Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Kovács, Éva: The History of Teaching Vocabulary

- 126 use material association there is no reason whntnver why this mode should not be given preference, but wlien neither the objects nor pictures representing them are available, translation is by. no means to be despised and will very often be found more 'direct' than the two other modes (Palmer 1917: 55). Palmer knows for sure from practice that bilingual associations cannot be avoided. The tendency of the average student, more especially in the early stages, is to associate the foreign word with its native equivalent. We may, if we choose so, assure him, that this is a vicious tendency: we may go to great trouble to replace it by the three other modes. We may refuse to give him the native equivalent and forbid the use of the bilingual dictionary. But we eta not and cannot prevent the student from forming bilingual association if tie wishes to do so (Palmer 1917: 69). That is why Palmer disapproves of the exclusion of translation as a means of sematicizing both pedagogically and from the point of view of usefulness. I think we can share Palmer's opinion that no hard-and-fast rules can be laid down as concerns the permissible ways of semanticizing. When conveying the meaning of a certain lexical item we cannot say that exclusively only one method can be used and we cannot totally reject any of them. Each of them lias its own place and any of them can be effective and reasonable. Palmer also points to the importance of the visual method as the most important mnemonic method in language teaching which helps to form correct associations. No doubt, especially in the primary school it is more reasonable and effective than verbal explanation. New let rne sum up Palmer's basic methodological principles in the light of teaching lexis which tie laid down in The Principles of Language Study: 1. Palmer regards language learning as a liabit forming process, a process during which we must acquire new habits. We may acquire proficiency in two ways: by farming new habits or by utilizing and adopting appropriate old habits (i. e. habits already aquired). By the oatural or spontaneous method we learn unconsciously; we must therefore train ourselves or our students to form habits unconsciously. When