G3 C35 1907 MAIN iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii B M 070 fi2M r^ [Four Years' Course in German FOR Secondary Schools or t'^i ^ V' ^'^ -^ v%i '^^- II J' tP.lt/ 1 ' -' v'Y^'^ If.t'i %A A Four Years' Course in German POR Secondary Schools Of h^l^!?..^ % Some years ago the California Association of Teachers of Ger- man published an outline of a three years' course in German for the guidance of teachers in the California High Schools. Last October the Association, in view of the changed conditions of German instruction in our schools and of the progress which has been made in point of method, decided to issue a new declaration of principles more in keeping with the present-day theory and prac- tice of modern-language teaching. The plan of a four-years' course in German which the undersigned committee herewith present is based upon a preliminary report which was discussed and adopted at a meeting of the Association held in Berkeley on December 28, 1905, in connection with the annual session of the California Teach- ers' Association. Hugo K. Schilling, University of California. William A. Cooper, Stanford University. LuDw^iG J. Demeter, University of California. Valentin" Buehner, San Jose High School. /"joy A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools INTnODUCTORY EEMARKS. A well-rounded course in a modern foreign language will pro- vide training in all the disciplines of language study: reading, grammar, speaking, and composition. The old-time grammar method treated these disciplines as distinct and separate; gram- mar had to be taken on faith, composition was mere translation for the purpose of applying grammatical rules, and the content of the reading had nothing to do with either. But the revolution which the last twenty years have wrought in the methods of language- teaching has established the necessity of a close correlation be- tween these various disciplines; the reading should fonn the basis of instruction and should furnish the bulk of the material for the study of grammar and for practice in speaking and in composition. In the earlier stages of the work, reading, grammar, and composi- tion should, therefore, not be assigned to different recitations, but should constantly go hand in hand; later, when reading of literary value is taken up, grammatical drill and composition should have a separate time-allotment, even though they be based upon the reading matter ; while practice in speaking should continue to be af- forded incidentally but systematically in connection with all parts of the work, the German language serving as the medium of in- struction. To facilitate reference, the various disciplines are, in the fol- lowing, discussed separately, though this will involve some repe- tition. FIRST YEAR. PRONUNCIATION. German is a living language and should be taught as such. Ac- cordingly, the first and most important consideration at the outset is the acquisition of a correct pronunciation. We should like to regard this as so much a matter of course that it might be passed over with slight mention. But the fact that teachers are altogether too prane to underestimate the importance of pronunciation and that text-books are too apt to pass it over with superficial and inade- quate notice, compels us to lay quite particular stress upon it. Every teacher ought to have at least an elementary knowledge of phonetics, such as may be obtained by the study of Hempl's Ger- man Orthography and Phonology (Ginn & Co.) or of Rippman's Elements of Phonetics (Dent, London). Instruction in pronim- ciation should be put upon a phonetic basis, that is, it should not be a matter of letters, but of speech-sounds; and that is entirely feasi- 166889 4 A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools ble, and does not, as many suppose, involve the use of a highly technical vocabulary. To familiarize the student with this method of attack, we recommend that his attention be first called to the way in which he produces the sounds of his mother-tongue. A simple description of the organs of speech will be necessary to this end. The sounds should be classified according to the' way in which they are produced (the mode of articulation), and the part of the mouth or throat where they are produced (the place of articula- tion). An explanation of the former will make clear to the stud- ent such terms as 'spirant,' 'explosive,' 'voiced,' 'voiceless,' 'open,' 'closed,' etc. ; the discussion of the places of articulation will teach him to distinguish between front, mixed, and back vowels, gutturals, palatals, dentals, labials, etc.* When the student has mastered these principles so far as his mother-tongue is concerned, the following important differences between the two languages should be pointed out: 1. In English there are more mixed vowels, in German more back-vowels, and as a result of this it often happens that con- sonants, too, are pronounced farther back in the mouth than in English. It is these vowels and consonants that make the German language sound "throaty" to the American. 2. Long e and long i are more closed in German than in Eng- lish. 3. The muscles of the mouth are more active and more fully brought into play in German than in English. Only by means of a very marked rounding and protruding of the lips can the true German o and u be produced; the statement that one often finds in grammars : German u long=oo in boot, is inaccurate. In fact, with the exception of a very few consonants, the corresponding German and English sounds are not identical. 4. English long a and o are ordinarily not pure vowels, but diphthongs. Here again, most of our grammars are at fault in giv- ing equations like the following: German e long=a in late. German o long=o in note. When these points are fully understood, the class is ready for systematic practice in the German speech-sounds. The observing *These explanations in phonetics need not be dry or abstractly scientific ; it is easy to make them interesting and practical. For example: Ask the class to pronounce the words "cold" and "keel" in succession, and to note whether the k-sound is the same in both words. Or ask them to describe the way in which they form th, then f. The eagerness and interest wath which the students will try to find an adequate and correct description will pave the way for more difficult explanations on the part of the teacher. A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools 5 teacher will soon note that it is not the absolutely new sounds such as ch, u etc., that prove most troublesome, but rather those which to the unpracticed ear seem to differ but slightly from the cor- responding English sounds; this latter class must, therefore, re- ceive close attention. The various sounds can from the first be practiced in entire words; but care should be taken to begin with the simplest monosyllables, so as to ensure concentration of atten- tion and effort. Careful drill in the pronunciation of a variety of words con- taining the more difficult sounds and sound groups should be re- sumed frequently during the first year or two, if only for a few minutes at the beginning of the recitation. But the teacher should bear in mind that, after all, pronunciation is a matter, not of sepa- rate sounds, or even words, but of entire sentences; and practice in the speaking and reading aloud of sentences with due regard to intonation, stress, and expression should begin early and should be continued throughout the course. THE SCRIPT. If the introductory study of pronunciation is completed before Reading and Grrammar are taken up, the time usually given to home preparation can meanwhile be employed to advantage in practice in the German script. For this purpose copy-books with copper-plate model sentences at the top of each page are to be recommended. A correct formation of the letters should be insisted upon, and the German script should be used throughout the course; the notion that it is being abandoned by any considerable portion of the Ger- man people is erroneous. READING. In most grammars the reading begins with separate sentences, but in some it consists from the outset in connected pieces, anec- dotes, or short stories, while still others give both kinds of material, basing the grammatical drill upon the detached sentences only. In any case the reading of connected prose should be taken up at an early date; an exclusive diet of disconnected sentences for the bet- ter part of a year is usually fatal. In the first year only the sim- plest modern prose should be read. It will necessarily for a time serve mainly as material for the study of the forms of speech ; but the teacher should gradually reduce the discussion of grammatical points to a minimum and should rather emphasize the story and its characteristically German qualities. The entire lesson should be read aloud in class. Only where it is absolutely necessary should a translation into English be made; the teacher can, as a rule, easily 6 A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools find out whether the text is understood by asking questions about the contents, in German. In looking over the available readers, we find that almost all make the mistake of grading too steeply; the transition from the simple to the difficult is too rapid. The danger here is twofold : in the first place, the course is apt to be unsuccessful, since it presup- poses a rate of progress which is incompatible with thoroughness; and in the second place, the incessant strain under which the pupil is kept effectually prevents him from becoming interested in his reading and deriving enjoyment from it. We would suggest occa- sional breathing spells, when for some little time reading of the same grade of difficulty is assigned.* The pupil takes the most lively satisfaction in the thought that he can at last read with some ease, and th-e self-confidence and cheerful spirit which this feeling begets are invaluable aids in further effort. This is why in the end the best results are obtained by a large amount of fairly rapid reading of but slowly increasing difficulty. Hence we would recommend a reader like Wenckebach's Glilck oAif, which, more- over, can be finished in the first year. GRAMMAR. Grammar is merely a classification of facts — theory following practice; and this chronological order is the natural one in instruc- tion as well. Also, it is more effective than the procedure of the grammar method, which furnishes paradigms and rules ready- made and applies them afterwards ; for the grammatical phenom- ena whose nature and significance the pupil is led to observe and reason out for himself will impress themselves more lastingly upon his mind. By this "Inductive Method" the very first sentences or connected piece read by the class are made to yield the material for the construction of one or more paradigms ; isolated forms and con- structions are noted and stored up until the time when the set to which they belong is complete; and each succeeding reading lesson adds its share, until the entire structure of elementary grammar is erected. Deductive reasoning, that is, the applying of a gram- matical rule to a particular case in hand, will in turn be resorted to by the pupil whenever his Sprachgefuhl fails him or his memory does not supply an analogous case. This process affords valuable train- ing, and, in its place, cannot be dispensed with; but it does little toward developing a ready command of the forms of speech. The *The reading of additional matter of the same grade does far more good than the reviewing of the past reading lessons, which some teachers, from a mistaken idea of thoroughness, do at the beginning of each recita- tion or en bloc at longer intervals. Such reviews are an unmitigated bore and are justly detested by the pupils. ^; UNIVf. A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools 7 recital of paradigms is unprofitable; what should be taught is rather "living grammar," that is, the use of the various forms of a paradigm in actual sentences. Such questions and answers like the following are more to the purpose and of greater interest to the pupil than the formal declension of the word "Schiiler" : "Wer ist in dem Schulzimmer? Der Schiiler ist in dem Schul- zimmer. Wessen Buch hat der Lehrer ? Er hat das Buch des Schiilers. Wem giebt der Lehrer das Buch ? Er giebt es dem Schiiler. "Wen lobt der Lehrer ? Er lobt den Schiiler. The outline of grammar to be studied in the first year should include: the reg;ular inflection of nouns, adjectives, articles, pro- nouns, and weak verbs; the inflection of the more usual strong verbs, irregular verbs and irregular nouns; the more common prep- ositions; the simpler uses of the modal auxiliaries; and the most important rules concerning word-order and the use of the sub- junctive. SPEAKING. Speaking and Composition involve essentially the same mental processes; they differ only in that the medium of expression is, with the former, the voice; with the latter, the written symbols of words. To the extent indicated, the two, therefore, afford the same kind of training. But in point of intensity of training they again differ widely. Proficiency in a language is solely a matter of prac- tice; and it is obvious that the use of the foreign language as the medium of instruction will provide a vastly greater amount of practice than the relatively small quantity of written work which it is possible to do. Only by constantly hearing and speaking the foreign language in the class room can the pupil, in the limited time devoted to its study, acquire that degree of familiarity with the ordinar}^ inflections and constructions which enables him to use them readily, instinctively, without first thinking of paradigms and rules. In other words, by^this means alone can he hope to develop a measure of Sprachgefilhl^ the very essence of proficiency. Speaking, whether in one's own language or in a foreign one, is a process of imitation; we use words, inflections, phrases, and constructions with which we have at some time become familiar through hearing or seeing them used by others. Hence practice in speaking, in a school course, should be based upon language mate- rial previously studied or observed by the class, in whatever form : the reading matter, the specimen sentences used in the study of grammar, the questions put by the teacher, the explanations given by him, etc. This language material the pupil must be led by care- 8 A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools fully framed questions to use in his answers, at first in its orig- inal form or with a mere rearrangement of words, but later modi- fied and recast by the use of different inflections and constructions and amplified by the introduction of additional words and phrases from the stock already at his command; in this way he will learn to form sentences more and more independently. In the discussion of the reading lesson especially, the use of English is a sheer waste of precious opportunities. If the pupil has been taught, as he should be, to understand the text at first hand, without constantly making a mental translation into Eng- lish, the German vocabulary will come naturally to him in speaking of the lesson; in any case, he will learn the new words and idioms more thoroughly if he knows that he will be expected not merely to recognize them at sight, but also to use them without the aid of the book ; and their use in class will still more firmly impress them upon his mind. Besides, he will have, in this way, constant prac- tice in applying what he has already learned in previous lessons; and finally, while the reading matter is elucidated quite as effec- tively as by the use of English, its German atmosphere is pro- tected from the obtrusion of un-German concepts connected with English words. Contrary to the impression of some teachers, German can and should be used from the outset in the discussion of grammar and composition as well as of the reading. The technical vocabulary needed to that end is small and in good part identical with the Eng- lish words ; it will be picked up, almost without effort, in the process of developing paradigms and rules in class. There are occasions when, owing to the complexity or the abstract nature of a gram- matical problem, the use of English is advisable; but such cases are rare, and the growing proficiency of the class will in time make exceptions of that sort entirely unnecessary. The prime conditions of success in oral practice are an early start, immediately after the discussion of pronunciation, and, so far as possible, uninterrupted continuance. The more exceptions the teacher makes in favor of English, the harder he will find it to make the pupils speak German at all. If German is from the first the medium of instruction, the pupils will accept it as a mat- ter of course and will soon take pride and delight in their speak- ing ability; classes thus trained are invariably more attentive, alert, and interested than those taught by the grammar or read- ing method. But if oral practice is introduced only spasmodically, or late in the course, the pupils will look upon it as more or less of an imposition, an added hardship, and this attitude on their part will tend to diminish even the very moderate results which such a method might otherwise produce. A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools 9 The setting apart of special recitations or parts of recitations for oral practice, to the exclusion of such practice from the re- mainder of the work, is not to be recommended. Oral training is, as suggested above, best and most economically obtained as an inci- dental but constant feature of the other branches of the work, with- out a special allotment of time; the loss of time occasioned by the use of German as the language of the class room, according to the method outlined above, is insignificant in comparison with the bene- fits derived therefrom. Every teacher of German should, of course, before entering upon his career, or as soon as possible thereafter, spend a year or at least a summer in Germany, to perfect himself in the language and to become acquainted with the country and the people at first hand. Until he can do this, he can find opportunities for improving his practical command of the language in most parts of this country; and for the benefit of diffident teachers we will add that even a mod- erate speaking ability can be made to go a long way in the class room if each lesson is, aSit should be, carefully planned and pre- pared beforehand. COMPOSITION. What has been said above of the systematic grading of the exer- cises in speaking, from the simple reproduction of given material to free imitation and ultimately to the independent forming of sen- tences, applies equally to the written work. The same material should serve as a basis for speaking and for composition. It should, in the earlier stages of instruction at least, be familiar ma- terial gone over already in class ; at first, indeed, the pupils should merely write down some of this material and of the answers given orally, from dictation in class and from memory at home. Then they should write out, at home, answers to new questions assigned from the grammar or dictated by the teacher; how these questions should be framed so as to elicit answers consisting in increasingly free reproductions of the material used, has already been described under "Heading." At this stage of 'free reproduction,' which will occupy the remainder of the year, the reading can be utilized for written work afi'ording a great variety of grammatical drill. Anec- dotes or paragraphs from stories can be rewritten with a change of tense, or of direct discourse to indirect, or of narrative form to dia- logue; or the teacher may read to the pupils an anecdote, fable, or the like, which is not in their books, and after thoroughly discussing it and having it retold by them, assign it to be written out at home. Similarly, poems may be turned into prose and then worked over as suggested. Some written work should, of course, from time to time, be done in class, with books closed ; the pupil is then thrown 10 A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools upon his own resources and learns to work independently of the aids which he is tempted to use at home. Translation into a foreign language is considered by some of the most prominent reformers to be entirely out of place in a school course. We hold a more conservative view. It is true that it does not appreciably advance the pupil toward the goal of all composi- tion work, the free and independent writing of idiomatic German. But it has one advantage: it compels the pupils who may be in- clined to follow the line of least resistance, to face and cope with grammatical difficulties which the very freedom of reproductive work enables them to avoid. We would recommend, therefore, a moderate amount of translating into German as a supplement to the free reproduction of given models ; the latter should always pre- dominate. The subject matter of the sentences and connected pieces translated should so far as possible be identical with that of the reading and of the material used in the study of gram- mar. MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. From the very beginning the attention of the class should be called to the close relation between German and English. Ac- quaintance with "Grimm's Law" will in many cases enable the pu- pil to remember words more easily or to identify new ones at sight with their English equivalents. Dictation affords valuable exercise in connecting sounds with letters. But only what has previously been read or heard by the class should be used for dictation. The pupil should never be asked to write what he does not fully understand. The reading aloud to the class of simple stories, with running comment, if necessary, and with questions to test the pupils' un- derstanding of what is read, is likewise excellent practice. Such stories should afterwards be retold by the class, and finally be writ- ten out at home. The memorizing not only of poems, but of prose selections, is to be strongly recommmended. But they should be simple and natural in style and diction, so as to furnish, on occasion, suitable models for imitation in speaking or writing. In this connection we may add that German plays performed by members of the class will amply repay the time and effort devoted to memorizing and rehearsing, by the linguistic training they afford to the participants and the interest and enthusiasm they arouse generally. The same is true of the singing of German songs during special meetings after school hours. It is desirable, where convenient, that a room be set aside for the exclusive use of the German classes. Such a room should be A Four Years' Covrse in Oerman for Secondary Schools 11 equipped with pictorial and other aids to instruction : political and physical maps of Germany, views of German cities, pictures of noted Germans, of famous buildings and works of art, of street scenes, of country' life, of places of historical interest, and of great events in German history. Such an equipment is invalual)le in making instruction interesting and profitable; it creates a German atmosphere and gives reality to the descriptions of German life; it furnishes an admirable basis for oral discussions, which in turn will supply material for written work. The well-known wall pic- tures of German life by Holzel may now be obtained in small, inexpensive reproductions, which can be put into the hands of the pupils for description in writing at home. To illustrate our recommendations we give in the followng a brief outline of the first year's work, assuming for this purpose that the books used are Spanhoofd's Lehrhuch der deutschen Sprache, and Wenckebach's GlucJc avf, the grammar and reader which at present best exemplify the principles set forth above. The Lehrbuch is intended to be gone through in the first year of a secondar}^ school course; but it contains rather more than the average class can master in that space of time. About thirty of its thirty-five lessons will constitute a good year's work; but as to that, no rule can be laid down, and thoroughness is always the first consideration. This is also true of the reading; but Gluck auf can more easily be finished in the first year than the Lehrhuch. At the beginning of each lesson in the Lehrhuch a number of sentences are given, which are to serve as models. The teacher reads them aloud and has the class repeat them ; they are then prac- ticed conversationally, in questions and answers, until the pupils have mastered them thoroughly and no longer think of the Eng- lish equivalents. The class is then questioned about the new gram- matical phenomena observed in the sentences; and when these have been brought out, they are classified and made into a paradigm or used in the formulating of a rule. Not until then are the books opened; right after the paradigm or rule there will be found sen- tences applying it, usually with new variations and additions, and these sentences are now read and, like those at the head of the les- son, practiced orally. Next comes an independent reading selec- tion (proverbs, an anecdote, and the like), which is to be read aloud and discussed in German. The English statement of the grammar lesson, which follows, is for reference at home and to cor- rect misunderstandings ; in class the grammar is developed in Ger- man. A list of new words occurring in the lesson serves in the preparation of the reading and in the subsequent reviews of the lesson; every noun should be learned with its definite article, since 13 A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools there are no general rules for the determination of gender. At the end of each lesson there are exercises of various kinds : German ques- tions on the reading lesson or the model sentences, for conversa- tional practice or to be answered at home in writing; German sen- tences for recasting and parts of sentences for completion; and English sentences for translation into German. The home work will consist of a review of the class room work, including, perhaps, the writing out in German of answers given orally by the pupils, or of explanations furnished by the teacher in class ; of the prepara- tion of the next reading lesson; and of new written work assigned from the exercises in the book as based upon questions dictated by the teacher. The reader may be taken up at any time after the first eight lessons in Spanhoofd have been mastered; but much the greater part of each recitation should still be devoted to the Lehrhuch (even in the second year, until this book is finished). The elementary division of the reader (the Vorstufe) is simple enough to be read at sight, or to be read aloud to the class ; the teacher will then ascer- tain by questions in German whether the class has understood the text, or he can dictate questions which are to be answered in writ- ing at home. The Vorstufe does not contain enough of this grade of reading; the teacher will do well to read to the class additional selections from other books. When the class has studied the strong verbs (Lesson XXII in the Lehrhuch), it is ready to take up with profit and relative ease the advanced divisions in the reader. It is suggested that Divisions III and IV (Aus der germanischen Gotterwelt and Aus der germanischen Sagenwelt) be read before Division II {Aus dem deutschen Dichterland), as the latter is largely descriptive and its vocabulary more or less abstract. A suggestion or two will suffice to illustrate the correlation of reading and composition. When the class has read Thors Hammer, the story may be rewritten in the present tense; or the part of it which deals with the loss of the hammer may be recast as if Thor himself were telling it. Similarly, when the class has studied the twenty-second lesson in the Lehrhuch, most of the connected prose in the first twenty lessons (where the verbs are throughout in the present tense) may be written in the imperfect or pluperfect tense or paraphrased and recast in other ways, as specified under 'Com- position.' SECOND YEAR. READING. Most teachers prefer at this stage separate editions of German stories to a reader. Of five recitations a week, three should now be devoted exclusively to reading; this ratio is a good one for the third and fourth years also. The stories should be read as literature. A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools 13 not as material for grammatical drill ; though of course new or un- usual word-forms and constructions should be discussed, and the teacher should occasionally ask a question to ascertain whether the class have observed and understood the more striking graniiiiatical phenomena. Only a part of each lesson should now be read aloud, preferably dialogues and other passages calling for a good deal of ex- pression. Reading at sight should from this time on be practiced systematically; the pupils should be taught to make the most of their knowledge of root-words, of derivative prefixes and suflfixes, and of English cognates, in determining the meanings of new words. The choice of the reading matter should at all times be gov- erned by the consideration that the ultimate object of the study of modern foreign languages is a sympathetic appreciation of other na- tionalities, of their ways of thinking and feeling, their manners and customs, their history and institutions, and their achievements in the domain of literature and of intellectual life generally. Hence the reading should, above all, be thoroughly German in subject and spirit — typically and representatively German; everything un-Ger- man, as for instance classical myths and legends, Heyse's Italian stories, or Carmen Sylva's Roumanian stories, is to be rejected as unprofitable from any point of view except the purely linguistic one, and to some extent even in this particular. The reading should, moreover, be thoroughly modern in style and vocabulary; not until the pupil is fairly familiar with the ordinary forms of German as it is spoken and written at the present day, can he safely and ad- vantageously take up the classics of a century or a century and a half ago ; and that point is hardly ever reached before the latter part of the third year. We recommend, therefore, for the second year, books like the following: (First Semester) Yolhmann's Kleine Geschichten; Spyri's Moni der Geisshub ; Leander's Trdumereien ; Baumbach's Im Zwie- licht and WaldnoveUen; Storm's Immensee; Gerstacker's Germels- Tiausen; Bemhardt's Aus Herz und Welt. (Second Semester) Arnold's Fritz auf Ferien; Gerstacker's Irrfahrten; Baumbach's Der Schwiegersohn; Wildenbruch's Das edle Blut; Wilbrandt's one- act comedy Jugendliehe. For occasional use throughout the year: Mueller, Deutsche Gedichte (about one-half). GRAMMAR. The study of the accidence and syntax should be more detailed and thorough than in the first year; but it should still be confined only to the essentials, that is, to the forms and constructions used in a simple style of writing or speech. The student should now be 14 A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools so far advanced that German can be used exclusively even in the discussion of the grammatical rules. COMPOSITION. The written work should consist mainly in free reproduction. For translation into German only very simple narrative prose should be used, preferaby Engish paraphrases and synopses of the reading, such as are now appended to various editions of German stories and in some cases also published separately. Most composi- tion books are too difficult; a large amount of easy translating is far more profitabe than a small amount of laborious piecing to- gether of German equivalents for English phrases. THIED YEAR. READING. The reading should continue to consist in modern prose and should lead up, in the second half year, to the most popular of the classics: Schiller. Grammatical points should be discussed only in so far as the elucidation of the text absolutely requires it ; the dis- isecting of good literature for the purpose of illustrating grammar is an abomination. The reading should be done fairly rapidly, to preserve the continuity of the story and bring out the literary flavor; if that is not possible, the text is too difficult for the class and an easier one would give better results. The class should be taught to observe the structure of the story, the characterization of the persons, and, if the pupils are mature enough, the salient quali- ties of the author's style; and each story should be made to yield, within its scope, as complete a picture of German life as possible. The pupils should be required, or at least encouraged, to do some private reading, upon which they should report to the teacher orally or in writing. Texts suitable, among others, for the third year: Seidel's Leberecht Hiihnchen; W. Meyer-Forster's Earl Heinrich (espe- cially suitable for private reading) ; Eiehl's Das Spielmannsbind and Der stumme Ratsherr; Fulda's Unter vier Augen; Freytag's Aus dem Staate Friednchs des Grossen; Keller's Kleider mac'hen Leute; Schiller's Lied von der Glocke, Gustav Adolph in Deutsch- land, Wilhelm Tell; Mueller, Deutsche Gedichte (second half, throughout the year). GRAMMAR. A systematic grammar such as Bierwirth's Elements of Ger- man, or Thomas's Practical German Grammar, is recommended for the purpose of review and reference. A Four Years' Course in German for Secondary Schools 15 COMPOSITION. The reproduction of given models in the form of paraphrases, synopses, and themes on topics previously discussed in class will in the course of the year lead up to entirely original composition on simple subjects with which the pupil is familiar. Some translating into German should be done, similar in nature to that recommended for the second year, but somewhat more advanced, while still in- volving only the use of ordinary forms and constructions; the ren- dering of elevated or florid prose or of intricate periods may be good mental discipline, but does not afford any practical linguistic training. The narrative and epistulary material in Harris' Ger- man Composition is quite advanced enough and sufficient in amount for this year; we would omit the biographical, historical, and descriptive selections (Part IV) altogether. FOURTH YEAR. READING. The fourth year should be devoted mainly to the classics, with some of the best modern prose: Hauff's Lichtenstein (excellent for private reading) ; Freytag's Soil und Hah en; Goethe's Sesen- heim; Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm; Goethe's Hermann und Dorothea; Schiller's Wallensteins Lager; Goethe's Iphigenie. Sketches of the lives of Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing, and synopses of their principal works, so far as they are not read by the class, may be taken from one of the elementary^ German Histories of German Literature for discussion in class and subsequent dicta- tion. A book like Schrakamp's Beruhmte Deutsche also furnishes appropriate supplementary reading and is excellent for conversa- tional practice. GRAMMAR. Review lessons only, and discussions in connection with the written work. The use of a grammar written in German is advan- tageous as an aid in the complete elimination of English. COMPOSITION. Mainly original work of various kinds : narrative, descriptive, and epistolary. Attention is called to the International Correspond- ence scheme by which pupils in different countries are put into communication with each other for the purpose of exchanging let- ters, and which has been productive of excellent results; the Chair- man of the American bureau is Professor E. H. Magill, Swarth- more, Pennsylvania. >^ or THC > UNIVERSITY or UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY BERKELEY Return to desk from which borrowed. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. eMc LD 21-95m-ll,'50(2877sl6)476 U.C. BERKELEY LIBRA CDDSM7b2ia RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT -[Qmrnm^ 202 AAoin Library ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405. m IF AS STAMPED BELOW r.Kii A DCDk'PI PY