The natural or direct method for teaching a foreign language uses only that language itself, with no explanations in a teaching language. New words are explained by those already learned and by pictures. Join methodological discussions at https://www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/
The natural or direct method was popular for teaching French, German, Spanish, and Latin from about 1890 - 1920. It formed the core of Berlitz materials at that time, and was a major influence on the development of the Linguaphone courses. In the 1950's, it was revived by the Nature Method Institute in Copenhagen, which first published Hans Ørberg's Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, as well as parallel format methods for English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, and Danish. While Ørberg's books are still in print, all of the others have long been hard to find. Thanks to the Internet Archive, increasing numbers of these are freely available in digital form. And now thanks to Ayan Academy, they are also being made available again in handsome hard copies as well. Ayan Academy is actively engaged in updating this material, expanding the range of languages to include Turkish and Czech, and providing free audio material for all of these on its YouTube channel. This is a fantastic undertaking to rescue undeservedly obscure material for all those with polyitis! Please visit, explore, and support them at: https://www.youtube.com/c/AyanAcademy/videos
If you enjoy learning from my videos, then you might enjoy learning with me in my virtual academy. Registration is ongoing, so you could join a session next week to improve your abilities to read French, German, or Spanish literature, practice spoken Latin, learn to read Medieval languages, participate in Great Books discussion seminars, or get support for teaching yourself languages, including participation in study-with-me sessions: https://www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/
