April 18, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



601 



ieally when we assert that in learning a lan- 

 guage auditory, visual and kinesthetic sensa- 

 tions play the most important role, and are in 

 fact the basis of knowledge. It follows then 

 that the greater the number of sensory im- 

 pressions that can be enlisted in the acquisi- 

 tion of language, the greater the acquisition. 

 It follows also that the more combined the ac- 

 tivity of the senses, the more rapid and the 

 more thorough will be the organization of the 

 speech centers physically and psychically. 



4. From perceiving sensations, that is, from 

 percepts, the mind proceeds, by discrimina- 

 ting, comparing, judging from knowns to un- 

 knowns, to form concepts. 



5. Eetentivity depends for its strength 

 upon the strength of the original impression 

 and upon the frequency of repetition. It 

 shows greatest virility in the retention of lin- 

 guistic forms when the four speech centers 

 operate to heighten the intensity of the im- 

 pression. 



6. Beyond this there is the ideal of persist- 

 ence which is strengthened by resolutely over- 

 coming obstacles, e. g., by mastering assigned 

 tasks of diiEculty sufficient to form a real ob- 

 stacle to their consummation. 



What do these facts mean to the teacher of 

 language, and how should pedagogy make use 

 of them? 



1. It is unnatural and hence poor pedagogy 

 to teach isolated words, and to proceed from 

 the parts to the whole; that is, here, from the 

 isolated vocables to the sentence, the judg- 

 ment. The reverse : from a consideration of 

 the whole sentence to a consideration of the 

 parts is the law of nature, and is a good psy- 

 chological principle. 



Thus the argument which is often used 

 against the analytical or direct method that 

 adults do not learn language like children do 

 loses much of its force. Certain it is that for 

 adults the idea comes before the sign for the 

 idea, although, to be sure, the mature mind, 

 accustomed to abstract thinking, soon de- 

 mands that it be given not only the percepts 

 but the concepts, and the general concepts as 

 •well. 



2. Good pedagogy should call into activity 



all the powers of the mind of the learner. 

 Thus in the case of the language teacher, to 

 utilize the visual and the graphic centers only, 

 and allow the auditory and the motor speech 

 centers to lie barren, is to get only a portion 

 of the sensory impression that may be got if 

 all the centers are utilized. 



Again, since some individuals of a group 

 will learn better by the utilization of the visual 

 and the graphic centers, others by the utiliza- 

 tion of the auditory and the motor-speech cen- 

 ters, etc., every course in language should give 

 opportunity for both forms of impressions and 

 both forms of expression, i. e., for hearing, and 

 seeing (reading) ; for speaking and writing.' 



3. Language study is best cultivated by 

 utilizing the nervous energy of all four cen- 

 ters, that is, the ear, the eye, the vocal organs 

 and the hand. Each must support the other, 

 thus heightening the total impression. 



4. Generalizations, in this case principles 

 and laws, must base upon sense perceptions, 

 in this case spoken or written words and 

 phrases, and must follow, not precede them. 

 Ample opportunity is demanded to discrimi- 

 nate between various cases, genders, numbers, 

 persons, tenses, modes, etc. ; also between the 

 various shades of meaning in words, and va- 

 rious modes of expression with slightly vary- 

 ing significance; also opportunity to make 

 combinations as in reasoning from known 

 roots to the various compounds of such roots, 

 etc.; also opportunity for comparisons as in 

 comparing the idioms of the foreign tongue 

 with the mother tongue, as e. g., in translating. 



5. Eetentivity depends upon the strength of 

 the impression received in the class room. 

 Aural impressions are heightened by visual, 

 graphic and oral impressions. Since reten- 

 tivity depends upon the frequency of the im- 



' It has been claimed that Americans are visual- 

 izers, and from this it has been argued that the 

 reading method is the best for Americans. But 

 it is a patent fact among psychologists that the 

 combined action of the four speech centers is 

 stronger than that of any one of them, and thus 

 this argument falls flat. Moreover, the visualizer, 

 above all others, needs to have his auditory and 

 other centers developed. 



