First French Book after the Natural Method by James H. Worman [Paperback]

Total 82 pages Paperback.

About the book

This little book is intended for beginners wishing to learn the spoken language of France. The special aim is to supply all that must be taught the pupil in order to enable him to understand and use the French. It is not a treatise on the language.

The peculiar features of its method are Pestalozzian in character. It differs, however, widely from all other methods of teaching foreign language.

1. This course teaches the French language without the help of the learner's vernacular.
2. It bases linguistic instruction upon a direct appeal to a pictorial illustration of the object mentioned. In no instance is the student left to guess at what is said. He is clearly instructed and speaks always understandingly.
3. Grammar is taught, in order to enable the learner to speak accurately. All other elementary text-books, after the natural method, ignore the difficulties of grammar, and thus tend to make the learner superficial. Unsystematic study being always pernicious in its results, the aim of this little book is to supply a progressive course unfolding the principles of the language. All grammatical as well as lexical details required for the thorough understanding of the text are given.
4. Paradigms are used to enable the pupil to see the relation of the part to the whole. It is easy to confuse the learner by giving him one person or one case at a time.
5. The rules are deduced from the examples; the purpose being to develop the abstract from the concrete. In short, the laws of the language are the learner's own inferences from the examples.
6. Everything is taught by contrast and association. But too frequently in teaching, the learner's memory is overtaxed and the development of his sense and reasoning faculties neglected. The aim of our method is to employ, first of all, the lower or sense faculties of the mind, the perceptions. It has been wisely said: "True perceptions lead to true conceptions, and true conceptions are the very foundations of Truth itself."
7. The lessons are strictly graded, and are made up of conversations on familiar subjects and topics of an interesting character. They supply the learner with a stock of French words and idioms needed in the everyday affairs of life.
8. Hair-line type is used in the first four lessons, to call the learner's attention to the silent letters which are thus quickly pointed out, and to secure to the pupil an accurate pronunciation of the language. After the fourth lesson exceptional cases of pronunciation are pointed out.
9. Heavy type is used for the variable inflections of nouns, verbs, etc., because it strikes the eye and thus helps the pupil to note all changes of these French words. The beginning is made with the auxiliaries of tense, because their use is a necessity from the very first lesson in the language.
10. The value of both the First and Second French Books will be greatly enhanced by the use of our Synopsis of French Grammar, and the Vocabulary, explaining, through the French only, all the words used in the First and Second Books, and especially prepared as their companions. These are novel features in a French course, but their utility will at once commend them to the experienced teacher. In no other way can the student insure a perfectly systematic course in language than by a tabular exhibit of the language, and in no easier way can he rapidly acquire a large vocabulary than by the task of explaining words. Such a practice promises, moreover, not only the acquisition of the language studied and its facile use, but is sure to prove a step to sound linguistic culture.

The author recommends, from his own experience, as the most successful method of using the First French Book:

1. Each lesson should be first read by the teacher to the class, and then in concert by teacher and pupils.
2. One pupil should next read by paragraphs, and after the reading of a paragraph a series of conversations should be developed.