The teaching of English, teaching the art and science of language

Front matter

fifass L-lJ Id 7 L Book 'JxS.

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

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Part I The Expressional Aspect Of Composi- Tion

CHAPTER PAGE

I. INTRODUCTORY CONSIDERATION . . i Composition a Natural Exercise, i ; The Art of Composition Is the Art of Thinking, 3; The Spirit in Composition Teaching, 4; The Teaching Problems in Composition, 6.

II. INFORMAL COMPOSITION IN THE

FIRST FOUR- YEARS 10

Oral Conversation and Reproduction Lessons 10

The Method Governed by the Basic Difficulties, 10.

Oral Work in the Primary Grades . . 12

A. Conversation and Reproduction Lessons, 12; Opportunities for Oral Language Lesson, 20.

III. FORMAL COMPOSITION IN THE FIRST

FOUR YEARS 22

The Need of Formal Language Drills, 22; Memorization and Recitation, 23; Learning the Necessary Language Facts, 24; The Systematic Correction of Common Errors of vii viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Speech, 31; Development of Efficiency in Early Language Work Is Slow and Difficult, 35.

Written Work in the Primary Grades . . 38 Its Minor Position, 38; The Transition from Oral to Written Composition, 39.

IV. COMPOSITION IN THE GRAMMAR

GRADES . 42

The Selection of a Proper Subject . . 42

The Method-whole in Composition, 42; The Preparatory Period, 43.

The Selection of the Subject .... 44 The Sources of Subject-matter, 44.

V. COMPOSITION IN THE GRAMMAR

GRADES (Continued) .... 63 How Secure Organization and Sequence:

The Outline 6^

The Tendency to Ramble, 6^; The Principle of Organization Taught by the Outline, 64; Values of the Outline, 66; The Drill to Insure Mastery of the Outline, 6y; Cautions in Developing Outlines, 70; How to Secure Variety in the Outlines, 71 ; How Closely Shall the Outline Be Followed? 74; Supplementary Means of Developing Power of Organization, 76.

VI. COMPOSITION IN THE GRAMMAR

GRADES (Continued) .... 78

EXPRESSIONAL LIMITATIONS : ThE MoDEL . . 78

Group Teaching, 79 ; The Outline, 80 ; The Intimacy of Grammar and Composition, 80.

The Model 82

Basic Principle of Teaching Language Through a Model, 82; The Selection of the

CONTENTS • ix

CHAPTER PAGE

Model, 83; General Treatment of the Model, 91; How Closely Shall the Model Be Followed? 103; Should the Model Precede or Follow the Composition? 104; How to Prevent Slavish Imitation of the Model, 106.

Vn. THE CORRECTION OF WRITTEN COM- POSITIONS . . . . . .115

The Period of Written Composition, 115.

The Period of Correction 119

Objects of Correction, 119; The Time for Correction, 120; Incorrect Method, 120; The Method of Correcting Written Work, 122; Seeming Limitations of the Method, 124; Eliminating Individual Errors, 124; How Shall the Class Work Be Kept? 128; The Rewriting of Corrected .Compositions, 128.

VIII. HOW TO VITALIZE COMPOSITION EX- ERCISES 130

Introduction, 130; Greater Emphasis on Letters, 130; The Correspondence Should Treat of Actual Affairs of Real Life, 131 ; The Correspondence Itself Should Be Real, 132; The Class Journal with Its Board of Editors Elected or Selected, 133 ; Use Debatable Topics, 134; Aim at Variety of Form and Content, 135; The Teacher, 157.

Part II The Formal Aspect Of Composition

IX. THE TEACHING OF SPELLING . • . .160

Expressional vs. Formal Aspect of Composition, 160; Spelling Usually Tested, Not

X • CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Taught, i6o; Objects of the Teaching of Spelling, i6i ; Principles Guiding the Selection of Spelling Words, 162; Source of Spelling Words, 165 ; Media of Presenting Spelling Words, 166; Method of Teaching Spelling, 172; Procedure in Teaching Words, 172; General Considerations Governing Drills in Spelling, 176; Independent Study of Spelling, 178; The Test in Spelling, 179; Record of Misspelled Words, 181 ; Enriching the Spelling List, 183.

X. THE MEANING AND USE OF NEW

WORDS 185

The Enrichment of Vocabulary . . . 185 Shall There Be Formal Instruction in the Meaning and Use of New Words? 185; Selection of the "Meaning and Use" List, 186; Methods of Teaching Meaning of New Words, 187; How Make the Use of New Words Habitual, 190; Definitions, 192; The Supplementary Means of Increasing Vocabulary, 194.

XI. DICTATION: TEACHING THE FORMAL

ASPECT OF COMPOSITION . . .198

Objects of Dictation Lessons, 197; The Choice of the Selection to Be Dictated, 198; Procedure in the Dictation Lesson, 200.

XIL MEMORY GEMS: MEMORIZATION AND

^ RECITATION 206

Value of Memory Gems, 206; The Selection of the Memory Gem, 207; Motivating the Memory Gems, 208; Procedure in Memorizing Literary Gems, 209; Retention Through

CONTENTS xi

CHAPTES PAGE

Thought Rather than Through Memory Appeal, 213; Aids to Memorization, 214; The Recitation, 214.

XIII. THE VALUES OF FORMAL GRAMMAR . 217

The Disputed Place of Grammar in the Modern Curriculum, 217; Grammar a Discredited Subject, 218; Values of Grammar, 223.

XIV. PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE TEACH-

ING OF GRAMMAR 229

Begin with the Sentence, 229; Make the Work as Concrete and Practical as Possible, 230; Shall the Method in Grammar Be Inductive or Deductive? 232; The Use of the Type Form Must Not Be Overem.phasized, 239; By Avoiding Stereotyped Definitions and Set Formulae We Are Saved from Another Erroneous Form of Teaching Grammar, 240; The Application Step Is the Final Justification of Grammar and Must Be Accorded the Most Important Place in the Lesson, 242; Function Should Be Made Focal in All Grammatical Analysis, 244; Analysis Is Important but We Must Not Analyze for the Sake of Analysis, 245; "Parsing Is Essential if Used Within Bounds," 246; "False Syntax" Must Be Emphasized, for It Is an Effective Means of Applying the Facts of Grammar, 248; Great Care Must Be Exercised in the Organization of Tests, 249; Proper Reviews Are Essential for Successful Work in Grammar, 255; The Textbook Must Be Used Frequently in the Teaching of Grammar, 256; Careful Gradation is a Potent Factor in Removing Difficulties of i Comprehension in Grammar, 257; All Gramxii CONTENTS

matical Forms and Functions Must Be Taught in the Same Association in Which They Will Be Used in Natural Speech, 259; Summary: Place of Grammar in the Elementary Curriculum, 262.

PART I

THE EXPRESSIONAL ASPECT OF COMPOSITION

Chapter I

Composition a Natural Exercise. — Composition is that exercise in which ideas are ordered in a rational sequence and then expressed in accordance with recognized standards of form. This broad conception of the term composition shows at once how varied the art of composing may be, for there are as many kinds of composition as there are forms of expression. He who is dramatizing an action that grips him, making a pictorial representation of a scene that thrills him, or translating in symbols of musical notation a melody or sentiment that charms him, is engaged in the art of composition as truly as if he were employing language, written or oral, to express this action or scene or sentiment. In all these kinds of art an individual must group his ideas in

I rational sequence and give expression to theni in strict accord with st^dard forms. This study concerns itself with one phase only of the general art of composition, for it confines itself to verbal composition.

This theoretical definition has a very practical bearing on the work of the elementary school-teacher because it shows clearly how simple and natural an art composition is. It strips composition of the mystery and of the stiff and forbidding formalism which usually accompany it. Children must be shown that they are constantly composing, that they have been constantly composing and that they will continue to compose as long as they participate in rational communication. Composition must be shown to them to be as necessary an activity as talking or walking. The child must be led to recognize that he has 'Composition ability" of no mean degree. Teachers, too, must realize that most children are not deficient in the art of composition. As we listen to a narrative of a ten-year-old lad who is giving his friend a verbal picture of the athletic game he saw, or to a description by his little sister, half his age, of the particular doll that has caught her fancy, we become convinced that the art of composition is not foreign to the child. In the formal classroom lesson the life of the informal narrative and the charm of the child's description are ruthlessly crushed by the formidable technical laws of grammar and rhetopc which are imposed upon children. How to transfer this native ability to compose, so manifest in informal intercourse, to the formal language lessons, is the problem, the solution of which shall occupy the succeeding chapters.

Tlie Art of Composition Is the Art of Thinking. — Composition properly taught has far-reaching educational influences. The very definition and illustrations of the art of composition show that it gives the child a training in thinking through a process of self-expression. A well-graded systematic course in composition is a means of developing clear and sequential thought. But the thought activities of the child are developed in composition only as the pupil consistently and persistently expresses himself. This form of mental development through self-expression is the ideal in the educative process. This estimate of the educational worth of composition is not extravagant when compared to the conceptions of its educative worth as formulated by specialists in the teaching of English. Sykes tells us that in composition, *'The pupil's mind and life must be brought into close relationship with his efforts at self-expression." If we recall the definition of composition, this statement follows as a natural corollary. Carpenter, Baker, and Scott see in composition an exercise which is "a process of growth of the child's own capabilities, by careful observation, correct inference and adequate expression." The teaching of composition involves more than merely teaching the child to express himself ; it means teaching him to see and to think and to formulate correctly and systematically the inferences from life's experiences.

The Spirit in Composition Teaching. — The failure or the success of a composition lesson is determined to a greater extent than in almost any other school subject, by the spirit in which the recitation is conceived and carried out. In order to insure the proper atmosphere and spirit rapport between pupils and teacher two general cautions must constantly be kept in mind.

1. The Play Spirit Must Pervade the Composition Period. — Composition is too often an unwelcome period to the child. It completely overwhelms him with technicalities and empty formalism. He is asked to write on topics that are far indeed from his sphere of life; there is little that he cares to say about them. If by chance the topic is one concerning which he feels an urgency to express himself, he finds that all pleasure of self-expression is lost, for he must be careful of his penmanship; he must spell words in accordance with a tradition that seems to obey no phonetic law; his verbs must show agreement with subjects; he must bear in mind punctuation, capitalization, the thousand annoying concerns and cares that make composition a burden in his school life. Composition is an art and, like all art, is conceived in the spirit of play and is designed to give intense pleasure. The composition of the classroom must be as attractive as any other art and as natural as play.^

2. Technique Must Be Subordinated to Expres-

ion. — The second word of caution reminds the

teacher that in a composition exercise, form must be

subordinated to content. In the formal lesson the child must be no more conscious of the laws of paragraphing, of sentence structure or of punctuation than he is conscious of these in the informal speech of his daily life. The child should learn the laws of sequence, coherence, narration and description as he learns the laws of an athletic game. In baseball, the child gives all attention to the playing, not to the science of the game; in the actual progress of the game the rules are mere incidentals. No boy has ever deliberately memorized the regulations governing various athletic activities; yet what a mastery of them he has developed! The science of the game and the niceties of form which the child acquires are unconscious results of constant playing for the sake of the game itself rather than for its technique. So, too, the laws of unity, development, suspension, ease, force — the whole series of rhetorical laws which constitute the literary technique so pretentiously imposed upon the child — should be learned through actual expression rather than through formal teaching. A composition lesson, conceived in any but this informal spirit, and conducted with a rigor and a formalism altogether too frequent in class instruction, must inevitably produce the stilted and lifeless effects which the average school child turns out. In the light of these two cautions which are sounded in the initial step in the study of methods of teaching composition, we cannot be too severe in our condemnation of the pedagogy which the educational system of one of our leading cities offered to its teachers in its manual. Although it is not part of the current manual of that city, its s^jirit still animates much of the work in elementary composition.

When any topic such as sugar, nickel, circulation of the blood or the indestructibility of matter has been as fully treated in a conversational lesson and review as may be thought expedient, the exercise in composition should immediately follov^. This should be a class exercise. Care should be taken that the pupils do not make them so long as to prevent proper correction. To insure a proper variety of thought and expression it is necessary that the oral lesson which formed the basis of the composition should be so selected as to give a considerable number of interesting points or items. If injuriously frequent repetition and review are avoided the several pupils will recall different groups of items and all undue sameness will be prevented. When identical phrases or sentences are frequently found in the exercises they are unquestionable evidence of bad methods, both in the oral lessons and in the teaching of composition.

The Teaching Problems in Composition. — In the teaching of composition there is a threefold aim which must be achieved. We must now turn to each member of this triple problem to consider its importance and scope in class teaching.

The first aim in the teaching of composition is to stimulate a thought basis for expression. As the formal composition lesson begins, the sources of expression seem to dry up, and the children seem to have no problem in their lives that demands expression, no urgency that craves solution, no personal preference that prompts intercourse and an attempt at convincing others. This seeming dearth of material worthy of expression does not present a very difficult teaching problem. A little thought and sympathetic insight into child life soon reveal a great number of topics that especially appeal to the imagination of growing children, to their love of story, of action, of biography. The child's emotions and interests are intense even if they are short-lived; his likes and dislikes are many though ever changing. The sympathetic and resourceful teacher therefore need never lack an appropriate subject for children's compositions.

The second problem is to teach our children the laws of expression, the standards of language. The child must learn and obey the rules prescribed by legitimate usage, by grammar, and rhetoric. Here, too, we have a comparatively simple pedagogical task. A little patience and skill will enable a teacher to teach any law of grammar or rhetoric appropriate to the age and capabilities of the children. If the first lesson does not bring comprehension, a second or a third period of graded and properly presented exercises will serve this end.

The third aim of composition teaching is to inculcate in the pupil the habit of employing in the expression of his ideas those laws and principles of composition that have been taught him. This is the most vital problem, for it is the crux in composition teaching. Any seventh-year pupil can be taught that double negatives are wrong, that a participle alone cannot be a predicate, but not every child can be readily trained to avoid "ain't got no," "I seen," or "he done" — expressions that have the force of years of constant use back of them.

Habit is the result of constant drill through regular and frequent repetitions. Class teaching is today so hampered by its inherent limitations that this drill in sufficient repetitions in composition lessons is almost impossible. Composition has a science and an art side. The science of composition the child can readily learn but the art of composition he acquires only after long, conscientious and laborious practice. It must also be remembered that the incorrect forms that are characteristic of the speech of children have already been habituated and, in many cases, are further strengthened by the influences of home and street. The teacher must realize the colossal task that c^^tifronts him in composition teaching in all cosmopolitan cities and towns. Teachers must learn to feel that they are teachers of composition first and foremost, that an error in English is primary, that inaccuracies in facts of history, geography or arithmetic may, and should, be subordinated to correctness of speech. Teachers in the departmental system who are responsible for only one or two subjects must bear this particular dictum in mind. The departmental teacher who teaches English must communicate with his colleagues, tell them the specific forms of speech that are being taught and thus secure their cooperation by asking them to constantly correct the speech of children in all subjects. Unless teachers consciously emphasize the application of the lessons of the English period in all lessons, it would be better to eliminate the formal teaching of language.

Carpenter, Baker and Scott. The Teaching of English, pp. 75-81. Longmans, Green & Co.

Hosic, James F. The Elementary School Course in English, Introduction. University of Chicago Press.

O'Shea, M. V. Linguistic Development and Education, chaps. I and II. The Macmillan Co.

* The bibliographies at the end of each chapter are not exhaustive. The aim is, rather, to suggest such reading as will amplify and elaborate the various phases of the subject treated in each chapter. Where the publisher is not mentioned, the reader will find the book or the reference listed at the end of a previous chapter.

Chapter II Informal Composition In The First Four

YEARS

ORAL CONVERSATION AND REPRODUCTION LESSONS

The Method Governed by the Basic Difficulties. — Before planning her method of presentation in a specific subject, a teacher must comprehend clearly the basic problems which confront her. The method she finally evolves must be such as is designed to meet these specific difficulties. The primary grade teacher feels herself completely overwhelmed by a host of puzzling conditions which the children create when the formal work in composition is begun. When finally systematized and simplified, these difficulties group themselves under three heads. What, then, are the basic difficulties which children present to the teacher of primary composition?

The initial problem is found in the fact that these children seem to have nothing to say in the dignified composition period. The noisy, active, talkative child is now a social vacuum. A second aggravating problem is produced by the timidity and the backwardness of the child. The newness of the work, the strangeness of classroom procedure, the consciousness of personal limitations make these children unable to forget themselves, to come out of their shells, to lose themselves in the subject that the teacher suggests. It is obvious that much coaxing and emotional sympathy are necessary. The difficulty of these circumstances Is increased by a third problem, viz., the deficiency of expression. The vocabularies of these children seem too meager to enable them to express themselves even if they have ideas that crave communication.

In the light of the basic difficulties that we have enumerated, what must the method of Instruction be? The answer was suggested in the observation above: the method must be governed by these problems; It must seek to counteract them at every step In the lesson. With this end in view it can readily be seen that the method must be, In the main, an oral one — almost exclusively so in the first two years of the course — with only a crude attempt at written composition in the third year. It is through skillful oral Instruction that the patient teacher strives to awaken In the mind of the child preferences and Interests that crave expression; It Is through the Interest and the Ingenuity of the treatment that she hopes to attract the child until he becomes so absorbed In the topic that he forgets himself and Is thus no longer conscious of personal limitations, and talks freely and spontaneously; it Is through proper gradation and organization of the oral lesson that a few words and expressions are made central In each topic and by dint of repetition become part of the child's vocabulary; it is through constant and untiring corrections

II in oral drills that incorrect forms of speech are undermined and finally eradicated. We must turn then to a consideration of the nature, the organization and the method of oral work in composition in the earlygrades.

ORAL WORK IN THE PRIMARY GRADES

A. Conversation and Reproduction Lessons. — i. The Choice of a Subject. — The most common form of oral composition is the conversation, and the reproduction lesson. The terms are self-explanatory and make formal definition unnecessary. The first problem that challenges the teacher's thought in these oral lessons is the choice of the proper subject. The teacher must exercise great care that she presents no subject that has a thought difficult for the child. It must be a topic with which the child is conversant and which immediately suggests a host of ideas in his mind, pressing for expression. Secondly, it must be a theme replete with action. Every sentence must have a **doing word" in the predicate. These immature minds find no fascination in qualities, observations and inferences. Thirdly, the topic must be, if possible, one about which the child has a preference. ''Shall We Have a Relay Race or a Ring Game at Recess?" is bound to elicit an answer from a normal child. ''The Kind of Dog I Want for My Pet," prompts eloquent speech in every boy.

It is well to select for this oral work a series of stories which are told by the teacher and are then used as material for reproduction lessons. These stories, properly selected, become a source of far-reaching values for the development of the child. They afford the child an informal and very agreeable means of developing sustained thought; they add to the child's stock of words and expressions; they introduce the child to idiomatic English; they give the children their heritage of fable, folklore and stories that have inspired the race to higher ideals of life; and finally they furnish excellent material for self-expression because these stories, by their interesting content, stir in each child a strong motive for communication.

2. Mode of Treatment. — Having selected a suitable topic for oral composition, the teacher is now occupied with the method of presenting it to the class, and with the conduct of the lesson. We must be sure that the facts of the topic are not the goal of the lesson, hence we need have little concern about how exhaustively the theme is treated. Take only the surface facts, talk about the topic rather than on the topic, follow a free and easy sequence if the children are happier in this development. Freedom is the keynote of the course of the lesson. Hence it must not be considered amiss if the pupils change details, or make personal additions or rational modifications. This is not a test period and the lesson must not be conducted in a "quiz" spirit. The main object is to arouse such interest and enthusiasm in the subject that the children will lose themselves in it

Nevertheless, we must guard against mere prattle. The lesson must possess definite teaching characteristics. Chief among them we must mention the following :

v^ a. Real Motive and Social Spirit. Unusual care must be taken to prevent the discussion from becoming perfunctory. Children must be made to feel that they are talking not because they must but because there is an urgency to communicate a conviction, to narrate a personal incident, or to give pleasure to others through the telling of interesting experiences. These promptings must serve to make the oral language work in the class as natural as oral communication in everyday life and thus infuse real motive into class discussions.

b. The Teacher's Aim. Before each discussion or reproduction the teacher must decide on the ultimate purpose of the lesson. If vocabulary is to be increased, what words are the children to acquire and what means must be adopted to make these words part of the pupils' expressional stock? If new type forms of phrases or sentences are to be learned, what shall the teacher do to introduce these naturally and frequently and to insure their use? It may be that the aim is to give pleasing content, stir imagination, provoke personal opinion — but in all cases the teacher must have an aim which molds the lesson and determines its organization.

c. Logical Organization. The theme must be unfolded with due regard to rational sequence of ideas.

d. All Children to Participate. It is necessary that every effort be made to have all children take active part in the discussion. Many lessons in oral composition fail because the teacher neglects the backward and the diffident children who are crowded out of the lesson by the brighter and the more responsive pupils.

3. Dramatisation an Aid in Oral Reproduction and Conversation Exercises. — The teacher who finds the diffidence of some of her children a vexing problem and a cause for their failure to participate in the class discussions and reproductions may enlist the enthusiasm of these timid pupils by an emphasis on dramatization. No appropriate theme that can be motorized should be overlooked, or, if selected, should be developed by exclusively verbal means. Dramatization has much to contribute to oral composition. It gives the retiring child a new interest in self-expression; it dispels ultra self-consciousness; it gives to expression a naturalness which it may otherwise lack and thus makes self-expression the pleasurable exercise that it is under normal conditions. But these ends of dramatization are lost unless it is spontaneous, and has its origin in the child's craving for motor expression. Successful classroom dramatization is free from affectation, and never degenerates into mere entertainment. In planning a lesson in oral composition, the teacher must seek to incorporate as many motor aids as possible for only then will the children be caught by the enthusiasm of the situation and experience the joy of communication.

4. Systematization of the Daily Topics. — The suggestion for freedom and spontaneity in the conduct of an oral composition lesson does not argue for a lack of organization in these conversation and reproduction lessons. While the children are permitted to develop the topic in any way that gives maximum expression, the subjects that are offered must follow a rational system. Monotony is the pitfall that must constantly be avoided in all this work. The only way to guard against it and insure stimulating variety is to change the nature of the topic daily. Thus, on Monday, it is a personal experience; on Tuesday, it is an ethical topic; on Wednesday, a theme in nature study is selected ; on Thursday, the reading lesson offers interesting material for reproduction; on Friday, an exposition of a process learned in the manual training period affords material for conversation. How varied a list the teacher has at her command may be seen from the following table:

Partial List of Appropriate Topics

1. Narration of Personal Experiences: **What I Saw Coming to School," *'An Accident on the Street," ''Going to a Fire," ''The Game at Recess," "Our Outing to /' etc.

2. Nature Study: Conversation Lessons on "Birds," "Insects," "Flowers," etc.; topics that form the assignment in the course of study for the grade.

3. Description: "Pets," "Playthings," "Pictures," "Places Visited," etc.

4. Story of the Occupations Seen in the Child's Environment: The work of the baker, shoemaker, carpenter, policeman, fireman, etc.

5. Habits of Cleanliness: "How to Have Clean Teeth/' "How to Look Bright and Attractive," etc.

6. Habits of Politeness: "How to Behave at Table," "How to Behave in a Conversation," etc.

The last mentioned topics, as well as many of the others, lend themselves readily to simple and effective dramatization which arouses interest, and prompts more natural and expressive speech in children.

7. Commands by Children to Class: Pupils take turn in giving orders to class at dismissals, at recess, while passing or collecting various materials, etc. These exercises are valuable aids in developing efficiency in oral speech because they tend to inspire courage in the timid and backward child, they show the need of definiteness and precision in speech, and they insure natural rather than formal speech.

8. Reproduction of a Story: The original story may have been told by the teacher, read from a book to the class, or read by the children themselves.

9. Number Lessons and Number Games.

10. Exposition: "How to Set the Table," "How We Made a Picture Frame," "How to Make a Kite," etc.

11. Argumentative Conversation: "Where to Go oh an Outing," "What Game to Play at Recess," etc.

This is only a partial list to which the teacher can add by drawing on her fund of experience. It is submitted merely to show the primary teacher that despite the simplicity of the work and the limited mental resources of the children she nevertheless has a list of topics rich enough to afford interesting variety and an opportunity to break away from the dulling sameness which is characteristic of much of the oral composition work in the lower classes.

5. How Do These Oral Lessons Solve the Basic Diificidtiesf — We must now interpret these oral lessons as remedial measures for the difficulties that were outlined at the beginning of the chapter and show how they are designed to answer the needs of the teacher of primary composition. Let us review, briefly, the three problems, the children's lack of material for expression, their backwardness, and their expressional limitations. It is evident that the variety and the nature of the topics that are selected are designed to counteract the first two of these limitations for they give the child plenty of subject-matter that is intensely interesting and capable of arousing such enthusiasm as will transcend the bonds of self-consciousness. Once the child has caught the joy of self-expression, the final problems, limitations of vocabulary and inaccuracies of speech, can be solved. As each child errs, the teacher judiciously makes the correction. Constant repetition of the same corrections of typical errors will soon show positive results. In each topic the teacher selects a few words and expressions, possibly five or six, that are most peculiar to it. In the conversation and dramatization lesson of ''How to Pass a Person," such expressions as ''excuse me," "beg your pardon," "polite," "impohte," and "rude" are indelibly impressed upon the mind of the child through repetition. In the lesson "The Kind of Dog I Want for a Pet," such words as "good appearance," "handsome," "brave," "courageous," "loyal," etc., are made central until the pupil carries them away as his own. The teacher must be ever ready to offer those words which each lesson is to contribute toward a richer vocabulary. As the child hesitates for want of a word, the teacher suggests it and thereby keeps the thought running in the pupil's mind and saves him from the paralyzing effect which a consciousness of his verbal limitations is sure to produce. But these results will not follow from a haphazard series of conversation lessons. The topics must be carefully selected and organized into a progressively graded series. Each lesson must be planned to enrich the vocabulary and to correct the most flagrant inaccuracies in the speech of young pupils.