ON THE LEARNING OF A MODERN LANGUAGE 121 



what they read; others will merely drone the words, and these latter 

 are not necessarily poor students. They may even attain high college 

 grades in French. But they have not the dramatic temperament. 



It might seem, from what has just been said, that the accomplish- 

 ment of speaking French could be achieved only at the expense of 

 sincerity. There is a grain of truth in this. If we are entirely sincere — 

 that is, if we allow our spoken French to sound as nearly as possible 

 like our spoken English — it will cease to sound like French. An ele- 

 ment of simulation is necessary ; one must be self-conscious to the extent 

 that he be alive constantly to his own shortcomings. 



This is especially true of the adult learning to speak a foreign lan- 

 guage. It is also equally true of the person who takes up a different 

 dialect of his own language. Many Americans return from a compara- 

 tively short residence in England, letter perfect in the English pronun- 

 ciation, vocabulary, phrasal intonation, and English manner generally. 

 But all this has not been acquired by persons deficient in imitative 

 power. It has been acquired through deliberate, even if sympathetic, 

 imitation by persons of naturally dramatic temperament. The mental 

 process has been one which we could look for only in an adult. 



In the case of a child the conditions are different. The child imi- 

 tates for the most part unconsciously the speech, both good and bad, 

 which he hears about him; and he does this with successful results, 

 which cannot be attained by the adult except at the expense of careful 

 and deliberate imitation and simulation. I have said that the child 

 imitates for the most part unconsciously. At the same time, every 

 child possesses to a greater or less degree the spirit of deliberate imi- 

 tation. In all the tendency to play is inborn, but the variety of games 

 involving the impersonation of various characters, such as the locomo- 

 tive engineer, the storekeeper, the schoolmaster, or whatever the game 

 may require, will depend upon the dramatic temperament of the chil- 

 dren at play. Some children play one game constantly; others vary 

 their game with every new influence which appeals to their imitative 

 sense. And on this ability to play and to play many and varied parts 

 will depend their aptitude in later years for speaking modern languages. 



A final word remains to be said with regard to the professor of 



