnt orally. The adult student who complains that the process is too difficult is under the illusion that we hear with our eyes.

(b) Reception before Production.—It is quite certain that the student will be unable to reproduce a sound, a word, or a word-group that has been pronounced to him until he has really heard the model that he is called upon to imitate. There is a great difference between really hearing and merely imagining that one has heard a sound or a succession of sounds. As a rule we do not hear what is actually said to us; we merely hear what we expect to hear. Ask the average foreigner to repeat after you a word such as und’stand; instead of reproducing the exaggeratedly shortened form as represented above in two syllables, he will say understand in three syllables. As a matter of fact, he is under the impression that he heard you articulate the three syllables, and consequently he reproduces what he thought you said. Ask the average foreigner to repeat after you the word turn pronounced in Southern English (i.e. without an r) and he will insert an r because he imagines that he heard one. The sentence il doit venir is pronounced by the average Frenchman as [idwavniːr]; pronounce it like that to the average English student of French and ask him to imitate you; in most cases you will obtain what the student imagined he heard, viz. [il dwa vɛniə] (the last word having a remarkable resemblance to the English word veneer).

The student must therefore not only be trained to hear, but in all fairness to him he should be given ample opportunity of hearing the sound, word, or word-group that he will be called upon to reproduce. Let him hear it several times, let him concentrate his attention on the succession of sounds without any regard to its written form or its meaning. Let us endeavour as far as possible to give the student two or even more separate opportunities (with appropriate intervals) of truly hearing any given sound, word, or word-group before calling upon him to imitate the model.

(c) Oral Repetition before Reading.—Just as oral repetition should be preceded by a period of audition, so should reading be preceded by oral repetition. Before calling upon a pupil to read off from the blackboard or his book a word, list of words, sentence, or succession of sentences, let us first ask him to repeat after us the required material. If he cannot reproduce to our satisfaction a sentence that he has just heard from our lips, he will certainly be unable to reproduce the sentence by the process of reading.

(d) Immediate Memory before Prolonged Memory.—The teacher pronounces a sound or a succession of sounds (a word, a word-group, or a sentence). A few seconds later the pupil reproduces what he has heard; he does not find it very difficult to do so, for the sound of the teacher’s voice is still ringing in his ears; in his imagination he can still hear the teacher’s voice, and he has but to speak in unison with it. The sort of memory which enables him to reproduce what he has just heard is called immediate memory.

Another time the teacher pronounces a sound or a succession of sounds. The next day the pupil is called upon (without being prompted) to reproduce what he heard the day before. He may fail altogether to do so, or he may succeed. That sort of memory which enables him to reproduce what he has heard one, several, or many days before is called prolonged memory. Let us be quite certain that we understand the difference between these two extreme varieties of memory. Let us choose a word in a language unknown to us. Let this be the Hungarian word szenvedni, meaning to suffer. The word is pronounced [´sɛnvɛdni]; in the absence of a teacher let us pronounce the word ourselves three or four times.... Let us take our eyes from the book, and let a few seconds pass.... How do you say to suffer in Hungarian? [´sɛnvɛdni.] Quite correct; we have reproduced the word from immediate memory. To-morrow or the day after let us ask ourselves how they express to suffer in Hungarian. If we are able to answer correctly without referring to the book, it will be by dint of our prolonged memory. If this experiment is inconclusive, let us take a word-group, a sentence, or a list of words; we shall then realize how much more difficult it is to reproduce new matter after the sound of it has faded from our ears.

Let us remember this experiment when we are teaching; when our pupils reproduce correctly (either by repetition or by translation) what they have heard a few seconds (or even a few minutes) before, let us remember that we have so far only appealed to their immediate memory, and let us not expect an equally satisfactory result when we call upon them to reproduce the same matter the next day without prompting. To expect the same results from the prolonged as from the immediate memory implies a faulty grasp of the principle of gradation. Let us give our pupils ample opportunities, on an appropriate number of occasions, of reproducing matter heard a few moments previously; this will strengthen their associations and when later on we appeal to their prolonged memory, the results will be satisfactory.