This book does not represent an untried theory. It is the result of many years of successful teaching. As stated in the title, it is written to teach Spanish to beginners. I have named it Spanish Conversations in the Classroom: Spanish Through Spanish.

The aim is to teach Spanish in a very simple way, training the ear, the tongue and the mind at the same time. As the title "Spanish Through Spanish" indicates, I teach Spanish in Spanish, not in English.

Spanish is very easy to teach, and easy to learn, but one must follow fundamental laws of teaching and learning:

• two difficulties must not be presented at the same time;
• one must progress from the easy to the difficult;
• each lesson must be a continuation of yesterday's and a preparation for tomorrow's lesson;
• there must be many examples and few rules, etc.

There are many good textbooks for advanced students, but in every textbook of Spanish for beginners which I have seen, the poor beginner and his unfortunate teacher have to struggle with pronunciation, vocabulary, rules, etc., at the same time. This is a big mistake, and entirely contrary to good sense and principles of teaching. Not any of the books which I have seen contains regular lessons in pronunciation. Most of them have the alphabet with the equivalent pronunciation in English, long explanations about the different letters, but no regular lessons with exercises and drills in pronunciation. These exercises and drills are as important in Spanish as spelling is in English.

Spanish is a phonetic language, and we should never teach writing by spelling, but by sounds. In fact, I have never "spelled" a word in Spanish. I was taught in the phonetic way only, and great was my surprise to note, in some books for beginners, the inclusion of the burden of spelling! "Spelling in Spanish", said Gabriel Compayré toward the end of the last century, "is an old method entirely out of modern schools." (El deletreo es un procedimiento viejo enteramente deseartado de la escuela moderna.)

Instead of spelling drills there should be much dictation. If the teacher wishes to have matches in class, these must be in sounds and not in spelling. New words must be dictated to the class to ascertain if the students recognize the sounds when these are pronounced.

With respect to vocabulary: in all books for beginners which I have seen, words are piled up to serve as examples of the rules, and the student has to learn at the same time the rule--in English, of course--and the words to serve as examples for that particular rule. Some books claim that one of their features is "small vocabularies", and I have counted forty new words in one vocabulary list.

Some special features of my book are:

1. The six preliminary lessons are devoted entirely to teaching the Spanish sounds. It is indispensable to know the sounds well in order to write, to read, to speak the language correctly and quickly. As the students do not yet know a word in Spanish, these lessons are all easy, and do not tire, confuse or discourage the beginner; on the contrary, they arouse his interest--their simplicity makes it possible for him to learn from the moment he opens the book, and so he has the satisfying feeling of accomplishment.
2. I teach how to talk, before teaching grammar. The aim of the first group of lessons is to teach the vocabulary necessary for every person, young or old, who tries to learn Spanish. It is a big mistake to try to teach grammar and vocabulary at the same time, so I do not present these two difficulties together. If the students are really to learn Spanish, all classes must be conducted in Spanish. As the vocabulary necessary for teaching grammar is not the vocabulary of everyday use, it is better to teach the everyday vocabulary first and the grammatical terms later. The two should not be presented at the same time.
   
3. The presentation of grammar is in a very natural way, and my pupils do not find it dry, because by the time I go into grammatical explanations, they see how necessary grammar is in the study of Spanish. When I present grammar, my pupils put their minds only on the particular point I am teaching. They are not burdened with vocabulary also, since they already know many words. For instance, when I teach the conjugation of verbs, and the personal endings for the present tense, that is all they have to learn in that lesson, because they already know many verbs in the present tense, and they are pleased and encouraged to be able to give me examples of their own. In fact, I present grammar in the same way that it is presented to Spanish-speaking children, and to English-speaking children, who always have a satisfactgory vocabulary before they study the grammar of their language. Grammar is interesting when it is properly taught, and my pupils find themselves liking it instead of hating it.
   
4. I do not teach vocabulary by vocabulary lists, but by explanations and drills, by dictation and conversation. The students have to read "la conversación", where the vocabulary of the day is explained; and then, when the word is very well understood, the vocabulary must be written in a notebook for daily use in class. My objective is "Spanish Through Spanish".
   
   "La conversación" is the principal part of the lesson in the classroom. It must be read in class, the teacher being sure the pronunciation has been mastered correctly before asking the students to memorize the words. The purpose of "la conversación" is to serve as a reading lesson, at the same time teaching the vocabulary in an easy manner.
   
   Many people who come to me for the first time for the second year in Spanish say to me, without realizing that it is a confession of ignorance, "I know the conjugations very well, but you will have to give me the first person, then I can give you the rest." Others have to conjugate the whole tense if they need the third person plural. My method does away entirely with this sort of thing, because of the way in which I include "drills" in my teaching.
   
5. There is no connection between all the lessons in the book. For instance, pronunciation is not neglected after it is presented; every word or sentence learned is constantly used in class; difficult parts of grammar are repeated several times. It is impossible to omit one lesson and to continue with the rest, because the connection will be broken, and the pupils will not understand.
   
   There are several reviews in English which will make everything clear in the minds of the students. These reviews contain a vocabulary of the new words they have learned.
   
6. Variety is another feature of my book. I try to avoid routine in the presentation of the new points. Because I do not arrange every lesson in the same order, the students are always interested. Routine kills the interest of sutdents, and the teacher has to be careful to avoid this.
   
   To keep the interest, original stories have been written, most of them being anecdotes from the classroom or home. They are pages out of the beautiful book of life, full of intreest both for children and adults.
   
   There have been included in this work a section devoted to Verbs; and a Spanish-English Vocabulary. Thesee will be found at the end of the book. Whilst I am convinced that there is no substitute for study in the acquisition of a language, I feel that the addition of those facilities for speedy reference gives the work further value.
   
   It gives me pleasure gratefully to say a word of deep appreciation to Mr. Thomas C. Taylor of the Editorial Department of the Times-Mirror Press for his valuable suggestions and kind cooperation.