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6 4
SPRÅKUNDERVISNINGEN
bulary to read a respectable book, and he cannot express himself
in writing decently because the hours at school have been
monopolised by translation (— a common method of reading an
English book, incidentally, being to translate it line by line).
He cannot even translate. Nor is there anything remarkable
about that, as translating is a highly specialised skill and the
last thing one learns to do well. If translation must be done,
it would be better to translate from English to Swedish as this
would afford the pupils an opportunity of being introduced to,
say, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Speech or a bit of Milton’s
Areo-pagitica and the standard of texts read at school would at once
be raised. Or why not translate a portion of a speech by Mr
Chamberlain or some instructions about A. R. P.?
I do not speak as a stickler for any one pedagogical method.
1 am not a Direct Method crank nor, thank God, a grammar
fiend. I would recommend as a golden rule, however: keep the
pupils interested and amused. What is needed is a sense of
proportion — something that has been lost sight of in English
teaching in the Swedish schools. There is. no substitute for
common sense.
Suggestions ? Grammar should be reduced to playing an
ancillary role not the lead. It is essential that the pupils should
hear and read vast quantities of English, or French or German.
They must learn to read quickly, simple texts at the beginning,
adventure stories, school 1 stories, cowboy stories, anything
interesting — with well-graded word material. After the first
year, twenty pages at a time, say, for homework; with questions
in class (for the first ten minutes) on what has been happening,
the teacher making the boys underline and remember the most
vital words and phrases, translating difficult words himself if
necessary; the boys can be made to repeat in chorus a page
or two after the teacher by way of getting the right stress and
intonation, the teacher can read chunks on his own etc. Let
words and phrases be learnt in situ, in the right context, for
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