Principles and Goals
There are two main goals to grammar-translation classes. One is to develop students’ reading ability to a level where they can read literature in the target language. The other is to develop students’ general mental discipline. As V. Mallison put it:
When once the Latin tongue had ceased to be a normal vehicle for communication, and was replaced as such by the vernacular languages, then it most speedily became a ‘mental gymnastic’, the supremely ‘dead’ language, a disciplined and systematic study of which was held to b indispensable as a basis for all forms of higher education.
The main principles on which the grammar translation method is based are the following:
- Translation interprets the words and phrases of the foreign languages in the best possible manner.
- The phraseology and the idioms of the target language can best be assimilated in the process of interpretation.
- The structures of the foreign languages are best learned when compared and contrast with those of first language.
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