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methods of teaching modern languages;

in fact, there are as many methods as there are teachers and, as Karl Breul says, "there is no best method, but there are better methods." There is much room for improvement in modern-language teaching in the intermediate school. organizing.

The work needs

The pupil of twelve approaches the study of a foreign language in the spirit of adventure. He is out to discover a world. He is full of enthusiasm and ready to follow the leader. The work should be

new

socialized. The classroom should, as far as possible, be equipped to serve as a veritable new world, surrounding the pupils with everything needed to inspire interest in the country, the people, the language, the history, and the customs of the people whose language they are studying. Whatever text may be used, it will depend on the teacher to vitalize the subject. The atmosphere of the classroom is to the recitation what the stage setting is to the play.

But the language work will be a failure unless it is placed in the hands of experienced, specially trained teachers. In the past we have made grave mistakes. Either we have given the language work to one of the regular teachers who has had some years' study of the language in college and, wishing to brush up, is glad to try her hand at it, or we have assumed that anybody who knows a 'language can teach it. We have failed to realize that the lack of psychological understanding of our American children makes the foreigner fail, in

*All rights reserved, 1921, Lilly Lindquist.

language.

On this point the two main bodies of modern language teachers of this country have expressed themselves in resolutions recently passed and published in the School Review, December, 1920. They declare: "It is pedagogically desirable that, as a rule, language instruction in secondary schools be given by teachers who have received their education in America." But in order that these teachers shall be qualified to give such instruction they must, in the first place, have had a special training with adequate practice in the use of the language, and, in the second place, school authorities must come to recognize that such specialized training is expensive and deserves a fair compensation.

I am going to offer here some suggestions for beginning the teaching of French in the seventh grade. Most of these suggestions are applicable to Spanish also. I claim nothing original in these ideas. They are the result of observation and study covering so many sources that I cannot even acknowledge them all. Attached to this paper, however, is a bibliography for

reference.

The teacher should begin a study of the new language by telling the children something of its history, and by showing how closely it is related to English, as illustrated by cognates. The pupils will find that they already know hundreds of French words, but not how to pronounce them. This leads at once to the important question of pronunciation. Here is the first project.

The teacher should know something

A

about phonetics.* She should be able to show the pupils how the different sounds are produced and not depend only on their imitating ability. The use of the phonetic symbols helps the pupil to distinguish the various sounds of the same letter (the different sounds of "e," for instance), but they must not be loaded on the pupils at once. The matter of pronunciation is so important that time given to it in the beginning is well spent; in fact, it is the essential requirement. A good idea is to begin with the vowel triangle and such consonants as resemble the English (being very careful to call attention to all differences between the French and the English sounds).† The class may be given a key-word for each symbol, for instance, "si" for the vowel sound "i." Then each pupil may take turns in representing a sound, and must jump up every time that sound occurs. few moments spent this way tends to keep the class very alert. It soon convinces the pupil that the two "e's" in "lever" are not alike. But the class should hear typical sounds often repeated before being called upon to reproduce them. To train the ear is an important part of every lesson. For this the teacher talks to the class in simple French about the objects in the room and by gestures and movements indicates what she is saying while the class simply listens and tries to comprehend. The same vocabulary may be used endlessly in various ways and gradually enlarged until the pupils have unconsciously learned it. Ten or fifteen minutes are given up to this kind of talks every day for the first couple of months. It is purely ear-training. Not until after the pupils have thus heard some French should they be asked to reproduce

*The Teaching of French Pronunciation by the Use of Phonetic Symbols, by Anna Woods Ballard in Modern Language Journal, April, 1919; also Phonetics as a Basis for Teaching Spanish, by Fred A. Hammann in Modern Language Journal, Dec., 1919.

See Phonetic Training in the University H. S., by A. G. Borée in The School Review, Nov., 1916. For other references, see Bibliography at the end of this article.

sounds. The training in articulation is slow, but increases in speed and accuracy. This ear- and mouth-training must be continued throughout the course, and cannot be neglected for mere eye-training.

In beginning the work with the study of sounds we are obliged to use English as our medium of explanation, in defence of which we may quote the resolution referred to at the beginning of this article: "In regular courses the procedure should be analogous to the reform method combining the advantages of the direct and indirect methods." On this point H. E. Palmer asserts: "The vehicular language for all explanatory matter should be that which is best known to the student, while the speech material itself must necessarily be the language which is the subject of instruction."*

Time was when teachers of the direct method would resort to anything rather than translate a word, such as getting down under a table with the wastepaper basket and going through the motions of milking rather than translate the word milk! Very entertaining for the pupils, but as Hardress O'Grady says, "Such persons belong on the vaudeville stage and not in a classroom." There are times when translation is the surest way to convey the correct meaning. But the language of the classroom should as far as possible be the language which is being studied.

For the first month or two no book is necessary provided the teacher has a definite plan. Most teachers make the mistake of trying to do too much and go too fast. An alert teacher will keep the interest alive in dozens of different ways.

For those familiar with the project. method I will merely indicate some projects. easily planned, that the class is readily led to adopt. Here is one we worked out: We started to make a house, finding names for all the outside parts and then dividing it into rooms and finally furnishing it to suit individual taste. When we were ready to

*The Scientific Study and Teaching of a Foreign Language, by H. E. Palmer.

move in we gave a dinner party and set our table and prepared a menu and wrote invitations to our friends. The dinner was to be in the evening, and after dinner we were to play games, sing songs, and give a few recitations. It is apparent that this work was not done in a day. We had to learn a good many words and a good many important constructions and we had to limit ourselves to simple wording, but we got through our project and we served ice cream and cake after our party!

We proved that we were dealing with a living language that could bear the strain of our daily doings.

Another project was a family reunion for Christmas at the home of the grandparents who lived in another town. There was to be a present for every member of the family. There was the necessary planning, then the shopping, the use of money and counting. It gave us a rich practical vocabulary. The teacher must be on the alert and guide the work wisely; otherwise it gets chaotic. I have said nothing of grammar-it is not neglected, but it is learned in small doses by using and practicing correct forms. The material can be dramatized and put into actions. Pupils represent the present tense, one for each person. The first person singular begins and says, “Je vais à la porte," acting it out; the second person simply says, "Tu vas à la porte," and so on, the first person plural joins the first person singular and says, "Nous allons à la porte." We then substitute "à ma place," etc.

Then there are the twins ne-pas, ne— personne, etc. The class takes a sentence, one pupil represents the subject, another the inflected verb, another the participle or the infinitive, the object, etc. When the sentence is read they stand up in proper order, then negatives fit into place, or pronouns are substituted, or adjectives are fitted in, or they are rearranged to form questions. Each one says his word, then the rest of the class repeat the whole until they have it correctly. All kinds of new devices must be invented to keep the class

on the qui-vive, everything grows stale if it is overdone. For French teachers I would mention the following books as helpful: Episodes en Action and Tableaux Mouvants (E. P. Dutton Co.), Six Short French Plays (Longmans, Green & Co.), Le Chevalier de Blanchfleur et autres Pieces (D. C. Heath & Co.), Scenes from Familiar Life (Macmillian Co.), and the chapter entitled An Ideal Standard Program in The Scientific Study and Teaching of Languages, by H. E. Palmer (World Book Co.), where a specimen first lesson is given and a multitude of suggestions.

I have said nothing specific about memorizing, for the simple reason that all language work has memory for its basis; it must be cultivated and aided. By aiding memory I mean it is the business of the teacher to use every possible sort of graphic device, diagrams, charts, association by picture, gesture, action; in a word, help the pupil to visualize, to localize, and to correlate his knowledge.

"Of the vocabulary possessed by any person proficient in the use of a foreign language, a very small proportion has been acquired by conscious study, probably less than five per cent; the bulk has been acquired by subconscious assimilation."* The vocabulary must be chosen with care and should include only the most common words and phrases, such as are of frequent occurrence in the pupil's daily life. How greatly opinion differs on this matter of vocabulary we see at once from comparing a dozen beginners' books. But the simplicity of the grammatical forms will also enter into our selection of the vocabulary. It is possible to introduce new constructions gradually and practice them to fix them in the memory.

What should our pupils know at the end of the three years of the intermediate school in a modern language? His attainments should not be measured by such definite tests as the repetition of lists of rules. *H. E. Palmer in The Scientific Study and Teaching of a Foreign Language.

learned by rote, 'or conjugations of verbs also learned by rote, or the verbatim reproduction of material previously memorized -all these things may serve a purpose, but they are not the end of language instruction, and failure or success in these matters does not prove anything essential. "The progress of students can only be measured by their capacity for understanding and for producing fluent sentences."* "He who would be a master of any art must gain command of its basic principles-in language that means: pronunciation, construction, vocabulary." The same writer continues: "Fluency is an integral part of accuracy. Our standard of attainment is five syllables per second."

Let us agree that reading will not teach the pupil to speak or to write, and writing will not teach him to read and to speak, nor will any of these teach him to understand, in the sense of to hear. You cannot acquire any of these abilities without practice in each and every one. Failure to realize this fact was one reason for so much criticism and disappointment of our language-teaching during the war. If a pupil is trained to read and write, he will not as a natural outcome be able to speak and understand an entirely different set of reactions is called for. All of these abilities must be developed simultaneously; we cannot afford to sacrifice any one of them. I am not prepared to state in definite terms of grammar or reading texts just

*H. E. Palmer.

How to Learn a Language, Thomas F. Cummings (New York, 1916).

ROFESSOR UPTON of Columbia

cided to consider thrift as a definite set of

cle to The Detroit Journal of Education dealing with a method whereby thrift instruction might be presented attractively to children. This presentation was made through the medium of mathematics, and vitalized through the utilization of certain situations involved in economic saving. These situations emphasized the normal growth of money in savings banks and used mathematics as a basis for a more intelligent understanding of the means and results of the practice of thrift.

With a similar aim in view, a program of thrift education was this year carried on in the elementary schools of Detroit during National Thrift Week. The arithmetic, English, and art classes of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades took part in the program. In this case the instruction was vitalized by linking up the principles of thrift with the everyday experiences of school children in their daily use of money and materials.

The formulation of a plan of instruction involved two important considerations: first, the content or material to be presented; and second, the method of presentation. With relation to the first of these, it was de

Editor's Note.-The program for Thrift Week described in this article was organized by Mr. Thiele under the direction of Mr. S. A. Courtis, and in co-operation with a group of arithmetic teachers of this city. The committee are indebted for inspiration and advice to Mr. Wm. J. Gray, Chairman of the Committee for the Promulgation of Banking Instruction in the Schools, and to other bankers of this city.

Correlation of this program with the Art and English Departments of the elementary schools was planned by the supervisors in these subjects: Miss Alice Guysi and Miss Clara Beverley.

All rights reserved, 1921, C. L. Thiele.

from actual human experiences. To foster such, it was deemed necessary to choose, for content, those experiences in the lives of school children which, if rightly exercised, lead to the inculcation of proper thrift habits, purposes, and attitudes. Each pupil was accordingly asked to keep a personal account of his income, expenditures, and savings for one week; and from the items of these accounts, material was deducted to furnish the experiences to which thrift principles might be attached.

As for the method of presentation, with but a week to make the application of these principles to the account items, only a very general treatment was possible. It was consequently necessary to concentrate on the large and important principles. The following were chosen for emphasis: (1) means of obtaining money, (2) the value of the bank in handling and caring for money, (3) judicious expenditure on immediate needs and saving for future use, and (4) budgeting.

The plan for the week's work may be summarized as follows:

Monday-Personal Accounts
Tuesday-Means of Obtaining Money
Wednesday-Bank Day

Thursday-Spending and Saving
Friday-Budgets

Subject matter involving actual experi ences lends itself very readily to learning "by doing," which is the best method of instruction. In fact it would be hard to utilize life experiences without self-activity on the part of pupils. The keeping of accounts, the analysis of these, and the visits