The Map for Pattern Practice

Abstract

From Amos Comenius' Janua linguarum reserata (1631) to our age of gadgets, imaginative teachers of foreign languages have been trying to bridge the gap between verba et res, between the word and the thing or thought it represents. Yet in this continued search for effective catalysts in the language learning process, relatively little attention is being paid to the wall map. To be sure, there are some excellent contributions on the subject of FL class geography and on certain uses of the in first year German by Joseph K. Bihl1 and Rudolph F. Wagner,2 but neither includes suggestions for the utilization of the for pattern practice. The following is intended to give hints on this missing aspect. Next to the irreplaceable blackboard there is hardly another nontechnical aid as versatile, ever ready, and inexhaustible as a large wall map. Especially with pattern practice, it can provide countless things and situations,-or at least acceptable substitutes thereforfor of any conceivable structural item in the target language. From the simple utterances of the first week to the most difficult structures the can serve as a catalyst for the verba-res reunion whenever needed, or whenever a change from other drill routines might be desirable. A few things ought to be observed to make map drills a success: