70 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 207 



assume, however, that his method is merely a 

 method for children, because some of his first 

 experiments through which he arrived at certain 

 principles were made in children's classes, is as 

 erroneous as to believe the perusal of the various 

 readers give an insight into the real character of 

 the natural method. Let us now see if the method 

 is capable, in certain measure, of satisfying the 

 demands of the ideal method which the writer of 

 the article in Science and education has outlined. 

 The rational method, as he chooses to term the 

 wished-for ideal method, " would take, wherever 

 it find them, all pedagogical methods of un- 

 doubted value, and incorporate them in its in- 

 struction.'' This condition, I doubt not in the 

 least, the natural method fulfils well. The writer 

 himself says complainingly in his article, " Since 

 they [that is, the claims of the most enthusiastic 

 votaries of the natural method] were first formu- 

 lated, the details of the system have grown by a 

 not unnatural accretion, until they include a great 

 mass of pedagogical material, some of which is 

 about as much the especial property of the natural 

 method as spectrum analysis is an individual pre- 

 rogative of the pupils of Helmholtz. From one 

 point of view, this is, perliaps, not to be depre- 

 cated ; for, through the active proselytizing of its 

 disciples, sound pedagogical principles have ob- 

 tained a currency and found their way where 

 otherwise they might not so easily have pene- 

 trated." 



Then the rational method " would, above 

 all, use the language taught at every possible 

 opportunity, and make its practical acquisition 

 the one end in view." Ever since the natural 

 method has been brought to light, its advocates 

 have preached and practised the rule of using the 

 language taught at every possible opportunity ; and 

 some teachers have, in fact, acquired such a skill 

 in using the language taught that they never will 

 use any other whUe teaching ; nor do they lose 

 any more time while explaining or giving defini- 

 tions than a teacher of the old method would by 

 using Enghsh. 



Third, according to a rational method, "the 

 grammar and dictionary are effete in modern- 

 language instruction if they are taught for them- 

 selves alone." I believe no one has as yet re- 

 proached the natural method for having ever 

 taught grammar and dictionary ' for themselves 

 alone.' 



Fourth, a rational method would give the good 

 advice, " Regard them [dictionary and grammar] 

 as they should be regarded, as auxiliaries, and 

 enaploy them in that way." During more than 

 twenty years the advocates of the natural method 

 have been teaching constantly this doctrine, which 



their opponents explained in their own way, ac- 

 cusiug the method of neglecting the teaching of 

 grammar, while the criticism justly should have 

 been directed against the unthorough, unsyste- 

 matical, go-as-you-please way of certain teachers 

 they had met with. But, if they had been pres- 

 ent for a single hour in a class conducted by the 

 founder of the method, they would have had the 

 opportunity of seeing grammar taught syste- 

 matically, after the inductive method ; and had 

 they asked the question, " Why are the words 

 ' without dictionary and grammar ' printed on 

 the titlepages of your books and pamphlets ? ' ' 

 they would have received his answer : " If you 

 call this [referring to his teaching the principles 

 of the construction of the language] grammar, 

 you are at liberty to tell the world that I teach 

 grammar." And, indeed, critics should know 

 this, once and forever : the natural method not 

 only teaches'grammar, but teaches it more thor- 

 oughly than possibly could be done by the old 

 method.^ 



Fifth, the rational method " would have ex- 

 tracts furnished at the outset with a special vocab- 

 ulary which would be learned." Almost every 

 one of the many readers published already for the 

 natural method gives a large supply of such ex- 

 tracts ; and they are in some of the best of these 

 readers so selected and arranged that the words 

 must necessarily impress themselves on the stu- 

 dent's mind without an> memorizing at all. 



Sixth, "later on " the rational method " would 

 inculcate the use of the dictionary." The natural 

 method is always ready to comply with this de- 

 mand, though it must respectfully decline to take 

 a text-book of grammar as a ' cornerstone ;' and, 

 in this view, it has on its side the opinions of 

 learned men of various times. " 



A great deal has been said of late about the 



1 See ' A plan for twenty-eight lessons for the class in 

 French,' or ' Program of October, 1886,' both published by 

 Stern's School of languages of New York City. 



2 "One can learn the grammar from the language, and 

 not the language from the grammar." — Johann Gottfried 

 VON Herder. 



Prof. Rudolph Hildebrand, editor of the great German 

 dictionary begun by Grimm, says in ' Vom deutschen Sprach- 

 unterricht in der Schule,' " Der Lehrer des Deutschen sollte 

 nichts lehren was die Schiiler selbst aus sich finden kon- 

 nen." 



"One should begin with the spoken language with 

 sentences, and from the audible language one should pro- 

 ceed to written language. Reading must be considered as 

 the centre of language-teaching, and in connection with it 

 grammar must be taught inductively : the learner must be 

 guided so as to find for himself the laws of language." — In- 

 ternationale Zeitschrift fiir allgemeine Sprachmissenschaft, 

 band ii. heft 1 (Leipzig). 



" The language is not to be learned from the grammar, 

 but from and through the language." — Schrader, vii. p. 241. 



"The grammar must not precede, but follow." — Graf 

 VON Ppeil, in Wie lernt man einefremde Sprache, p. 31. 



