A primer of english [antikvár]

PKEFACE.It is hoped that the following pages may serve at once as an outline for teachers and a synopsis for learners of lessons in English given by the direct method.It is assumed throughout that the teacher is an Englishman,1 and that he uses the language of his audience as little as possible, his success being judged by the rarity of his lapses into the foreign tongue. Such lapses will depend largely upon the age and character of his hearers : there is some risk in giving concrete illustrations of such words as " dance" and " weep," and the uproar occasioned by the attitudes of a teacher in such cases will often be in equal ratio to the loss of respect entailed.But recourse to translation should be deemed an admission of failure, though there are many instances in which its use can be justified as an intelligent " short-cut" to explanations which might otherwise involve much loss of time; but it should always be remembered that throughout such explanations the1 Or one to whom English is as familiar as his mother tongue.vii