ORAL AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE 59 



The children are requested to ask about something. Some 

 of the questions are written upon the board, attention being 

 called to the mark that is now put at the end. Correct punc- 

 tuation does not come until the child discriminates accurately 

 between the statement and the question, and this is an accom- 

 plishment that is acquired more slowly than is usually recog- 

 nized by teachers. 



Very early in the year the daily time allotment for lan- 

 guage can be put to two uses, ten minutes for story telling, 

 or the bringing together of material; and ten minutes for 

 formal language drills, or the correction of errors noted in 

 the telling of the stories or in the child's conversation. The 

 two periods should be distinct, separated by an hour or more, 

 so that the pupil does not get the idea that his language is 

 under severe surveillance when he is talking. Self-con- 

 sciousness increases the number of mistakes with many 

 pupils and often destroys all spontaneity of narration. Cor- 

 rection of errors is not the sole purpose of the narrations, 

 and the children should not feel that such is the case. 



Among the many errors noted during the first four months 



the following were taken for special, daily drills : " I seen," 



" have got," " is broke," " I goed," " aint," 



Technical he ^ Mewed> ,, drawedj keeped," 



" brung," " writed," " you was," " they is," 

 " I are," " I runned," and " tored." One error is taken as 

 the special thought for a week, although many other correc- 

 tions are made during the same time. Many correct sen- 

 tences are given by the children in quick, snappy drills. 

 Some of these sentences are written upon the board for gen- 

 eral reading and for drills in capitalization and punctuation. 

 By the beginning of the fifth month the pupils are copying 



