Edue T 50.550. ELAFVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM THE ESTATE OF MAY 3, 1839. INTRODUCTION. CLASSIFICATION. As, in our Method, we lay aside established principles and ideas hitherto adopted, the explanation we now give of our views and mode of proceeding is indispensable. Children under thirteen or fourteen years of age, who cannot acquire a foreign language alone, might not enter thoroughly into the spirit of this Introduction, and most probably would not read it-we therefore address ourselves to their professors; upon them will devolve the duty of explaining and developing its points to their young pupils. To adult students who can dispense with the assistance of a teacher, and are anxious to understand fully the reasons of our principles, we earnestly recommend its perusal. The ultimate success of their studies will depend upon it. Rejecting traditionary routine, and following Nature step by step, this Method, based upon the constitution of man and that of language, dispenses at the outset with grammar, exercises, versions, dictations, mnemonics, and in a great measure with the INTRODUCTION À LIRE. CLASSIFICATION. Comme dans notre Méthode nous nous écartons des procédés en vogue, des idées reçues jusqu'à ce jour, l'explication que nous donnons ici de nos vues et de la manière de procéder est indispensable. Les enfants au-dessous de treize à quatorze ans, qui ne peuvent apprendre seuls une langue étrangère, pourraient ne pas entrer complètement dans l'esprit de cette Introduction, ou, ce qui est plus probable, pourraient ne pas la lire; c'est donc à leurs professeurs que nous nous adressons, c'est à eux qu'il appartient de l'expliquer, de la développer à leurs jeunes élèves. Quant aux étudiants adultes, qui peuvent se dispenser des services d'un maître, et veulent se bien pénétrer de la raison des procédés que nous proposons, nous la leur recommandons sérieusement le succès de l'étude en depend. S'affranchissant des traditions routinières et suivant pas à pas la marche de la nature, cette Méthode, basée sur la constitution de l'homme et sur celle du langage, dispense, au début, de grammaire, de thèmes, de versions, de dictées, de leçons mnémoniques, et, en use of a dictionary and the advice of a teacher. It is composed of two simple operations: familiarizing the ear and the eye with a language; then imitating correct examples, in order to learn how to speak and write it. This mode of proceeding is strictly conformable to the laws of Nature. In fact, man, being born perfectible and communicative, is consequently endowed with two powerful instincts-curiosity and imitation -which fulfill these conditions, and are the origin of every improvement of which he is susceptible. To listen and to read are, to follow the first of these instincts; to speak and to write are, to follow the second. These are the only incentives, as example and practice are the only means to which Nature has recourse to lead all the members of a nation to an exchange of ideas. It is also to curiosity and imitation, to example and practice, that our Method has recourse to lead the student to that intimate knowledge of a foreign idiom which renders the use of it almost as familiar as that of his native tongue. A thorough exchange of thought can only take place when words present themselves to the mind as direct signs of impressions; when, alternately the cause and the effect, they spontaneously recall each other; in other words, when one can think in a language. This is the principal object to which the rational Method tends, and which it always has in view. There are four modes of thinking in a language, grande partie, de l'emploi du dictionnaire et des services d'un maître. Elle se résume en deux opérations bien simples: exercer l'oreille et la vue à l'intelligence de la langue, puis imiter les bons modèles pour apprendre à la parler et à l'écrire. Cette manière de procéder est strictement conforme aux lois de la nature. En effet, l'homme, né perfectible et communicatif, est, en conséquence, doué de deux puissants instincts-la curiosité et l'imitation-qui satisfont à ces conditions et sont la source de tous ses progrès. Ecouter et lire, c'est suivre le premier de ces instincts; parler et écrire, c'est suivre le second. Ce sont là les seuls mobiles, comme l'exemple et la pratique sont les seuls moyens auxquels la nature a recours pour amener tous les membres d'une même nation à faire échange de pensées. C'est aussi à la curiosité et à l'imitation, à l'exemple et à la pratique, qu'a recours notre Méthode pour amener l'étudiant à cette connaissance d'un idiome étranger, qui en rende l'emploi à peu près aussi familier que celui de l'idiomenational. L'échange de la pensée n'a complètement lieu que lorsque les mots sont dans l'esprit à l'état de signes directs des idées; lorsque, alternativement cause et effet, ils se rappellent l'un l'autre spontanément; en d'autres termes, lorsqu'on pense dans cette langue. Tel est le but principal que se propose la Méthode rationnelle et qu'elle ne perd jamais de vue. Il y a quatre manières de penser dans une langue, corresponding to the four modes of practising it: to HEAR IT, to SPEAK IT, to READ IT, to WRITE IT, always directly associating ideas with words. These are the four objects which should be aimed at successively. To be easily acquired, they must be studied separately: "One thing at a time and each thing at its proper time" is a maxim from which one should never depart. Thus a child learns successively the four arts of its native tongue. It does not waste its intellectual activity upon vain theories, but reaches at once the phraseology interpreted by the language of action, precious gift of Nature, which places him, intuitively and from the start, in communication with his fellowbeings. The signs of this language-gestures, the expression of the countenance, the intonations of the voice-are equivalent to phrases, not to words; and with their assistance a child listens, understands; then imitates and speaks. It is only when articulated sounds spontaneously awaken in its childish intelligence the ideas they express, that the child attempts to repeat what it has heard. It owes its progress to example, not to precept; to practice, not to theory. This is Nature's method, an analytical and practical system, admirable in its simplicity, based upon the principles of the human constitution, proceeding from the known to the unknown, from ideas to signs, from meaning to pronunciation, from phraseology to words, from the intelligence of a language |