Page:Madras journal of literature and science vol 2 new series 1857.djvu/251

Rh tain. But his great business should of course be to converse as constantly as possible in order further to exercise his tongue and his ear, and to add to his stock of forms of expression. It is to be remembered that, in using books, a principal exercise should be, reading aloud and having them read aloud to him by a Native.

If his occupation will require formal writing or translating, of course he must exercise himself a good deal with books. It is well known that the most easy and certain way of acquiring a correct and easy style in writing in any foreign language is to make or procure accurate translations of Native books, and then re-translate them, comparing such re-translation with the original and thoroughly considering the difference between them. This can be done with the greatest ease and economy of time when such a good fundamental knowledge has been acquired as is supposed to be obtained through the system now proposed.

The next point to be considered is the mode of using these materials.

The student begins with the English letters representing the sounds. The teacher sounds each letter and the student repeats it immediately after. This is done many times with those letters which represent sounds entirely strange to the learner. The most essential thing is to learn where to place the tongue in these last sounds, without doing which it is impossible he should utter them correctly; and this must be most patiently and diligently practised, because this new motion of the tongue must be acquired to the same degree of facility as he has in pronouncing the sounds of his own language. This cannot possibly be effected except by long continued use of the organs of speech. At first, each of these letters should be pronounced perhaps ten times over by the teacher, and repeated by the student instantly, the latter always observing carefully the difference between his own pronunciation and that of the teacher's, which immediately follows.

The grand means to attain to a correct pronunciation must always be thus for the learner to attempt it both immediately after, and immediately before, hearing it correctly pronounced by a Native. Just as in learning to write it is not sufficient first to look