LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES 561 



LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES 



By Dr. CHARLES W. SUPER 



ATHENS, O. 



WHEN we consider that in all the high schools and colleges of 

 Christendom, with few exceptions, the pupils are required to 

 study one or more foreign languages, we can not but admit that the 

 subject is one of the utmost importance. And more than this : in the 

 public schools of many of our large cities thousands of children are 

 engaged in the study of English, which is to them a foreign language. 

 Since in the latter case the end in view is solely and directly practical, 

 we need not consider this phase of the problem further in this connec- 

 tion. It is only within the memory of many men now living that the 

 value of such studies has been called in question; or more especially, 

 the relative value of the ancient and modern languages. A few decades 

 ago the latter had either no place or a very subordinate one in the 

 educational curriculum. Every young man who entered college was 

 required to have some knowledge of Greek and Latin. In a few insti- 

 tutions he might pursue a modern language, or perhaps two, but this 

 part of the course was perfunctorily gone over because regarded as 

 subordinate. After a score or less of recitations from the grammar 

 the student was put to reading. Then a few master-pieces were in 

 whole or in part rapidly gone over and that was the end of the program. 

 So far as the principles of language-structure were concerned the 

 student was supposed to have learned them along with his Latin and 

 Greek. Gradually, however, the modern languages received an in- 

 creasing share of attention, until at the present time in many of our 

 largest universities not five per cent, of the students take Greek, while 

 neither Greek nor Latin is required for graduation. In most high 

 schools the former is not taught, and in all it no longer occupies the 

 post of honor. In this country the contest between the progressives 

 and the conservatives was carried on without much bitterness; but in 

 Germany the latter contested every inch of ground and the discussions 

 of the relative value of ancient and modern languages often gave rise to 

 acrimonious debates. It was in fact a contest between the ins and the 

 outs ; between the college professors and what may be called the enlight- 

 ened public; between the traditional views of education and the prac- 

 tical, not to say imperious, demands of the age. Under the old regime 

 an education was supposed to serve a sentimental rather than a practical 

 end. It was not necessary for either law, medicine, or theology, since 



