Common sense in education and teaching; an introduction to practice by Barnett P

Author:Barnett, P[ercy] A[rthur], 1858- [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education, Teaching
Publisher: London, New York [etc.] Longmans, Green, and co.
Published: 1899-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

In his own words—" A series follows the being it is dealing with, first in the life of one day, then in its life during the four seasons of the year. It thus embraces the totality of its existence, and consequently reproduces the totality of the terms which the lang^uage possesses for the expression of all that we know about this being." Not a single detail of the life should remain unexpressed; the whole vocabulary should be used; the whole thirty thousand words of the ordinary language being arranged in " system ".

As in teaching the objective language, so in teaching

the language of action, every step is successive to another. The teacher acts the scene, and the pupil follows suit. The value of this method is not to be denied. But it most obviously throws a heavy burden on the teacher, the perpetual effort to visualise and to act being most serious; and unless the teacher works at very high pressure, it may easily become mechanical Moreover, it hardly allows for inevitable breaks. On the other hand, a very liberal use of it, combined especially with pictures, is probably the best procedure yet devised.

The golden rules seem to be these:

(i) Avoid translation as much as possible; use rather first talk and then free composition however The golden

clumsy. rules

(2) Teach by means of the sentence. If a new word is wanted, let it be seen in several sentences and its meaning inferred, not communicated by label.

(3) Provide an object where you can, and suggest a mental picture where you cannot, in all that you teach.

(4) Put off sjmtax till a substantial basis of practicable speech has been learnt; and then have the chief rules inferred.

It is objected to the plan of acquiring a language colloquially that if soon learnt by this method objections to it is also soon forgotten. This is true enough, coUoquiai but the objection assumes that the practice ^^^^<^ is confined to mere talking. It is of course obvious that little can come of such an exclusive method, because comparatively few words are needed for ordinary colloquial purposes, and because we do not, fortunately, spend so large a part of our lives in talking as to cover all subjects of interest in our daily conversations. But the first steps must needs be colloquial if the pupil is to be convinced tiisit the language is a real and living medium

of thought. The infant learns to think and to speak at the same time. This is the mother-method of nature, and, as Professor Laurie says, to the child even the mother-speech is foreign. Learning Latin and Greek as most of us have had to do, we can hardly in our youth have believed that Julius Caesar and Thucydides spoke the tongues with which we are so imperfectly acquainted. But if we had ever spoken Latin and Greek ourselves, our conviction would have been different We can easily agree with Heifie when he says that the Romans would never have had time to conquer the world if they had had to learn the Latin grammar.

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