Written exercises on direct and indirect quotations

Preface

In watching the development of language in normal children it is observed that so soon as a child has fairly passed the first or listening stage and has entered the language-using stage that a large part of its oral expressions are in the form of question and answer. The child replies to the questions asked by parents and playmates and in turn plies them with incessant interrogations. A step farther and the child rehearses what he has been told and the questions he has been asked. The modern methods of teaching foreign languages take cognizance of these suggestions of nature and employ the language to be acquired in multitudinous questions and answers on subjects connected with the familiar events of daily experience.

The successive chapters of this book are intended to furnish a large amount of such language exercises. The basis of the work is an article by Mrs. Anna C. Hurd, originally published in the American Annals for the Deaf in April of 1902, which gives a carefully prepared outline of constructions using the verbs to ask, to say, and to tell.

The employment of pictures suggesting clearly to the child's mind situations and subjects for conversation will be found most helpful in the effort to aid pupils in mastering these intricate changes in the use of direct and indirect discourse. It is our hope that this little book may prove useful to teachers of foreign languages and to teachers of the deaf.

Caroline A. Yale.

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Introduction

To write and read," said Dogberry, "comes by nature," a belief so delightful in its charming simplicity that we accept with a sigh our inability to share it. In justice to Dogberry it is only fair to assume that he was never called upon to teach the subject of direct and indirect discourse to a class of deaf children. So f?r it is from coming "by nature" that the most careful and systematic of oral teaching needs the reinforcement of written practice. This supplementary work has been prepared and hektographed from day to day, the sentences used being suggested largely by schoolroom occurrences. In the effort to secure more variety and naturalness of expression, pictures were introduced, the people in them named, and their imaginary conversations used for the written lessons.

The following pages contain one set of such hektographed lessons and are designed simply for practice work, being so arranged that when a written exercise on any construction is needed the teacher may find ready a certain amount of written work on that construction together with review of the one or ones preceding.

With the oral drill action work is also used to a large extent as one means of giving the children both connected and natural language; e. g. Mary hands her pencil to Tom and says, "Please sharpen it for me." The pupil says Mary handed her pencil to Tom and asked him to sharpen it for her.

The teacher hands a book to Mary and says, 'Read the first two stories." Miss Barr handed a book to Mary and told her to read the first two stories. She lights a fire in the toy stove and says to Tom, " Where is the coal hod?" Miss Barr lighted a fire and asked Tom where the coal hod was. Tom gets it and says, ' 'Shall I fill it?" Tom got it and asked her if he should fill it.

This oral work on direct and indirect discourse also offers an opportunity for the use of and and but as illustrated in Lessons XXII., XXIIL, and XXIV.

The harder work on the infinitive which is shown in Lesson IV. may at the teacher's discretion be postponed and taken as review work later after other constructions have been taught

And again the construction — asked — if — is often begun before all the forms of — - told — that — have been used.

In short with this as with other language work the teacher must adapt the general plan to the needs and ability of her class.

We wish to express our indebtedness to Mrs. Anna C. Hurd, whose outline of asked and told constructions forms the basis of these exercises, and to Miss Abby Tilden Baker, by whose suggestion and with whose help the lessons have been arranged.

J. E. W.

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