IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE TRAINING 53 



desire to speak properly, and a reason why the old usage is 

 not right ; the correct form must be clearly understood ; then 

 must follow long and patient drill to overcome habits of 

 years and existing daily environment. The mind must be 

 convinced, desire must be aroused, the ear and the tongue 

 must be educated, and the memory must be brought into 

 active service ; by these means considerable progress will be 

 made. That so many children do acquire a correct use of 

 English must be the teacher's encouragement in this some- 

 what disheartening task. 



Composition, or some form of written exercise, is an im- 

 perative part of language work. It should be used fre- 

 quently in every year of school life. The 

 Composition 



conversational ease and frequent laxity of 



oral exercises can be turned into more polished constructions 

 and accurate expressions when put into definite written form. 

 To a first grade child a written sentence should be a pictured 

 thought with letters, capitals, and punctuation marks all 

 properly arranged. By frequent drills, made so interesting 

 that they do not deaden the desire to acquire power and 

 knowledge, this acquaintance with a sentence must pass into 

 mechanical accuracy, until easy sentences are written prop- 

 erly, without that struggle for correct expression that so 

 frequently mars the pleasure of writing. Pupils like to 

 write. Unfortunately, injudicious teaching too often trans- 

 forms the pleasure into a dreaded task. 



Composition follows the lines of development observed in 

 oral exercises, through narration, description, and explana- 

 tion, into character sketches, biographical details, judgments, 

 discussions, debates. The first step is copying the composite 

 stories. Original reproductions come next. These, rare in 



