A German method for beginners

A German lessons method for beginners

This book is designed so to combine reading and grammar that interest in tlie former may act as a stimulus to the mastery of the latter. The work is divided into four parts: reading matter, exercises for translation into German, inflectional forms and rules of syntax, and vocabulary. The advantages of this plan are obvious.

The stories are consecutive, and the pupil feels that he is really reading. With the exercises correlated, he can see the system by which he advances; while in syntax the advantages of seeing the relation of forms and rules to one another are too great to need more than passing mention. Any one of the first three parts of the book may be taken by itself. The stories may be read before the exercises or syntax are attacked; the exercises can be used by those who need German composition, or teachers who favour rules from the start can begin with Part III.

It is believed to be a mistake to confine the pupil during the first year to short, arbitrarily arranged word- lists, which must be memorized before they are used. For this reason, the vocabulary is arranged alphabetically at the end of the volume.

The book begins with a piece of connected prose so simple that the pupil can read it easily as soon as he has learned his letters from Part III. It is a story of the schoolroom, which lends itself readily to the use of the object method. The vocabulary is limited to everyday words, which constant repetition fixes in the pupil's memory.

The style is easy and natural. The author is careful to avoid the puerilities generally found in books for beginners, in which the pupil studying German in his teens is fed the same pabulum that was administered when he began English ten years before. Dialogue is introduced in the first story, opening the way for the teacher to bring in spoken German.

The exercises are carefully graded and remarkably thorough. They are to be taken in connection with passages from the text; but it may be found more convenient, in some cases, to complete a story before attempting the exercises based upon it. Where two exercises are given on a single subject, the second one is intended for a review. These, with the regular reviews, form a complete and thorough set of English- German exercises.

The "Continued Exercises" and reviews may be omitted if a class is pressed for time. The Syntax is a simple, orderly statement of essential rules, and is adequate for the work in high schools and smaller colleges. Especial attention is called to the exactness with which the sounds of the letters are given; to the simple treatment of gender, the bugbear of all students; to the natural classification of nouns, and the elimination of the usual complicated and arbitrary subdivisions; to the omission of the so-called " mixed declension "; and to the easy and natural wording of the rules.

A German method for beginners - PDF book by Franz J Lange