A textbook on Spanish. Vol. 3 Spanish Reader

Scranton: International textbook company, 1903. — 582 p.To increase the student's vocabiilary. To this end, the student is furnished with a Spanish-English Lexicon containing all the words found in the Reader and in the other parts of the Course, except those forms of inflective words that are derived from a fundamental form according to the general rules laid down in the Grammar, and words that, on account of their structural similarity to their English equivalents, can be readily translated by inspection. To afford the student further opportunities to accustom himself to reading a7id thinking in Spanish. He should first read each selection hi Spanish; that is, without mentally replacing the Spanish words and phrases by their English translations. When he finds a word or an idiomatic expression the meaning of which he does not know, it will, of course, be necessary for him to refer to the Lexicon or to the explanatory foot notes in the Reader; but, once he knows what that word or expression means, he should discard English entirely, endeavoring to associate every Spanish word and phrase directly with the idea it represents, instead of associating it with the corresponding English word or phrase. The only way in which this direct association can be accomplished is by constant repetition. Each paragraph should be read aloud several times, until it can be read fluently, and everything in it is readily understood; that is, until the Spanish text looks and sounds to the student as “natural” as if it were written in his own language.