Advocates of the routine-method will throw a, b, c, and d together indiscriminately and say about them all that translation is an excellent and indeed the only practical means.
But their opponents, now, maintain that in none of these four cases is translation the only means—very far from it!—and that besides it is not equally valuable in all instances.
(a)—There is always danger in translation; but in spite of this there are many who in certain cases will use this means as being the surest and quickest way of getting the pupils to understand, but in other cases will try to do without it; some teachers even think that in all cases they can find other and better means of getting the pupils to comprehend the meaning of foreign expressions.
(b)—As a means of testing whether the pupil understands the foreign language, it is a tolerably good thing to let him translate, but only tolerably good; it is not always reliable, and ought in many cases to be a last resort.
(c)—Translation from English is, for beginners at least, an extremely poor means in comparison with the many other hitherto generally neglected ways in which the teacher may get a pupil to say (or write) something in the foreign language. “Das übersetzen in die fremdsprache zum zwecke der erlernung derselben gehört einfach in das gebiet pädagogischer sünden und verirrungen” (Bierbaum, Die neueren sprachen, i. 57).
(d)—As a test of whether the pupil can express himself in the other language, an oral or written exercise in translation is either illusory or is at least suitable only for the most advanced pupils.
These assertions must now be made good, especially by the suggestion of other means which may be substituted for translation. I shall not continue strictly to observe the distinctions between the four categories, a, b, c, d. In order to avoid tedious repetitions of expressions like “the foreign language in question,” I shall in the following pages say in short “the language” in contrast to English.
Are there other means by which I can get the pupil to comprehend the meaning of foreign words and sentences? Yes; in the first place by means of direct observation or immediate perception (what the Germans call anschauung). This applies to substantives which designate objects, etc., to be found in the school-room: fenêtre, porte, banc, chaise, tableau (noir), craie, livre, plume, crayon, montre, élève, maître (professeur), etc. All that is necessary is to point to the objects with such remarks as c’est (or voilà) la craie, on appelle ça le tableau noir, etc., and the pupil cannot mistake the meaning of each word. Furthermore, this is the best way to teach the most necessary words relating to the human body: tête, cheveux, nez, yeux, bouche, lèvres, barbe, joue, oreille, bras, main, doigt, etc. But in addition to the many substantives there are also a number of words of other classes which can be learned in this manner: voilà une fenêtre, et voilà une autre fenêtre; Pierre est un élève, Paul est un autre élève; words like ici, là; especially a number of verbs of action: j’écris; Victor écrit. je prends la craie; Jean prend la craie. je me lève; Pierre se lève. je m’assieds, je marche (vers la porte), j’ouvre la porte, je ferme la porte; je donne le livre à Pierre, Pierre me donne le livre, etc. At the same time as the teacher or the pupil says something or other, the teacher illustrates the action. In that manner, already in the first stage, before the pupils have any French vocabulary to operate with, a number of words and sentences may be learned without the use of a single English word. Yes, even the various tenses of the verbs can be explained by this method. If, for instance, in the course of their reading, the pupils come across il a pris and they do not understand it, the teacher can show what it means—this of course does not apply to the very first lessons—by first taking the chalk and saying: je prends la craie, then a book: je prends le livre de Jean, then his hand: je prends sa main, and then saying: d’abord j’ai pris la craie, puis j’ai pris le livre de Jean, et enfin j’ai pris sa main. With a little ingenuity a good deal can be brought in in this way; some material in French has been well arranged in P. Passy and T. Tostrup, Leçons de choses. I shall later come to the question as to whether and how the pupils are to repeat what the teacher says in this way, as likewise to the objection that the pupils in reality understand these words in English. Here I shall merely caution against taking too much material of this kind at a stretch; it is best to intersperse it with other things.
In the second place, the meaning of the words may be communicated through mediate perception, through pictures. This is what Miss Goldschmidt with so much energy has put into practice in her “picture-words” and in other books on the same plan, which have been edited partly by her and partly by others. Each page contains a collection of pictures representing a series of objects belonging to the same sphere of ideas. Sometimes they are joined together to make a whole scene; sometimes the objects remain separated, without being brought into connection with each other; some of the pictures are well put together; others present several curiosities, as, for instance, a telescope freely hovering in a rainbow. Each object is supplied with a number referring to lists where the corresponding French (English, etc.) words are given. In many German schools, and in several places in Denmark now too, large picture-charts are used to hang upon the schoolroom wall, especially the Hölzel charts, where, for instance, on a winter-picture are collected representations of the most important things belonging to winter. Then the teacher can point to one of these things and at the same time explain it in the language which is being studied. Finally pictures can also be used to illustrate a narrative or descriptive text, as in the English primers published by Sarauw and myself.