TnE ever increasing insistence on the necessity of teaching modern languages as living languages has resulted in the virtually uncontested supremacy of the "direct method" over the "grammatical method." Whether the so-called direct method be applied consistently or with occasional compromises, its aim has always surely been to ensure a greater "practical" use of the foreign language. To accomplish this aim, the teachers of this method have emphasized particularly oral and aural work. As one important phase of this oral and aural work, pronunciation assumes naturally a major role. In my talk this morning I propose to analyze certain aspects and results of this phase of direct method teaching (as I have observed them in teachers and students of German) and also to describe to you my own application of the direct method to the teaching of German pronunciation. I shall intentionally use the first person in this talk, for I want you to interpret what I have to say, as a record of my own experiences and as my own personal observations and conclusions. And I hope, if what I say evokes criticism and discussion, that this criticism and discussion will be expressed in the first person as the personal observations and experiences of the critic. For I don't believe that we shall get near the solution of our pedagogical problems merely by continued reiterations of certain so-called principles of foreign language teaching as, e.g., in our case, "we must teach the direct method," or "we must teach more conversation" or "we must teach Biihnendeutsch." 2 What most of us want to know is how teachers apply generally accepted principles, how they teach, in other words.