840 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I- 



no provision for such teaching — the absence of teachers qualified 

 to undertake it being the most vital defect in the schools' 

 organization ; while the want of proper appliances for most 

 of those who are qualified, renders their teaching more or 

 less ineffectual. 



7.— THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD OF STUDYING 

 LANGUAGES. 



By R. T. ELLIOTT, M.A. 



An attentive observer can hardly fail to be struck by the very 

 poor results in regard to the acquisition of languages attained 

 by present methods, especially in schools. We find every- 

 where boys and girls who have spent a large proportion of 

 their time during six or even ten years of school life in learn- 

 ing Latin or French, and who yet cannot translate half-a- 

 dozen lines of Virgil at sight correctly, or Avrite half-a-dozen 

 lines of French prose without some gross blunder. On 

 the other hand, we not infrequently find boys and girls, after 

 spending six months in France, able to read and write French 

 not only with fluency but with correctness. The contrast is 

 startling, and cannot but lead us to reflect whether there is 

 not something scientifically wrong in a system which leads to 

 such poor practical results, 



A scientific method of study is one which corresponds as 

 far as possible (1) to the nature of the object to be studied, 

 and (2) to the nature of the subject that studies. 



There are two methods of studying a language: (1) the 

 deductive method — theory before facts ; and (2) the inductive 

 method — theory from facts. 



The method at present most popular is essentially deductive. 

 The theory of the language, i.e., grammar, is insisted on 

 long before a practical acquaintance with the language 

 is obtained. In Greek and Latin especially an altogether 

 disproportionate importance is assigned to grammar. The 

 unfortunate learner of Latin, for example, goes a ceaseless 

 and weary round of forms which to him are to a large 

 extent meaningless, learns the genders of dozens of words 

 whose meaning he does not and never will know, and the 

 parts of dozens of irregular verbs which will never occur in 

 the course of his reading. Then for a long time the only 

 literature he reads consists of short and wearisome sentences, 

 such as "Balbus builds the wall." Simultaneously he is 



