3638 A BRIEF GERMAN COURSE BY C. F. KAYSER, PH.D. FIRST ASSISTANT IN GERMAN AND LATIN AND F. MONTESER, PH.D. HEAD OF GERMAN DEPARTMENT DE WITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK NEW YORK-:-CINCINNATI-:-CHICAGO EducT 1717.04, 470 HARVARD COLI FCE LIBRARY COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY C. F. KAYSER AND F. MONTESER Entered at Stationers' Hall, London BRIEF GERMAN COURSE W. P. 4 PREFACE THE PRESENT volume owes its origin and existence to two distinct convictions on the part of the authors. In the first place, they have found by experience that the customary treatment of German grammar, based on the systematic presentation of the parts of speech in their traditional order, is not productive of the best results, especially with pupils of high school age. On the other hand, those few books that have attempted to vary that method and to present the subject of introductory German more in accordance with pedagogic principles have been found unsatisfactory for our purposes, either on account of being too narrow in scope and too elementary, or on account of being one-sided through over-emphasizing or under-emphasizing certain particular phases of the work, or, finally, on account of being impractical because they failed to take into proper consideration both the time limits imposed upon the work by the conditions of the class room and the nature of the results expected from the students. The authors of "A Brief Course in German" have endeavored to avoid these defects and, at the same time, to provide a book containing all the necessary material in the proper proportions to enable the student to fulfill the requirements of the "Elementary German Course" as defined by the recommendations of the Committee of Ten of the Modern Language Association and of the College Entrance Examination Board. While they do not claim to have discovered a short road to German which will make work and effort on the part of pupils and teachers unnecessary, the authors are con |