LANGUAGE 



3324 



LANGUAGE 



until the next year. They should be so taught 

 as to lead the pupils to realize the vital rela- 

 tion between language and arithmetic. It is 

 unnecessary to repeat here what has been said 

 about oral and written work in the previous 

 years. Some new phases, however, should now 

 be introduced. 



1. Study of the Sentence. The pupils may 

 have learned some of the parts of speech, as 

 noun, verb, pronoun. They may also have 

 learned the parts of a sentence. Be this as it 

 may, they should now learn the importance of 

 the sentence in both oral and written expres- 

 sion that unless one expresses himself in sen- 

 tences he says nothing in speaking or in writing. 

 Perhaps lack of sufficient drill upon the sen- 

 tence is the greatest weakness in the language 

 work of the public schools. Only the founda- 

 tion facts, that the essential parts of a sentence 

 are subject and predicate, that the subject and 

 predicate must agree in person and number, 

 and that in some sentences a third part, the 

 object, must be added to complete the mean- 

 ing, should be taught in this year; but these 

 great sentence facts should be dwelt upon until 

 the pupils thoroughly understand them. Some 

 special drill exercises will be necessary to secure 

 the desired results, but most of this study 

 should be in connection with the lines of work 

 already explained. 



2. Explanations. Some teachers carry ex- 

 planations in arithmetic to the extreme, and 

 when explanations are mentioned they imme- 

 diately think of those associated with that 

 study. An entirely different sort of an ex- 

 planation is meant here. Some boy knows how 

 to make a kite; let him explain to the class 

 how it is done. Assign the exercise two or 

 three days in advance, so that he may have 

 time to prepare for it, then expect a complete 

 explanation, and allow the members of the 

 class to ask such questions as may be necessary 

 to give them a clear understanding of the 

 subject. Ask a girl to explain how to cover 

 a book, or to make bread; use many common 

 occupations for material. The value of these 

 exercises consists in the training they give in 

 orderly arrangement of the subject on part of 

 the pupil, in leading to conciseness and defi- 

 niteness of statement and in thorough prepara- 

 tion on the subject. They lead the pupil to 

 talk before the class without suffering from a 

 self-consciousness that will deprive him of all 

 fluency in his recitation. The explanation is 

 the first step in a series of exercises which 

 should lead the pupils to become so proficient 



in oral composition that they can discuss in 

 public any question that they understand. 



3. Correspondence. Letter writing should 

 develop into correspondence this year. The 

 lessons in geography and history may be used 

 as the basis for this work. Pupils may write 

 letters describing some foreign country or a 

 distant city. The writer should assume that 

 he is living in the place described, and he 

 should be encouraged to put as much of his 

 personality into the letter as he can. History 

 pupils may assume that they are living in the 

 time studied, as, for instance, the time of the 

 Revolutionary War; now and then some pupil 

 may impersonate one of the characters of his- 

 tory and write the class a letter expressing his 

 views on some topic that was a live question 

 of that day. Some such plan as this gives 

 definiteness to the correspondence and affords 

 excellent training in the use of the imagination. 



Sixth Year. If pupils have been properly 

 trained in English they should be able to 

 speak and write with only occasional errors 

 when they enter upon their sixth year's work. 

 The errors will, in the main, be peculiar to 

 certain pupils, and the teacher can help herself 

 in securing their correction by keeping a sort 

 of card index of these errors. To illustrate : 



Andrew Johnson: Omits g from such words as 

 morning. Uses seen for saw and them for they. 



Tom Brown: Uses done for did. Subjects and 

 predicates do not agree in person and number. 



These cards enable the teacher to recall at a 

 glance just what faults should receive attention 

 in the work of each pupil, and by persistent 

 effort she will be able to correct most of such 

 errors during the year. The work of the fifth 

 year should be expanded. More extended 

 study should be given the sentence. All the 

 parts of speech should be learned, the parts of 

 a complex sentence studied, and the difference 

 between complex and compound sentences 

 should be taught. 



1. Business Letters and Forms. The pupils 

 should write letters applying for positions, or- 

 dering goods, asking payment for debts past 

 due, and letters to accompany remittances in 

 payment of bills (see LETTER WRITING, subhead 

 Business Letters). Special attention should be 

 given to form, punctuation and language. Im- 

 press upon the pupils the prestige that ability 

 to write a good business letter gives a person. 

 Pupils should receive such training in writing 

 promissory notes and receipts as will enable 

 them to write them correctly (see NOTE; RE- 

 CEIPT) . 



