Lecture on the Best Methods of Teaching the Living Languages: Delivered Before the American Institute, August 24, 1832 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

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Excerpt from Lecture on the Best Methods of Teaching the Living Languages: Delivered Before the American Institute, August 24, 1832

Mr President and Gentlemen:

The most important characteristic of a living language, - the attribute in which resides its essential power and value, - is, that it is a spoken one; that it serves for that constant and principal bond of union between the different individuals of a whole nation, without which, they could not, for a moment, be kept together as a community. This great and prevalent characteristic is, therefore, everywhere visible in its structure, arrangements and expression; hardly less so in books, than in conversation. The main object, indeed, to which every other is sacrificed, in the formation of a language is, to facilitate personal intercourse; to enable one human being, in the easiest and most direct manner, to communicate to another his thoughts and his wants, his feelings and his passions; and to this great object every living language is essentially, and, it may almost be said, is exclusively adapted in its vocabulary, its forms, its inflexions, idioms and pronunciation.

The easiest and best method, therefore, for persons of all ages and all classes to learn a living language is undoubtedly to learn it as a spoken one; since this is not only its paramount characteristic, but is the only foundation on which the written language has been built or can rest. Persons, then, who have the opportunity, should learn the living language they wish to possess, as it is learnt by those to whom it is native. They should reside where it is constantly spoken, and use it, as it is used around them.

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