modern language instruction; and (2) that practical educators all over this country are working on the problem. The teacher is at all times the crux. With well-prepared teachers, the road to success is easy. A united effort of school and college is needed at once.

My endeavor in my subsequent remarks will be, if possible, to aid you in your actual classroom work. The Alpha and Omega in all language instruction must be the creation of "Sprachgefühl." By that is meant the intuitive, unconscious, and unerring feeling for what is correct and idiomatic in a language. Is such proper language-sense not best procured thru the ear and then thru the eye? Speech comes first, then the printed and written word. An exact pronunciation is rightly considered an absolutely necessary basis of all modern language instruction. For a teacher in the classroom practical phonetics is indispensable. Such knowlege will enable him not only to produce the sounds of the foreign language correctly, but also to explain their formation. To be sure, most German sounds can be produced by most of our pupils by mere imitation without phonetic instruction. Not a few students, however, are tone-deaf and are unable to produce certain foreign sounds correctly by imitation, unless they receive adequate phonetic help from the teacher. By means of phonetic training, all children can and should acquire from the very outset a correct and good pronunciation. Students should have their books closed so as to give all their attention to the teacher's speaking, and to get their ears accustomed to the sounds of the foreign language. Impress them with the all-important fact that the spoken word consists of sounds, not of letters.

While it is essential that every modern language teacher be thoroly trained in scientific phonetics and sound physiology, in the classroom technical nomenclature should be avoided. All pupils will readily understand any reference to lips, jaws, tongue, teeth, throat. A few illustrations will suffice to show the application of practical phonetics. Take, e. g., the sound i for both German and French.

Pro

nounce i by spreading your lips widely. All repeat. Then pronounce u by vigorously rounding your lips. All repeat. Continue by saying: Now we shall retain the position of the tongue (in front and tense) for i, but combine with it the strong rounding of lips for u. Hence: i: u: ü. Or the sound ö. Pronounce the pure vowel e, insisting upon a high front position of the tongue. Pronounce o by a vigorous rounding of your lips. Then retain the position of the tongue for e, but round simultaneously your lips for o Hence: e: o: Ö.

All sounds should be repeated most clearly by the students both individually and in chorus. Use the foreign names of the sounds. Practise concert work so as to draw the whole class into participation for every minute of instruction. This is especially valuable in large classes in order that every one may be reached, at least collectively. It brings about solidarity and enthusiasm when properly controlled. Nor should singing by any means be neglected.

The disconnected word, the vocable, has no meaning unless it occurs in a sentence, which is the unit of speech. So get your class from the very beginning into the proper habit of answering in complete sentences. In this wise, right habits of expression are not only formed, but become fixt. And elementary language-instruction is essentially habitforming, not informational. With constant insistence upon connected speech, the proper intonation will become a natural concomitant of correct pronunciation.1

Phonetic instruction is thus intimately and directly connected with the acquisition of the language. Our chief attention should be focused upon sound-combinations and intonation rather than upon the dissecting of individual sounds. A mistake in pronunciation should never be allowed to pass but should at once be corrected individually and by the class for the sake of proper speech-habits from the very beginning.

The topics of oral work and of inductive teaching of grammar I have discust elsewhere. These disciplines are of ' Cf. "Suggestions for teaching beginners German," Scribner's, 1913.

prime importance as they will most quickly lead to a usable command of the foreign language. Oral work should always be followed by written work, chiefly blackboard exercises, to insure accuracy. Language-experience, -imitation, and -habit are the great factors that will assure success: Sprachgefühl will be the result. Constant repetition and continuous application should be the key-words in foreign language rooms.

Today I wish to say a word about reading and its central place in language instruction.

Our pupils can not read intelligently until they understand thru the ear as well as thru the eye. For that reason, the reading material should first be presented as speaking material. In this manner, reading becomes real, and the foreign tongue grows naturally into the language of the classroom. As the pupils' active vocabulary and wealth of idiomatic expressions increase, they really begin to compose and will be led by their own Sprachgefühl. Oral and written exercises, reproductions of the text, should be kept up thruout the course. Translation into the mother tongue should be practically debarred or, at least, reduced to a minimum. So-called composition, i. e., translation from the vernacular into the foreign tongue, should disappear altogether. It is a game which only few adults can play adeptly and youngsters not at all, and is the archenemy of that much-desired Sprachgefühl. It presupposes on the part of the tyro a maturity, a power that he can not hope to possess; on the part of the teacher it displays a woeful lack of pedagogical acumen.

A reading lesson whether in a reader or in a connected story should be developed systematically and made the center of the whole instruction. With books closed, the teacher will read the new assignment slowly, sentence by sentence. It is advisable to read the selection twice; the first time connectedly, the second time more slowly with accurate pronunciation and intonation and with due regard to natural pauses. Necessary interpretations of new words or expressions can be given by antonyms, syn

onyms, or paraphrases. Only when thoroly understood, is the lesson to be assigned to the class with specific instructions for the home-preparation. In the subsequent recitation the assignment is covered with special emphasis upon (1) correct reading with accurate pronunciation and intonation; (2) the acquisition and retention of the vocabulary in question with drill in word-formation; (3) the answering of questions based on the content, orally and in writing; (4) grammatic-stylistic exercises from the viewpoint of their proportional significance; and (5) renarration and reproduction of the whole, as usual orally and in writing, together with practise in dictation.

Please note that speaking with a purpose, on the text, is not for the sake of glibness, but that it is a methodological means which serves all phases of linguistic instruction: pronunciation, the acquisition of a vocabulary, grammatical facts and especially our one aim-genuine reading ability. To answer a most recent article in the Classical Journal, October, 1915, we may put the matter thus: Ore loquendo, igitur bene scribendo et bene legendo.

The texts studied should contain good German or French -not corrupt jargon-and should depict the life and ideals of that nation, the language of which the students are studying. Besides the linguistic instruction, the pupils will in this way receive an additional cultural, ethical training, that must not be underrated. The texts should possess literary merit and be adapted to the age, the sex, and the horizon of the reader. Narration rather than description should prevail. It is highly advisable that some uniformity be brought about in the matter of literary reading.

Perhaps I may offer here a few suggestions. No doubt, all of you will agree that in a high school course in German or in French the nineteenth century, the present time, should be placed in the foreground of instruction, not the more remote classic periods. You will further concur with me when I say that it is wise to read in one term or in one year authors that are not too greatly divergent either in language or in subject-matter. Why, then, not group the

authors geographically to avoid great discrepancies in vocabulary and idiom-as C. H. Holzwarth suggested in Monatshefte, November, 1911-and the texts themselves according to theme, motif? To make my position clear, I shall arrange some of the most widely read German authors sectionally as follows:

For the second year:

Arnold, Gerstäcker, Seidel, Storm, Wildenbruch-as representatives of Northern Germany.

For the third year:

Baumbach, Freytag; perhaps Goethe (Hermann und Dorothea) as representing Central Germany.

For the fourth year:

G. Keller, K. F. Meyer; Schiller (Wilhelm Tell) as representing South German countries.

But more than that appeals to me a classification of texts on the basis of theme. We want literature that familiarizes our students with the foreign land and its people: Germany and the Germans.

"Wer den Dichter will verstehen,

Muss in Dichters Lande gehen."

To take a few typical texts, we could propose the following literary course where the German spirit manifests itself thoroly:

Storm's Immensee-The German as idealist, as dreamer. Arnold's Fritz auf Ferien-the German in his youthful pranks.

Wildenbruch's Das Edle Blut-the German, moral, just. Seidel's Leberecht Huehnchen-the German, content, frugal,

cozy.

Storm's Pole Poppenspaeler-the German in his naïveté, remoteness from bigotry.

Gerstäcker's Irrfahrten-the German, humorous, ad

venturous.

Baumbach's Der Schwiegersohn-the German at honest toil in trade and scholarship.

Freytag's Soll und Haben-the German at work, diligent and faithful.