the genitive singular and the nominative plural of Sonne. Translate into idiomatic English: "Diese Behandlung der Fabel ist nichts weniger als notwendig," where at our Borough Conference of German Teachers most of those present broke down. Write the synopsis of hob auf in the second singular passive. Imperative, werde aufgehoben, reminds me of werde geboren.

I shall not speak at length now of these examinations, especially the so-called Regents', since I reserve them for another day. All I want to say is: as long as grammatic formalism and pedantic erudition reign supreme, so long we cannot expect to teach German and French properly. Let us free ourselves from this incubus of modern-language instruction and let us take the road which leads to happiness and conscious power, i.e., the direct method of teaching modern languages. Let the work in modern languages be primarily work in aural and oral facility and let it be tested in all examinations, for the ability to speak a foreign language is the best means to the desired end of learning that language. The educational authorities of New York City are beginning to realize the importance of this matter.

WRITING IN GERMAN

JOHN A. BOLE, EASTERN DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL, BROOKLYN, N.Y.

The direct method emphasizes oral work in language-teaching, and properly so. This side of the work is sadly neglected where translation and grammatical rules are the chief means of teaching a foreign language. But the fact remains that writing maketh an exact man, and this quality is as necessary today in the training of pupils as it ever was. The prevailing type of written exercise in American schools is still translation from a more or less prepared English text into German. The number of composition books published is evidence of this. To the same class belong the English exercises based on the text, for translation into German, which pad so many editions of the texts read in our schools.

Two objections to this type of exercise may be noted. One is that the English text tempts to all sorts of mistakes. Take, for example, the sentences: "He has gone" and "Yesterday I saw my friend." Such sentences contain a temptation to wrong German which can be resisted only by a very great conscious effort on the part of the pupil. This suggestion destroys whatever Sprachgefühl may have been acquired.

A second objection is that attention is not directed to the subject-matter of the German read. The pupil has his material provided for him. He does not have to rely on his memory for it, and the habit of ignoring the subject-matter of what he is reading, which has been acquired by translation from German, is strengthened.

The results obtained by translating from English into German are so unsatisfactory that we ought to be ready to agree with Sweet when he says:

It is evident that the impossible task of translating into an unknown or only partially known language can be accomplished only under restrictions which make it either an evasion or a failure. We have also to realize what is meant by making mistakes

in our exercises and correcting them afterwards. It means the laborious formation of a number of false associations which must be unlearned before the labor of forming the correct ones can be begun. . . Everything in the nature of exercise-writing ought to be abolished not only in the beginning but thruout the whole course.

A new type of written work should be adopted that will co-ordinate with the direct oral work and supplement it where oral work does not suffice. It will be based on a German model and no English will be put before the pupil.

The chief aim of one set of direct written exercises will be grammatical drill. There are in German a number of grammatical phenomena the constant recurrence of which makes them of prime importance. If the pupil forms the habit of using these correctly, much satisfactory German will follow without great effort. In other words, he has acquired some measure of Sprachgefühl.

One such phenomenon is inverted order. A sentence such as: "Ich habe gestern einen Brief von meiner Schwester erhalten," may be given to the pupil with instructions to write it four or five times at the board, in each case beginning with a different member of the sentence. Repeated drill on a limited number of such sentences will in a short time make inversion seem a perfectly natural thing. Transposition may be taught in the same manner. Groups of simple sentences are given to the pupil, which he is to combine at the board into complex sentences.

Omitted-ending exercises will assist in teaching prepositions. A series of passages may be prepared in which the endings of articles and other inflected words have been omitted after prepositions. The pupil is instructed to write the passage at the board, filling in the blanks. When the pupil has learned to use prepositions correctly in some ten or twelve such passages, he will use them with some degree of correctness elsewhere. The proper use of the second personal pronoun is another stumbling-block to beginners. A letter may be given to the pupil with instructions to change it from the formal to the intimate style, or to write it to two intimate friends instead of one, and vice versa. Similar exercises may be devised to teach the use of conjunctions, of pronouns of different classes, of the subjunctive in indirect discourse, in wishes and conditions. Effective drill on forms and other points of syntax may be obtained in the same manner. The controlling idea in these exercises is that the pupil is working all the time with German material and has no English before him to mislead him.

A second kind of writing which will replace translation from English is reproduction. The earliest exercises will be the exact reproduction by the pupils of what they have just read or heard. The teacher speaks short sentences which are repeated by the pupils. While this is going on, other pupils at the board are writing the sentences they hear spoken by teacher and pupils. Four pupils at the board writing alternate sentences are able to keep up with the oral work. The written board-work will then be inspected by the class and errors in it corrected.

A little later the teacher may ask questions on matter that has been read. The pupils answer and both questions and answers are written at the board by other pupils. Another simple exercise is to write a passage from the text in hand with some modification, change of number, of tense, of person. Or a story that has been read may be written in character. One pupil may write in the person of Little Red Riding Hood, another in the person of the wolf. The longer stories usually read in the second year may be divided into portions suitable for reproduction. Almost every page of Immensee presents some situation which easily becomes a unit for reproduction. After the passage has been read the teacher and class should work it thru by question and answer. By this means the teacher can fix the vocabulary and phraseology of the passage and he can also suggest the disposition of the pupil's reproduction. After the questions and answers the passage should be reproduced connectedly by one or more pupils orally, then reproduced at the board and corrected.

Two points should be observed. That which is to be written should first be worked thru orally. This will give more rapid movement to the written work and prevent many errors from appearing in it. Second, that which has been spoken by the pupils should be written at the board. Oral work, not checked by written, tends to become inaccurate.

The acquisition of new vocabulary and facts of grammar will take place in class under the direction of the teacher where it properly belongs. The homework of the pupils will be the review and fixing of what has been presented in class. A useful definite assignment for homework is the mastery of the new vocabulary. The lesson for the next day may be read by the teacher, the new words and phrases explained, in German preferably, in English if necessary. The pupils will be instructed to learn the new words in the sentences in which they occur. The next day the teacher or a pupil names the new words and the pupils give the sentences in which the words are found.

The questions of the teacher will not be asked at random but will have a definite aim.

At one time they will be so framed as to call attention to the subjects or the objects. At another time they will put stress upon the verb. They may put in use a vocabulary that the teacher wishes to fix, or they may bring out clearly the thought of the passage.

If a classic literary work is read in the third year much of this too can be used as material for writing. For instance, Hermann und Dorothea contains many episodes which the pupils renarrate with real pleasure. Some such are: Hermann is sent to help the exiles; Hermann meets Dorothea for the first time; Hermann's visit to his rich neighbor; Hermann visits Dorothea at the well. After such an episode has been worked thru and reproduced, it may be reviewed at any time by suggesting the title to a pupil and asking him to write about it. The subject-matter of the work studied may thus be constantly kept fresh in the minds of the class.

In the more advanced reading of the high-school course many passages are well adapted for reproduction and should be so treated. Here also a third type of writing based on the German original is in place, the résumé. A model of a résumé of a classic in simple language is given by Bielschowski in his discussion of Hermann und Dorothea in his Life of Goethe. Skillful questioning by the teacher will lead the pupils to make some approach to this model in summarizing some work they have read.

Occasionally in the last year of the high school and more frequently in more advanced work a pupil may be asked to write something from his own experience or observation. After having read in German some account of travel, he may write a description of some trip of his own. If he has been reading German history he may be asked to describe some similar incident from American history. If he has discussed the character of Wallenstein he may be told to characterize Macbeth. The important point is that before attempting to write he should first have studied similar matter in German.

Even with the reading-material we now have, encouraging results can be obtained by the procedure here outlined. But to get more satisfactory results we must have a different kind of reading-matter. This should be for the most part narrative and descriptive prose. For obvious reasons poetry does not lend itself well to reproduction and dialog is of little use. About all that can be done with it is to repeat it. The readymade questions which are appearing in so many editions of school texts are rather a disadvantage. A teacher who cannot frame questions of his own of more interest and profit to the members of his class than those in the book had better not attempt questioning in German.

Since the connection between what is read and what is written is so intimate the subject-matter read becomes of greater importance. It is so constantly worked over that it should be something worth while, something that will be a valuable permanent possession of the pupils. Incidents from German history, sketches of German life, biography of distinguished Germans might well replace much that is now read.

This scheme does not contemplate a mass of written paper work to be corrected by the teacher. The writing should be done at the board while the German original is fresh in mind and where mistakes can be corrected and the proper forms substituted and fixed before the false forms have made a deep impression. In regard to blackboard we have a decided advantage over our German colleagues. They have a small ornamental affair in the front of the room large enough for two pupils. Blackboards cost too much, they say, and besides they would destroy the æsthetic quality of the room, making it look too much like a schoolroom. The American classroom has blackboard space for fifteen pupils. According to one authority the three American contributions to school economy are the woman teacher, the textbook, and the blackboard. Modern-language teachers should make the utmost use of this third innovation. The boards should be covered with written work every period. The correction of this work will not take so much of the teacher's time as might be thought. While the oral work is progressing under the direction of the teacher several pupils may be sent to the board to underline mistakes in the written work. Very few will escape them. The teacher can then with the help of the class correct the

errors and fix the proper forms in a short space of time., It is not a serious matter if the teacher does not find time to correct all the board-work. The pupils have had practice in writing and the whole class will benefit from that which is corrected. Errors, too, tend to correct themselves as the one rule of conduct is to observe and follow closely the German text.

The mistakes of the pupils whether in speaking or writing should not trouble us too much. Walter was right, altho criticized, when he said that the important thing is, that the pupil speak, not that he speak correctly. The greatest modern educator, Goethe, emphasizes practice as the essential in learning. "Vollenden ist nicht die Sache des Schülers, es ist genug, dass er sich übt."

At the end of a three years' high-school course in German, pupils who have been thus trained in writing should be able to reproduce in tolerable German a simple narrative they have just heard or that they have read a single time, and they should be able to ask and answer questions on such a narrative. The advanced work of college could then extend the student's command of German in speaking and writing and give him a wider acquaintance with German life and literature, and not spend the valuable time of the classroom in translating from and into German.

The ability to use German with tolerable correctness in speaking and writing is certainly desirable, but it is not for the reason that it produces this result that the direct method is primarily advocated. It is at the same time the quickest and most effective way to learn to understand German both written and spoken, and so to become directly acquainted with German thought and German activities. This is a dignified aim worthy of our best efforts. An acquaintance with German affairs is a growing necessity for leaders in all fields of activity and the office of the modern-language teacher thus becomes of increasing importance. "Uns Neuphilologen gehört in Schule und Leben die sprachliche Zukunft."

DISCUSSION

J. B. E. JONAS, Brown University, Providence, R.I.—If, as the first speaker tells us, French so decisively preponderates over German in conservative old New England, this meeting is surely an invasion of "the enemy's country" by the Germans. All the papers on the program and thus far all the discussions have been on that side of the house.

Dr. Tuckerman's racy and incisive paper calls for much assent and little dissent. One point failed to leave quite a clear impression on my mind. The speaker at once pleads for greater co-operation between the preparatory schools and colleges, and at the same time demands greater differentiation between them, going so far as to advocate entirely different textbooks, teachers of different training and attitude, etc. To the first we all agree. The pathetic spectacle of the colleges pulling one way and the secondary schools another, without interest in, and understanding of, each other, is deplorable. Much can be done by establishing personal relations to improve these conditions, as the New England Modern Language Association, composed of members of both, shows. Its example should be followed. Whatever cases of individual grievance the secondary school may have, I am here to state emphatically that colleges do not take the attitude of sitting in judgment on an exalted throne and dictating impossible or even unreasonable requireWe mean to be fair, but we must be exacting; and, believe me, we have much just fault to find. But we do not mean to be unreasonable. Our education is rapidly becoming standardized, and standards we must have that should be at least approximately met. The much-berated college-entrance examination must at least be touched upon here. I am not a passionate partisan. Statistics show that in colleges admitting by both, a far larger percentage of students admitted by examination fail than of those admitted by certificate. But you teachers refuse to grant certificates to many students. We must therefore examine. What else is there to be done about it? The ideal-if the

ments.

word ideal can be used in speaking of so difficult a matter-is found in Germany, where the secondary school has the sole and final decision on fitness to enter the university. A teacher who has known and worked with a pupil for three or four years obviously knows his ability better than an unacquainted college professor, who bases his knowledge of him solely on four or six pages of written matter. That stands to reason. Furthermore, a two-hours' examination is rarely-I am strongly inclined to say never-a just test. Some persons work to great advantage under pressure of the nervous strain, others fail to do themselves even remote justice. But under present conditions, the examination, with all its shortcomings, is inevitable. Let us hope for-work for a better day, and not blame the college too bitterly.

The other question, that of differentiation, is subtle and really lies beyond the province of this meeting. That, taken as a whole, the secondary school and college have different ideals and aims is true: one aims at instruction, the other seeks to impart culture; one deals with immature minds, the other with maturing intellects. Yet the generic difference is not so great: a good college teacher would, I think it entirely safe to say, make an excellent secondary-school teacher, and a textbook that is found to excel in the secondary school would be found equally superior for college work.

The paper of your chairman is so sane and in every way admirable that I feel sure there is no one here but heartily endorses all he has said, and will attempt to carry out his suggestions as far as possible in his own teaching. Many, of course, feel timid about trying the new way. It is easier and safer, they think, to adhere to the old way. Four per cent. interest may be less remunerative than eight or twelve or even twenty, but there is such serenity in its security! In midstream there is always a strong temptation to keep hold of the boat instead of launching out; but once resolutely cut loose, and it is not so hard, after all, to swim-and it is so much better fun and exercise! Others have done it; you can, too.

Mr. Bole's stimulating paper, on “Writing in German," or rather negatively stated, on "Not Translating from English into German," no doubt seems to many revolutionary enough to call for a declaration of war. Not to translate from German into English is bad enough, but now not from English into German! Pray, what test shall we have, then? But Mr. Bole is entirely right. There should be much more oral work. In one of my courses I have been doing this sort of work, relating a short narrative and having it retold the following day, and one written once a week, and it is astounding how automatically the word-order, genders of nouns, and most endings take care of themselves.

And now, finally, the question of grammar—or omission of grammar-that all the speakers have emphasized and which is the real import of the direct method. Language was not made for grammar, but grammar from language. To some of us the experiences of the speakers, using no grammars for a whole year or more, and some even dispensing with a textbook of any kind for a long period, seem hard to believe and harder to follow. Still it is true that few of us know much about English grammar. The same is true of the Germans, French, and other nationalities with reference to the formal grammar of their languages. And we all know that if we go to Germany or France we do not learn the language of these countries by grammar, but by actual contact with the living speech, and that the language once ours, it is no great task to learn the essentials of the grammar-if we have any desire still to do so. This same attitude with necessary modifications and adaptations is the aim of the direct method. How far each individual can go toward realizing this ideal must be left to conditions and judgment, but it is pretty safe to err on the side of tending away from formal grammar. Much has been accomplished in the teaching of modern languages by this method, both in Europe and here. More still remains to be done.