LANGUAGE 



3325 



LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD 



2. Talks before the School. Great interest 

 can be added to the morning exercises by hav- 

 ing different pupils give talks of two or three 

 minutes on subjects in which pupils of this 

 grade are interested. One boy may tell how 

 shoes are made; a girl may tell about the 

 home of Louisa M. Alcott, and possibly describe 

 one of her books; another may tell about the 

 robin or some other bird common to the lo- 

 cality. An abundance of material for these 

 talks may be found in these volumes. Two or 

 three talks a week can easily be arranged. In 

 giving them the pupil has only taken a step in 

 advance of explaining a subject to the class, 

 and the benefit derived from the exercise is well 

 worth the time and effort required. 



3. The Study of Literature. Pupils now have 

 enough power of discrimination to study with 

 profit some of the best literature. This will 

 enable them to enrich their vocabularies an d 

 to become so familiar with the figures of speech 

 that they will use them in their conversation 

 and oral composition. Teachers sometimes fail 

 to secure the results expected because they 

 choose too difficult selections. A selection for 

 critical study should be easily understood by 

 the pupils, otherwise so much thought must be 

 given to the interpretation that there is little 

 left for analysis. Moreover, a thorough study 

 of a selection which the pupil thinks he knows 

 perfectly will usually bring out meanings that 

 he never thought of. Bryant's Gladness of 

 Nature, Lowell's The First Snowfall and Long- 

 fellow's A Psalm of Life are good examples of 

 poems suitable for study during this year, and 

 Hawthorne's Tales of the White Hills, Dickens' 

 Christmas Carol and Irving's Rip Van Winkle 

 and Legend of Sleepy Hollow serve as good 

 examples of what may be used. Care should be 

 taken not to make the study cover so many 

 details that the pupils will tire of the selection 

 before it is completed. 



Seventh and Eighth Years. The additional 

 work of these years should consist in the study 

 of formal grammar (see GRAMMAR). Addi- 

 tional facilities for written and oral expression 

 should be given. In connection with this work 

 the word composition should be avoided. Pu- 

 pils write without hesitation exercises to which 

 their work naturally leads, but composition 

 usually suggests something formal and dreadful. 

 Doubtless they have been writing compositions 

 all these years without realizing it. 



1. Debates. Every boy by the time he has 

 reached the age of twelve likes to engage in 

 argument, so an occasional debate should con- 



stitute a feature of the seventh year's work. 

 The argument, like the explanation, leads to 

 logical arrangement of his discourse on part 

 of the pupil, and also to thorough preparation. 

 Subjects chosen should always be within the 

 grasp of the pupils, and within the range of 

 their interests. Such questions as why the new 

 schoolhouse should have an assembly hall, or 

 why the school grounds should be enlarged, will 

 secure a lively debate in which the pupils will 

 freely express their opinions. 



2. The Literary Society. Much interest can 

 be added to the work in language during the 

 eighth year by the organization of a literary 

 society or club, to be managed by the pupils 

 under supervision of the teacher. For plan for 

 organizing and conducting such a society, see 

 PARLIAMENTARY LAW. W.F.R. 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes have to do with the general sub- 

 ject of language study. Some of them are more 

 closely related to the more formal topic of gram- 

 mar, but the line of division is not sharply drawn : 



Adjective 



Adverb 



Article 



Case 



Comparison 



Conjugation 



Conjunction 



Debate 



Declension 



Dictionary 



Etymology 



Gender 



Grammar 



Infinitive 



Inflection 



Interjection 



Letter Writing 



Literature 



Mode 



Noun 



Parsing 



Participle 



Parts of Speech 



Penmanship 



Person 



Preposition 



Pronoun 



Punctuation 



Quotation Marks 



Sentence 



Story-Telling 



Syntax 



Tense 



Verb 



LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD. Occa- 

 sionally some man appears who makes it his 

 life work to set forth the advantages that 

 would follow if all the world spoke one tongue ; 

 consequently, several "universal languages" 

 have been evolved. There is Volapiik, or 

 "world speech," which dates from 1879; it was 

 the inspiration for international congresses and 

 found supporters in every civilized country; 

 there is also Esperanto, which still thrives and 

 has grammars and periodicals devoted to it; 

 there is "idiom neutral," an outgrowth of Vola- 

 puk, which is considered to be so simple that 

 an educated reader can master it well enough 

 to read it within a few hours. 



Some of the advocates of these universal 

 tongues are so enthusiastic and so hopeful that 

 they believe it would actually be possible, 

 though a slow process, to supplant other Ian- 



