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to correct it, and to admonish the pupil to read it over aloud from three to six times.

This practice of narrating tales is to be continued till the student has enlarged his stock of words, expressions, and phrases, so as to be enabled to speak, which will take place in a much shorter time than may be supposed. As soon as this point is obtained, the first course of instruction may be considered as terminated.

The student will of course be very far from speaking correctly. He is still unacquainted with by far the greater part of grammatical knowledge; and till he has acquired that, his instruction is incomplete. To accomplish this is the object of the second course.

Here, too, the most advantageous plan will be, first, to complete his knowledge of the formation of sentences. The manner in which the subordinate sentences and the periods are formed, together with the use of the subjunctive, are to be imparted before the formation of phrases by means of prepositions, and the regimen of the verbs and adjectives can be communicated. These are things which will occupy the student for a length of time. But when the teacher knows the art of uniting the etymological forms with the syntactical rules, and of arranging matter in such a way that the following instruction is duly supported by the preceding, he will save the pupil much labour and much time.

The practice of narrating tales is still to be continued. For the new instruction ought to be impressed as strongly upon the memory as that imparted in the first course; it must even be applied with greater care, because of its more minute nature. Besides, the narration of tales gives the teacher frequent opportunities of observing those parts of grammatical knowledge in

which the pupil is not well grounded, and then he may remedy this defect by a few additional exercises. As for the mode of narrating itself, it is evident that it ought now to be changed. The use of short sentences is to be discontinued, and longer ones are to be substituted in their place. The teacher will do well to give them the average length which such sentences have in the works of the classic authors of the language that he teaches.

The farther the student advances in this second course of instruction the more he finds himself enabled to speak and write with fluency and correctness; and as soon as he arrives at the termination, he may be considered as having acquired the language. For this reason most teachers think that their task has then been brought to a completion. But we are convinced that nobody can be considered to be well versed in a language when he is not able to express his own conceptions in such forms and connexions as will adapt them to his own manner of thought and reasoning. Some persons connect their single thoughts in a very simple and loose manner; others are not content till they express, by the arrangement of their conceptions, the different relations and bearings in which they ap pear to their minds. Such differences in writing must necessarily influence their compositions in foreign languages; and an attentive teacher will find that some exercises are requisite to enable the pupils to follow the character of their own minds with ease and without embarrassment. These exercises form the third course of instruction.

Here of course the activity of the teacher must be very limited. He has only to observe the decided propensities of the mind of each pupil, and, if asked, to

point out some suitable subjects for composition. But he must proceed in this matter with great precaution, else he is in danger of pointing out the wrong way, and of increasing the labour of the student. In most cases he will do best to leave the choice of the subject entirely to the pupil. But as the facilitating of the communication between different nations is the principal object for which foreign languages are learned, the teacher is bound to insist on the composition of letters, which ought to make a principal part of this course.

Such compositions are to be looked upon as the keystone by which the arch receives its completion. them the whole course of instruction is terminated.

With

It will not have escaped the attentive reader that the translation of books does not enter into this plan of teaching modern languages. The reason of this omission he will probably have guessed. It rests on the supposition, that when a student has attained the power of speaking with fluency, and of expressing with ease and correctness his own conceptions, he can find no considerable difficulty in reading printed books, especially if he takes some pains in arranging his studies in such a manner as to begin with the more easy kind of compositions, and afterwards to proceed gradually to the more difficult. By reading simple tales, novels, and comedies, he prepares himself for the more complicated style of historical compositions, philosophy, and reasoning. In poetry he ought to begin with tales and fables, then to proceed to pastorals, epic compositions, and tragedies. Didactic and lyric poetry ought to occupy the last place in his studies.

The common practice of translating books with students we consider merely a waste of time and labour,

and it ought to be completely exploded in the teaching of modern languages.

Whatever may be the advantages arising from this improved method of teaching modern languages, it has one defect. It cannot be used in large classes. We do not think that it can be made use of in a class composed of more than ten students. But as it is well known that

those students who try to acquire the knowledge of modern languages in numerous classes very rarely succeed in reading even a printed book without great difficulty, and still more rarely attain to speaking the language so as to be able to maintain a conversation, we do not think that the above-mentioned defect is a great one. We doubt not that every objection to a change in the composition of classes would be removed, if it were ascertained that by such a change the stu dents would be sure to attain that end for which modern languages are studied, and that too with less expense of time and labour.

324

ON THE STUDY OF THE ITALIAN
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

BY A. VIEUSSEUX, Esq.

(From the Quarterly Journal of Education, Nos. X. and XII.)

We had intended, in the following pages, to offer some suggestions on the subject of Italian instruction in this country, in the same manner which has been followed in former numbers of this Journal with regard to French and German; but, considering that the study of Italian is limited to a smaller class, consisting principally of persons of literary attainments and of refined taste and pursuits, classical scholars, artists, and travellers of both sexes, we think it advisable to premise a short disquisition on the present state of the Italian language and literature, and to resolve several doubts and remove some misconceptions which may exist on the subject. One peculiarity of this language has been much adverted to, especially of late years, which at first sight might appear very discouraging to the foreign student: -it has been said that " Italian-the Italian of writers and grammarians, is not the spoken language of Italy," that" it is a sort of learned or dead language." This matter requires a full explanation. It is true that the use of dialects prevails over three-fourths of Italy,

* Numbers III. and VIII. of the Journal of Education.

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