Charlotte Mason and foreign language

Charlotte Mason and foreign language (part 4)

Monsieur Gouin also stressed the lesson be done in context and relationship. As children originally learned language with these aids, they should learn their second language in the same fashion. Although Monsieur Gouin never suggested using stories in order to teach these lessons, I believe that Charlotte Mason would have been pleased if such a characteristic could be added to the lesson. Miss Mason suggested that a French nanny be hired amongst a couple of families in order for French to be taught to their children. Since that is impossible for most of us, then we must find another solution. The telling of stories, I believe, is that solution.

Monsieur Gouin's series were also directed to be in logical succession. The character and properties of the exercise, in addition to its development must be taken into account. Learning masses of disjoined words with no purpose does not aid a student in remembering the language, even if they remember the lesson. If the goal of instruction is to get through the lesson, then memorization will suffice. However, if it is learning the language then development and meaning must be addressed. The series we learn must be in relation to our world and experiences, and have relation to what we will need to learn to communicate with the foreign person.

A great quote of Monsieur Gouin's is: "the frequency of repetition of each term is proportional to the relative value of this term…" page 76. Monsieur Gouin stressed the importance of using high frequency words. The words that the foreigners used the most often in their language, and not a translation of our own high frequency word lists, is what Monsieur Gouin desires for the student to learn. What good is it to use the words we most use in our language, if they are of low frequency in the foreign language? This is another area that the neo-Humanistic method fails.

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note: this is part 4 of 10. Have you read Part 1?

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