Flow sheet of improved process for learning French without tears
Item
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Title
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Flow sheet of improved process for learning French without tears
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Description
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If [a student] is so fortunate as to have his elementary French taught by a theoretic linguist, he first has the proems of the English formula explained in such a way that they become semiconscious, with the result that they lose the binding power over him which custom has given them, though they remain automatic as far as English is concerned. Then he acquires the French patterns without inner opposition, and the time for attaining command of the language is cut to a fraction. (See figure: Flow sheet of improved process for learning French without tears. Guaranteed: no bottlenecks in production.)
To be sure, probably no elementary French is ever taught in this way—at least not in public institutions. Years of time and millions of dollars' worth of wasted educational effort could be saved by the adoption of such methods, but men with the grounding in theoretic linguistics are as yet far too few and are chiefly in the higher institutions.
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Creator
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Whorf, Benjamin Lee
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Date
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1940
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Source
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Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf ; Linguistics as an Exact Science
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Bibliographic Citation
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Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1956. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Edited and with an Introduction by John B. Carroll. MIT Press. Figure 14, page 225. ;; Whorf, Benjamin Lee. 1940. "Linguistics as an Exact Science." Technology Review 43:61-63, 80-83 (December 1940).
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