Hello cb1930
Thank-you for a question which was of special interest to me as I had
a brief but good experience of learning Latin by the natural, or
direct, method many years ago.
This teaching method has indeed been applied to other languages, as I
discuss later on. If you are interested in a particular language,
please let me know and I'll do my best to find something to suit you.
=============
LINGUA LATINA
=============
Although the Naturmetodens Sproginstitut seems to be no longer in
existence, Professor Řrberg, author of "Lingua Latina", now has his
own website. He describes the original books, which were revised in
the 1990s, as well as more recent material. I'll quote his list of
publications but you'll find more on the site, including sample pages,
at:
http://www.lingua-latina.dk/index2.htm
The books available as of January 2003 are:
"LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA
Part I: Familia Romana. Cap. i-xxxv. 328 pp.
Part II: Roma Aeterna. Cap. xxxvi-lvi. 424 pp. + INDICES. 64 pp.
Colloquia Personarum i-xxiv. 79 pp.
Grammatica Latina. Morphology. 32 pp.
Exercitia Latina. Cap. i-xxxv (133 lectiones). 136 pp.
Plautus: Amphitryo. 84 pp.
Petronius: Cena Trimalchionis. 64 pp.
Latine disco. Students’ Manual (in English). 48 pp.
Instructions for Part II (in English). 36 pp.
Latin-English Vocabulary I. 20 pp.
Latin-English Vocabulary II. 40 pp."
DOMUS LATINA
Hans H. Řrberg
Skovvangen 7, DK-8500 Grenaa, Denmark
Phone/Fax +45 86321958
email:orberg@lingua-latina.dk
There's more detail at the American publisher's site:
"Lingua Latina provides Latin that students read and understand
immediately. Every sentence is intelligible per se because the meaning
and function of all new word forms is made clear by the context, by
illustrations or by marginal notes provided throughout this carefully
graded text. Part I forms an eventful and entertaining narrative,
which also serves as an introduction to the life and culture of
ancient Rome.
This DIRECT METHOD, based on understanding from the context, has
proved efficient both for self-tuition and classroom teaching.
Students discover that they can read and understand Latin immediately
without parsing. Such direct understanding gives students
self-confidence and stimulates concentration. It sharpens their
faculties of observation and reasoning – faculties that will be
greatly needed as the sentences grow more complex. Reading in this
way, they move step-by-step towards reading of Latin literature in
Latin with real understanding and appreciation."
FOCUS PUBLISHING - R. PULLINS AND COMPANY
http://www.pullins.com/txt/LinguaLatina.htm
Some of the books are illustrated here:
http://www.vivariumnovum.it/lingualatina.htm
=================================
NATURAL OR DIRECT METHOD TEACHING
=================================
The natural method is often described as the direct method. It has
been influential in language teaching, highlighting the importance of
actually using the language to be learned. Earlier styles of teaching,
depending mostly on grammar books, have been almost forgotten.
However, many teachers feel it is unrealistic to use pure direct
method in the school classroom. (More on this under 'further
information' below.)
The direct method is strongly supported by creators of taped language
courses and institutions offering "immersion" courses in the country
where the language is spoken.
You might be interested in a French course developed in the sixties by
an advocate of direct method teaching:
"Pucciani [ . . ]became an ardent champion of Sauzé's "direct method"
of language teaching, then little known outside the Cleveland public
schools, in which all instruction, including explanations of grammar
and vocabulary, is given in the target language.
In the late 1950s, Pucciani pioneered in adapting the direct method to
the UCLA French Department's language program. As head of
lower-division and subsequently department Chairman, he organized and
perfected rigorous and effective methods for the training and
supervision of teaching assistants. In 1967, he embodied the results
of the department's experience with the direct method in a highly
successful and influential textbook, Langue et Langage, coauthored
with Jacqueline Hamel, which revealed the advantages of immediate and
total immersion in a foreign tongue. Langue et Langage, which has gone
through some five editions, has greatly influenced language teaching
in Southern California and throughout the United States. In 1973,
Pucciani collaborated with José Rubia Barcia of the UCLA Department of
Spanish and Portuguese to produce a companion textbook in Spanish,
Lengua y Cultura."
In Memoriam: Oreste Pucciani
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:8SYbA2qBBiAJ:sunsite.berkeley.edu:2020/dynaweb/teiproj/uchist/inmemoriam/inmemoriam1999/%40Generic__BookTextView/2623+%22direct+method%22+french&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Pucciani's book and the Spanish course mentioned in the same excerpt
are both available, used, from Abebooks, with "Langue et Langage" also
on sale at Amazon:
Langue et langage
by Oreste F. Pucciani
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0030452066/qid=1054894493/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-5248369-5665708?v=glance&s=books
Lengua y Cultura
by Jose Barcia
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookSearch
An example of a "learn abroad" course:
"The direct method, in conjunction with proven and modern instruction
material, is used. Right from the outset, the language of tuition is
German. Our teachers are fully qualified and teach in their native
language."
http://www.colon.de/english/german/courses.html
An example of a direct method course in Danish on tape:
http://www.videoed.com/c4039.html
Alternative link for the taped course
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cache:PsR_mnbuMggJ:www.videoed.com/c4039.html+%22direct+method%22+language+learn+OR+teaching+tape&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
A university course teaching Slovene by direct method:
http://ling.ucsd.edu/ling19/ling19langdis/ling19syllabi/SLOVENE.htm
===================
FURTHER INFORMATION
===================
As I prepared your answer, I found other references to the direct
method and "Lingua Latina" which might interest you. Here are some
excerpts and links to the full pages:
" . . schools like St. Joseph's Academy in Michigan have started to
use the textbook Lingua Latina per se Illustrata. The basic principle
of the method is not new, but follows the natural pattern of learning
language. The text is so arranged that it enables the student to
understand a new word or a new grammatical form from the context in
which it occurs, much more after the manner by which he learns his own
mother tongue. After using it several times in various contexts, its
meaning becomes firmly fixed in the students' minds. Latin vocabulary
and grammar are learned organically according to the same progressive
approach by which any of us learn to speak. The advantage of this
method is that it enables the student to understand the Latin text
just by reading it attentively without having to engage in the usual
mental gymnastics to translate it into English."
http://sspx.ca/Angelus/2001_November/Authors_After_thoughts.htm
"Is There a Recipe for Success?
Yes. It's described in this guide.
It goes as follows: (1) learn a few simple concepts necessary for
understanding Latin grammar -- what the "case" of a noun is, for
instance -- then (2) sit down and systematically learn the main
categories of Latin grammar by "brute memorization," and (3) begin
reading a direct-method Latin reader entitled Lingua Latina, doing all
the end-of-chapter exercises and making sure you understand every word
of every sentence.
If you follow this method, you can learn to actually read Latin --
again, to read Latin sentences in the same way you're reading this one
-- in about two years of daily work.
Two years sounds like a long time, but it's really nothing in
comparison to the world that opens up when you can sit down and read
Livy and understand what you're reading. This is like growing wings,
or being born into another existence."
Latin by the Dowling Method
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/Latin.htm
"The Direct Method
1. Why is this method known as the DIRECT method? What does the word
"direct" mean?
--The word direct refers to the direct connections between the new
words in Language2 and meanings or objects without translation into or
from Language1.
2. The method is also known as the Natural Method. What does the word
natural mean here?
-- to help Language2 learners learn the language in the same way
children learn the first language, which is considered the natural way
of language learning."
http://www.auburn.edu/~nunnath/engl6240/discuss1.html
"The Direct Method
[ . .]
This is the basis of the approach that is still used today by the
Berlitz language schools.
* 1. The language is seen as being fundamentally a means of
communication. The language that is taught is ordinary, every-day
language.
* 2. The theory of learning is based upon an associationist
psychology ; sounds (words) are associated with objects and with
actions, and then ideas are associated with other ideas. The route
into the L2 is direct - the learner does not translate, but links the
L2 word directly with the object that it represents. To do this
properly, she must take an active role in the learning process - both
asking and answering questions, reading aloud and so on. The L2
learning process is, as with Gouin and Comenius, taken to be very much
the same as the L1 learning process.
* 3. The teacher should preferably be a native-speaker of the
language. Her task is to present the language, and to direct classroom
activities. The language is presented through the teacher's monologue,
and the use of realia, or images or of representations of the objects
and actions - but it is above all the personal qualities of the
teacher that make or break the learning process. Sauveur, one of the
pioneers of the Direct Method, at the end of the 19thC, would hold the
attention of his learners on his performance, and was able to give
elaborate speeches even on the very first lesson."
History of Language Teaching putting "Direct Method" in context:
http://perso.club-internet.fr/tmason/WebPages/LangTeach/Capes/EpDossier/HistLectures/Lesson2.htm
Total immersion techniques for young children
http://www.globalideasbank.org/1993/1993-4.HTML
Criticisms of direct method
http://www.aber.ac.uk/~mflwww/seclangacq/langteach5.html
=================
THE SPROGINSTITUT
=================
I found no references to this Institute after the early 1970s, even
though I tried a variety of spellings! Mostly it just turns up in
lists of books, for instance:
"MALMBERG, Bertil (1964), New trends in Linguistics: an orientation.
Translated from the Swedish by Edward Carney. Stockholm & Lund:
Naturmetodens Sprĺkinstitut [V] + 226 pp. Reviews: László ANTAL as
late as 1964 in Linguistics 5.92-106 R.H. ROBINS in FL 7.431-33
(1971)"
http://www.yorku.ca/paull/syllabus/syllabus5601.html
I hope this gives you the information you wanted. Please remember that
you are very welcome to ask for further explanation of any of the
answer. In particular, if you would like me to find you a direct
method language course or textbook in a particular language, please
let me know by requesting 'clarification', and I'll be happy to help.
Regards - Leli
searches:
Lingua Latina language course
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+%22lingua+latina%22++language+course&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Lingua Latina Řrberg
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=+%22lingua+latina%22++orberg+OR+%C3%98rberg&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=70&sa=N
"direct method" combined with names of languages, or "audio tape"
for instance, "direct method" French
://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22direct+method%22+french&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
"language teaching" "direct method"
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22language+teaching%22+%22direct+method%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Searches for the Sproginstitut
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Naturmetodens+Sproginstitut+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Naturmetodens+institut&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Naturmetodens+Spr%C3%A5kinstitut&btnG=Google+Search&meta= |
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