I shall here deal with various kinds of exercises in which the pupils have to say something in the foreign language which they have not either seen in their books or heard from someone else just a moment before. Some of the first and easiest of these are arithmetical exercises. But here I must first stop to make a remark about the numerals in general. It is not so seldom that we find pupils in our schools who have studied French for several years without having become perfectly familiar with the French numerals; they have great difficulty with dates. What is the cause of this phenomenon? Of course the French numerals are difficult, more difficult than the German; but the French verbs are also more difficult than the German, so that alone is not the reason why this class of words troubles the pupils. No; the matter is quite simple. Only imagine a French reader so planned that there is not a single French adjective in the text, while English words like “good,” “ugly,” “dazzling,” “white” are mixed in among the French words. Would the pupils then be able to learn the French adjectives? But is not this exactly what is done in the case of the numerals? It makes no difference if the French text has 1888 or “eighteen hundred and eighty-eight,” in both cases the pupil has to translate from English to French when he is reading the passage aloud. There are scarcely any exercises at all in translating numerals from French or in understanding French numerals; as far as this class of words is concerned, the very poorest method of translation is used, the one by which the pupil is himself required to construct expressions in the foreign language according to certain rules, without having previously had sufficient opportunity to see and hear how the foreigners themselves go about it. In the home preparation we may be very sure that only the most conscientious pupils trouble themselves to think about how 1793 ought to be read.

Then here we have a point where reform is necessary and unusually easy to bring about. Let the Arabic numerals disappear from all text-books for beginners in a foreign language, and then if they contain enough of numerals written out in full—and especially if the teacher drills the pupils a good deal in simple arithmetical exercises in the foreign language in the manner now to be suggested—it will be found that when the pupils are so far advanced as to give up text-books and read literary works, they will have no difficulty in reading all the numerals which they happen to come across fluently and correctly.

Already, at a very early stage, after one or two months’ instruction, the teacher can begin with arithmetical exercises, because they do not require any great command of language; they not only give the pupils practice in the numerals themselves, but also in catching the foreign words and sounds. The question is directed, as suggested above, to the whole class, and then the teacher points out—by name or merely by a glance—the one who is to answer it; the answer must include the question. Thus the teacher: Deux fois six, combien, Henri?—Henry: Deux fois six font douze. (RÉpÈte, Jean). Trois et neuf font, Alfred? A.: Trois et neuf font onze. T.: C’est faux, n’est-ce pas, Louis?—Louis: Oui, trois et neuf font douze. (Or: Est-ce correct, Louis? or: Est-ce bien Ça, Louis?) In addition to this, sums may be set containing concrete numbers, especially such as may familiarize the pupils with the foreign coins: deux francs, combien de sous valent-ils? trois sous, combien de centimes?...; or a little rule-of-three sum: si une poire coÛte trois centimes, combien cinq poires? Or, for instance: deux oeufs À deux sous et trois pommes À un sou, combien Ça fait-il? The teacher must not be afraid of using several whole lessons for such exercises, and afterwards he can take a few minutes of a lesson now and then in order to keep the pupils in practice. Since of course it is not arithmetic that is being taught, it is best to stick to easy problems, mostly addition and multiplication. Of course, by way of a change, one pupil may be allowed to give a problem to another to solve.

The numerals may also fittingly be brought in when the vocabulary is to be reviewed, the boys being allowed to count with concrete numbers in a certain order, so that each boy in turn has to think of some word which has not previously been used during the lesson; it is often funny to see how eager they are to outdo each other. And it often happens that a pupil who has said Pass, suddenly recalls a whole series of words when one of his comrades mentions a word from a selection which has not been broached before; the one thought suggests another that is associated with it. In French, the pupils must also pay attention to the form of the numeral, which changes according as it precedes a vowel or a consonant.

It very seldom happens that a boy uses a word which is impossible after a numeral, as for instance, venir or bonsoir or trot, which indicates that he is ignorant of the word’s signification, but then the whole class laughs of its own accord. But it is the easiest thing in the world to hear from the manner in which the words are said if they are really understood; and, in case of doubt, the teacher can suddenly ask for a translation; this is, however, generally superfluous, for the pupils only mention words which they understand, but still of course it is good for them to review them.

One of the most important exercises is to transpose a selection which has been read into questions and answers. The teacher can begin this rather early, but he must from the very beginning and always strictly require the pupil’s answer to be given in the form of a complete sentence. We have no use for such an undignified performance in which the pupil gets along bravely if only he is able to answer all his teacher’s questions with either Oui, monsieur, or Non, monsieur, or some other equally intelligent answer. As an illustration of the kind of exercise I mean, take for instance the following one based on one of the very first texts in my own French Reader, which runs:

The following questions may be based on this piece. The pupils’ answers are given in [ ]:—Es-tu un enfant? [Oui, monsieur, je suis un enfant.] Es-tu un enfant gÂtÉ? [Non, monsieur, je ne suis pas un enfant gÂtÉ.] L’enfant gÂtÉ veut-il du pÂtÉ? [Non, monsieur, il ne veut pas du pÂtÉ; or: l’enfant gÂtÉ ne....] Veut-il du rÔti? [Non, monsieur, il ne veut pas du rÔti.] Veut-il du pain? [Non, monsieur, il ne veut pas du pain.] Veut-il du jambon? [Non, monsieur, il ne veut pas du jambon.] Pourquoi ne veut-il pas du pÂtÉ? [Parce que le pÂtÉ est trop salÉ.] Pourquoi ne veut-il pas du jambon? [Il ne veut pas du jambon parce qu’il n’est pas bon.] Pourquoi ne veut-il pas du rÔti? [Parce qu’il est trop cuit.] Pourquoi ne veut-il pas du pain? [Parce que le pain ne vaut rien.] Qu’est-ce qui est trop salÉ? [C’est le pÂtÉ qui est trop salÉ.] Qu’est-ce qui ne vaut rien? [C’est le pain qui ne vaut rien.] Qu’est-ce qui est trop cuit? [Le jambon est trop cuit.] L’enfant gÂtÉ sera-t-il fouettÉ? [Oui, monsieur, il sera fouettÉ.] Pourquoi sera-t-il fouettÉ? [Parce qu’il ne veut rien manger.] Va-t-on chercher le bÂton pour taper l’enfant gÂtÉ? [Oui, monsieur, on s’en va chercher le bÂton pour venir taper l’enfant.]

Thus it will be seen that a simple little piece can suggest a large number of questions, and it is important, especially in the beginning, for the teachers to ask the pupils as many questions as possible in order to accustom them to the exercise, so that they may take part intelligently and fluently. Anyone who sees all these questions in print may think that they occupy a long time in a monotonous way; but after a little practice, on the part of both the teacher and the pupils, the exercise really proceeds very rapidly. In dealing with beginners, it were best for the teacher in formulating his questions to deviate as little as possible from the words of the text, so that they can be used in the answers almost or entirely without any change. It is not assumed in this exercise that the pupils have committed the piece to memory, but of course the exercise itself tends to make them thoroughly familiar with it. In order to give the pupils confidence, and in order not to require too much of them immediately, the teacher can in the first few lessons allow them to keep their books open while the piece is gone through once in question form, so that they can look up their answers when they cannot remember them. Then they can be told to close their books and answer the same or almost the same questions without referring to the text. Of course, the first few times when such an exercise is used, it is also well for the teacher to direct the same question to several boys in succession; and the very first time he can also write a few questions with their corresponding answers on the blackboard, in order to show the class how the exercise is to proceed.

Even if the pupils learn the piece by heart in the course of the exercise, yet their answering the teacher’s questions does not become mechanical, since they have to consider the form of the question, and then reflect over what is to be included in the answer, and how it is to be worded and constructed. Of course, the teacher ought to feel gratified if the pupils of their own accord make slight alterations in the words of the book, substitute a pronoun for a substantive, etc., only it is best not to give too early encouragement to great deviations from the text. The last question of the above examples, which is based on a piece that has been read before in the same book, shows how the teacher already at a very early stage can vary a certain day’s exercise by bringing into connection with it something previously learned. The pupils will greet such a question with pleasure, partly the pleasure of recognition, and partly the pleasure of the opportunity thus afforded them to feel at home in the language. As time goes, the teacher may depart more and more from the material of the book. For instance, he may use its words in asking the pupils questions about their own personal affairs, or about things in which they are interested outside of their French lessons. If they are having a selection which contains the word roi and the names of various countries, the teacher may say: Comment s’appelle le roi d’Angleterre? (or, notre roi?) Qui est roi d’Espagne? etc.; yes, why not also Comment s’appelle le roi de France?

In the beginning, it is only the teacher that asks questions, but it does not last very long before the teacher by way of a change can allow the pupils themselves to ask each other questions; thus they learn to construct sentences in the interrogative form, which, when they come to make practical use of the language, is just as important for them as to be able to answer. In German schools, they have a regular system of exercises on this plan in connection with grammatical categories; of a given sentence in the book the pupils are to construct first a subject-question, then a verb-question, then an object-question, etc. If, for instance, the sentence is La mÈre de Gribouille a cassÉ sa marmite, and the teacher wants a subject-question, pupil A asks B: Qui a cassÉ la marmite? (or Qui est-ce qui a cassÉ la marmite?); or a verb-question: Qu’est-ce qu’a fait la mÈre de Gr.?; or an object-question: Qu’est-ce que la mÈre de Gr. a cassÉ? In order to help beginners with the grammatical difficulties, several sentences may be written on the blackboard with their various parts differently underlined. Later on the teacher can tell one of the pupils to change all the sentences in a piece which has been read—of course only in so far as they lend themselves to such a change—into, for instance, object-questions. After each question, the teacher points out the one who is to answer. Then another pupil may change the same sentences (or those in the next paragraph) into subject-questions, etc. Of course the teacher must not put up with a mere mechanical alteration of the text, but must always require the pupils to exercise so much common sense that no questions are made which would not occur in a natural conversation.

When the pupils themselves ask questions, they naturally cannot do anything else but follow the text slavishly as it stands, so therefore it is not advisable always to let them ask the question; the teacher must on the whole avoid getting into any rut. He himself must do the asking rather frequently; he may either pounce upon some little point or ask comprehensive questions, including the gist of several sentences. Only he must remember that sentences which are too comprehensive either require too much of the pupils, or are quite empty and meaningless; besides, the result may only be that the exercise shrinks into almost nothing, since then there can only be two or three questions to correspond to a whole page of the text, and thus the text cannot make as strong and detailed an impression as it should. And, above all, the questions must be asked as naturally as possible.

If this question-exercise is used and all its possibilities for variation exhausted in the right way—with liveliness, tact and constant consideration for the pupils’ standpoint—it gives ample and abundant opportunities for the teacher not only to talk to, but with, the pupils in the foreign language; and notice that it is not “talking to the pupil in a language which he does not yet understand”—this fear is often expressed by those who have misgivings as to the advisability of conversational exercises at an early stage—but from the very beginning nothing is said which the pupil cannot be required to understand and to answer intelligently in the same language.

Quite imperceptibly the teacher may pass from this exercise to renarration; the question has merely to be formulated in such a way that it cannot be answered in a single sentence but only by an account of the contents of at least a few lines or so. Thus longer and longer pieces may be required to be retold, although during the first years it should only be such pieces as have previously been learned and gone through in detail by means of questions and answers. Later on, the teacher can use pieces for renarration which have not been assigned to the class for preparation; the teacher reads aloud (or may possibly let one of the pupils do it), if necessary, several times, and thereupon requires as much as possible to be retold either orally or in writing, or first orally, then in writing. Or if there is a sufficient number of copies of the book used, the pupils may be given say ten or twenty minutes in which to read the piece through silently to themselves, and then they can use the rest of the hour to write down what they can remember of it. Such exercises are used to a large extent in teaching the mother-tongue, and it is agreed that they are highly beneficial, because they not only sharpen the powers of apprehension, especially the ability to distinguish between the essential and the unessential, but they also develop linguistic technique, that is the formal command of means of expression, since much of the language used in the original creeps into the renarration and thus becomes the possession of the reteller. Of course the pupils are earlier ripe for such exercises in their native language than in foreign languages, but that does not lessen their value in the two respects mentioned, of which the latter is the more important here, while there is perhaps too great a tendency to attach the chief importance to the former in the teaching of the native tongue. Even when the pupils are far advanced, it is highly beneficial for them to give (French, etc.) reports of something which they have read—not merely simple renarrations of bits of fiction or history, but also rÉsumÉs of the trend of thought in some philosophical or critical essay, etc.

Many pieces also lend themselves to reshaping in various ways, whereby grammatical relations may be practised at the same time as the words and sentences of the selection once more pass in review through the minds of the pupils. All the singulars may be changed to plurals, as far as the plurals make sense in the connection. After the piece has been gone through in its printed form, the pupil reads it aloud, remembering in the case of each word to consider whether or not it has to be changed to the plural and what it would be in the plural. Thus, according to circumstances, there are either nouns, adjectives, pronouns or verbs to be changed. Or what is told about a boy may be said about a girl. Changes in time from “now” to “yesterday,” from “to-day” to “in a week,” occasion many alterations in the forms of the verbs, fewer in the adverbs. The person may also be changed, especially in such a way that the pupil puts himself in the place of that Peter about whom something is told, and thus substitutes I for he, etc.; if desirable, those further alterations may be made which make a letter out of the narrative. A change from the first to the third person can easily be combined with the shifting of tense which gives us indirect instead of direct discourse. Thus the following sentence: “Eh bien, Pierre, dit Jean, qu’est-ce que tu vas faire demain? Je ne sais pas, dit Pierre,” may be changed to: “Jean a demandÉ À Pierre ce qu’il allait faire le lendemain, et Pierre a rÉpondu qu’il ne savait pas (qu’il n’en savait rien).” In German, this kind of transposition involves such complicated changes (person, mood, order of words) that they cannot be required until at a later stage than in French; but transposition from indirect to direct discourse is not very difficult. Changes from the active to the passive must be undertaken with a good deal of care, since there are comparatively few sentences which can be thus transposed without undergoing a shifting of meaning, which it is not always easy to explain or understand the cause of, and many sentences do not lend themselves to such transposition at all. Likewise there are relatively few connected passages where negative sentences can be made affirmative and vice vers without giving us sheer nonsense. So these last two kinds of transposition can, as a rule, only be applied to single sentences, which the teacher has to pick out of their connection; but when carefully selected in this way they will be found to be very useful, especially in French, where the correct placing of ne and pas is so important; they are less useful in German.

Now and then, too, dependent clauses (for instance relative, adverbial clauses, etc.) may be changed to independent clauses and vice versÂ, and still more complicated changes may be undertaken by which one may try the different ways in which the thoughts of a passage may be linked together.

Of course it is also possible to have mixed exercises of this kind. For instance, pupil A reads aloud; the teacher interrupts him at the end of a sentence, mentions what kind of change it is to undergo, and thereupon points out one of the other pupils (whose books are closed) who is to make the change. But the teacher must never allow any of these exercises to become something merely mechanical which is turned out according to a certain fixed formula; the pupils must always be trained to consider whether a newly constructed sentence makes sense or not; thereby both their linguistic intuition and their powers of logic are sharpened at the same time.