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1.2.Grammarasthekeytoforeignlanguagelearning
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guageequalsthedescriptionoflanguageaspresentedingrammarsanddictiona-
ries,whichisthematerialusedinaparticularteachingmethod.
AspointedoutbyRichardsandRodgers(1986),theGrammarTranslation
Method,calledthePrussianMethodintheUnitedStates,istheeffectoftheinflu-
enceofLatinona)thewaythevernacularlanguagesweresupposedtobetaught;
andb)thegoalsforwhichLatinwastaught,i.e.literacyandunderstandingofthe
classicsratherthanpracticalgoals.TheGrammarTranslationMethodprovided
whatwasexpectedfromaneducatedperson:theabilitytoreadandunderstand
theclassics,andrecitetherulesofgrammarorproverbs.Amongtheproponents
ofthismethodare:JohannSeidenstrücker,KarlPlötz,H.S.Ollendorf,and
JohannMeidinger.
Thekeytolearningtheforeignlanguagewastheknowledgeofitsgrammar,
especiallyintheformofmemorizedruleslearnedbyheartandaccompaniedby
variousdeclensionsandconjugations.TheGrammarTranslationMethodassumed
afairlygoodknowledgeofthenativegrammarwhichwasusedasapointofref-
erence.Thiskindofknowledgehadspecialvalue:itprovidedmentalgymnastics
fortheintellect.Rules,i.e.explanationsabouttheregularitiesintheoccurrence
oflanguageforms,werepresentedfirstandvariousexamplesfollowed;thisform
ofpresentationiscalleddeductive.
Themainformofactivityintheclasswastranslationfromthetargettothe
nativelanguageandviceversa.Theunitofthematerialfortranslation,aswellas
forthewholemethod,wasthesentence.Somesentences,forexampleproverbs,
werelearnedbyheart.Thetwoformsoftranslation,fromandintothetargetlan-
guage,wereperformedbothorallyandinwriting.Thelearner,snativelanguage
hadanimportantroletoplay:itwasusedasthemediumofinstruction,firstand
foremostfortalkingaboutthetargetgrammaraswellasintranslationactivities.
Theteachingmaterialcontainedclassicaltextswhichweretobereadand
subjectedtogrammaticalanalysis.Readingwasemphasized,butthereadingmat-
terwasneithercontemporarynorcommunicativelyuseful.Accuracywasempha-
sized,butitreferredprimarilytoarchaicforms.
Vocabularyitemswerepresentedintheformofbilingualliststobememo-
rized.Verbatim(word-for-word)learninghadanimportantroletoplayinthis
method.
Thevariousproponentsof‘grammaticalism,inthenineteenthcenturyadvo-
catedtheinductiveapproachinteachinggrammar,i.e.inferringtherulesfrom
examples,whichwouldbeeithertextsorsentencesinthetargetlanguage.Literary
textsoftheclassicsturnedouttobetoocomplicatedforthispurpose,so,toover-
comethisdifficulty,Seidenstrückersucceededinwritingatextbasedonsimple
sentencescontainingmostofthegrammaticalfeaturesofthelanguage(1811).
ThisinnovationwastakenupbyAhn,andlaterbyOllendorf.AsTitone(1968)
pointsout,theirmethodwasbasedonconstructingartificialsentencestoillus-
tratearule.Theoutcomewascharacteristicallyboringanddrymaterial,hardto
rememberforbeingfarfromidiomaticandreal,and,ironically,completelyuse-
lessinreallife.Titone(1968:28)providesthefollowingexamplesquotedfrom