Page:Handbook of Irish teaching - Mac Fhionnlaoich.djvu/15

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7
HANDBOOK OF IRISH TEACHING.

(2) It is easy for the pupils and not too hard upon the teacher, provided he knows the method, and has suitable text books. The learning of our native language by this method is a pleasant recreation and involves no drudgery.

(3) English is soon forgotten and left out of the question. Even when used it is only as a help to evoke an idea, which idea is not a mere translation of an English sentence. This idea when evoked is immediately associated in the student's mind with an Irish sentence.

(4) Under our oral system all can learn, the young, the old, the brilliant and the mediocre, and the rate of progress does not vary much as between students; just as children of various capacities learn to speak their mother tongue in much the same period of time.

(5) The progress made by students in a real knowledge of the language is much more rapid by the Gouin system than by the book method. I submit that it is also more rapid than by any other oral method.

(6) Reading and writing are also taught in Gouin instruction, but these follow instead of preceding the oral teaching. This is the natural order, (1) speaking, (2) reading, ($) writing.

(7) The series method may be effectively employed to teach history and other subjects in Irish. Historical series may be introduced at any stage, and the series will be none the less effectual for teaching the language while they also teach history.

(8) The method may be profitably employed in Irish-speaking districts to teach reading, spelling,