Some Principles of Education Applied to the

Teaching of French

K. A. SARAFIAN,

LA VERNE COLLEGE, LA VERNE, CALIF.

HE few principles of education which shall be discussed here are gleaned directly from the

T first part of Dewey's "Democracy and Edu

cation." Most of these principles represent Dewey's own contribution in the realm of the Philosophy of Education; they embody the unique, at the same time, excellent social conceptions of this great educational reformer who stands at the forefront of modern educational thought. Some of these points to be mentioned, however, are the contributions of other great educational thinkers, only repeated and commented by Dewey in his own characteristic style of writing. In my teaching of foreign languages I became greatly influenced by the ideas of this eminent educational philosopher whose thoughts opened new vistas, broadened my outlook upon the problems bearing on the nature and aims of education. Here I shall try to make a feeble attempt to concretely illustrate how some of those progressive ideas can be applied to the teaching of languages, say to the teaching of French.

THE DOCTRINE OF INTEREST

"The act of learning or studying is artificial and ineffective in the degree in which pupils are merely presented with a lesson to be learned. Study is ineffectual in the degree in which the pupil realizes the place of the numerical1 truth he is dealing with in carrying to fruition activities in which he is concerned. This connection of an object and a topic

1 Dewey here is referring, as an illustration, directly to the teaching of Mathematics. But his thoughts can be applied just as well to the teaching of languages and linguistic truth.

2 I am responsible for the underlining.

with the promotion of an activity having a purpose is the first and the last word of a genuine theory of interest in education."-Dewey, Democ. and Educ. pp. 158

"One who recognizes the importance of interest will not assume that all minds work in the same way because they happen to have the same teacher and textbook."

Same, pp. 153 To discover objects and modes of action, which are connected with present powers."-Same, pp. 159

A teacher of French agreeing with Dewey in his theory of interest and effort will not assume that French is a subject to be handed down to his pupils by pouring in process, by enforced external stimulation, disregarding the most fundamental factor in the case; namely, the interest, and the connection of that interest with the activities of the child in the learning of French. Moreover, he will, first of all, try to find whether the child has any native interest to learn a foreign language, such as French, remote in its nature to the actual needs of the child. In the absence of any manifest interest, he will try to study each individual child and arouse in him the particular point of contact which may procure a bond between the child and the French. For instance, a child may demonstrate great tendencies of curiosity; he may be very fond of everything novel and strange, or foreign. The wise teacher will seize that opportunity to direct that child to develop an interest in that novel subject-French a foreign language, the symbol of a culture, the unravelling of which will open the treasure house of a brilliant and a versatile nation, the literature and civilization of France. Another child may manifest an intense tendency of wanderlust. Traveling and seeing remote lands may attract him strongly. Here again, a resourceful teacher of French will seize his opportunity in arousing in the imagination of that child the charms of French "chateaux," historic places vibrating with the memories of the past, etc., etc.

These illustrations would suffice in pointing out that the first wise thing that a teacher of French should do is to

study his class and try to establish a connection between the present interests of the child and the interesting points of his subject. Without taking into account this basic element in the educative process the teacher will find himself against insurmountable obstacles. In the present progress of educational thought a principle such as this embodied in the following statement of James is really out of date and ineffectual: "Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day, be systematically heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than its difficulty." Such a principle presupposes the existence of separate general faculties of the mind which can be trained irrespective of the attractiveness of the subject matter. This doctrine is entirely discarded. And we cannot conceive of any separation between the mind and the subject matter. On the contrary, only from the genuine interaction of the mind and of a purposeful activity can there result an educative experience.

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE AS A

CONJOINT ACTIVITY

"Sounds are just one kind of stimulus to direct response; some have a soothing effect, others tending to make one jump and so on. The sound h-a-t would remain as meaningless as a sound in Choctaw, a seemingly inarticulate grunt. if it were not uttered in connection with an action which is participated by a number of people. When the mother is taking the infant out of doors, she says 'hat' as she puts something on the baby's head. Being taken out becomes an interest to the child; mother and child not only go out with each other physically, but both are concerned in going out; they enjoy it in common. By conjunction with the other factors in activity the sound 'hat' soon gets the same meaning for the child that it has for the parent; it becomes a sign of the activity into which it enters. The bare fact that language consists of sounds which are mutually intelligible is enough of itself to show that its meaning depends upon connection with a shared experience."--Dewey, Democ. and Educ. pp. 18 The resourceful teacher of French who understands the

psychology of language as a behavior of conjoint activity will not adhere entirely to the old-fashioned method of verbal teaching; he will not rely on the hackneyed modes of formal drills of grammar, etc.; no doubt drills have a place in the teaching of language; yet even these drills can be vitalized by a procedure of participated activity by all the members of the class. It was my privilege to observe a French class conducted on the progressive ideas of teaching. This teacher did not adhere blindly to one method or the other. At times he used the Direct Method in teaching certain facts of French which could be taught most economically and most efficiently in direct connection of activity with the symbol representing the thought of that activity. All the pupils joined in this activity and associated in their minds the words and expressions related to it; thereby all the members of the group were active participants in the learning process. The teacher was a director of activities. At opportune moments he resorted to translation as a method of learning the meanings of words and expressions. In teaching the facts of grammar he had each member of the class write on the blackboard from English into French a drill sentence. After the whole exercise was written he called on each individual student to read his sentence. Then the active participation commenced in correcting the errors. Members of the class, and not the teacher, would criticize the sentence thus written and back up their criticism with the authority of the text-book or the previous statements of the teacher in charge; the whole procedure represented a lively argumentation and an interaction of minds all bent on the finding of facts and truths in French. At other times he resorted to dramatization and playful dialogues in French. Here again the educative process was one of active participation and almost self-teaching rather than pouring in from without; a gradual continuous growth rather than the stuffing of mind with rigid ready-made knowledge.

Lively interest and purposeful activity were the most outstanding facts to be noticed in this class.

GROWTH FOR FURTHER GROWTH

"When it is said that education is development, everything depends upon how development is conceived. Our net conclusion is that life is development, and that developing growing is life. Translated into its educational equivalents, this means (1) that the educational process has no end; and that (2)-the educational process is one of continual reorganizing, reconstructing, transforming."

66

Dewey, Democ. and Educ. pp. 59

Since in reality there is nothing to which growth is relative save more growth, there is nothing to which education is subordinate save more education. It is a commonplace to say that the education should not cease when one leaves school."-Same, pp. 60

This principle is true in every educational process. So a teacher of French must have the live interest in his mind and in his plans, to see to it that his pupils will not cease from studying and reading French after they leave school. In this connection it is fitting to quote a statement made by the writer of this paper, in an article, On the Teaching of French, in the 1926, February number of EDUCATION, directly referring to this problem. "To arouse in the student an ever-increasing interest in the further study of the subject taught is the most desirable attainment. If a high school graduate, after four years of French, keeps up his studies in reading French fiction, drama, or periodicals, he will be considered the product of a really efficient method of teaching."

This result can be brought about only by a resourceful teacher who conceives of education as a growth in a directed and purposeful activity in which consideration is given to the native tendencies of the child. Such a teacher shuns from external pressures, and withholds himself subscribing a course of activity which is not in line with the child's present interest and tendencies.