HARRY G. PAUL, PH.D. (COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY)

PROFESSOR OF THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

LYONS AND CARNAHAN

CHICAGO

NEW YORK

PREFACE

This book, the first of a series of three, is based on certain fundamental beliefs, of which the first and foremost is that the use of correct English is a habit, which the child must acquire very much as he acquires other desirable habits.

In the past the early years of a child's school life, which form a very precious and critical period in his formation of correct speech habits, have frequently been neglected and wasted. Good speech habits must be started early before the bad ones have taken a firm root; here an ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure. Consequently the authors believe that their plan of beginning the language work with simple drills and exercises in the third grade rather than in the fourth will appeal strongly to all thoughtful teachers.

Again, to train the pupil rapidly and effectively in correct habits of speech, we must secure his active and hearty coöperation. Boys and girls must be brought to realize the value of correct, forceful English, to perceive that slovenly, untidy speech is just as blame-worthy as slovenly, untidy dress; they must be impressed with the fact that we are judged by our speech, and that, when we fail to express ourselves effectively, we are really dumb. In driving home this vital principle, the authors have repeatedly emphasized the importance of language study, for they believe that children are very like their elders in doing cheerfully and with marked effectiveness whatever they feel will yield them a rich reward for their efforts.

In the following language lessons the pupil's attention is first directed to a number of examples illustrating the principle to be driven home, and from these he is led to a statement of that principle. This principle once grasped, he is given a series of drills, games, and exercises which help him form the correct

3

linguistic habit. Drill, drill, and still more drill, such is the manner of mastering the correct use of English. Here, as elsewhere, repetition is the mother of habit.

Naturally such repetition prevents the inclusion of any large number of forms in any one year of the course; but recent investigations made in all parts of the United States have revealed the fact that a very large percentage of the mistakes in our pupils' every-day use of English is confined to a very small number of forms. These can be eradicated only by unremitting and varied drill, and especially by repeated appeals to the ear. Drill and repeated drill alone can make the correct forms "sound right" and thus establish these forms in the common, every-day speech of the pupil.

In the past teachers have wasted time and energy by failing to concentrate their attack in each grade upon a few, definite, widely prevalent errors and pressing this attack persistently till they have eradicated these errors and established the correct speech habits.

Furthermore, the authors believe that frequently language teaching has been seriously handicapped by being confined to a single period of the school day and by the failure to recognize that every time a child speaks he is consciously or unconsciously forming a linguistic habit. In seeking to make every lesson really and vitally a language lesson, in attempting to train the pupil to watch his own language and that of his associates both on the playground and along the street, and in suggesting ways and means of enlisting the coöperation of that very important but often sadly neglected agent of linguistic education, the home, the authors hope and believe that the following pages offer a distinct and valuable advance.

Drill upon correct forms, however, is only one phase of these lessons, for any ample training in language must also give the pupil abundant practice in thinking about a subject or topic, in organizing in simple fashion his ideas, and then in expressing them.

The topics here presented for discussion have been carefully chosen from the fields of the pupil's actual interests; they take advantage of his love of games, of animals, of his ready curiosity concerning other boys and girls, in his joy in journeying to the land of once-upon-a-time, and in his changing pleasures and employments throughout the successive seasons of the year.

It is thought that these lessons will be found to embody the best to be gained from a judicious and discriminating use of the project method. They permit the pupils, under the guidance and direction of the teacher, to make and to carry out their own plans in such a way that they will find not only interest but also joy in their work and will look forward to the language period in pleasant anticipation.

In all the composition work, whether oral or written, especial care has been taken to accustom the pupil to make use of the best kind of criticism, namely, self criticism, and also to train him to talk to some definite audience or to write for some definite set of readers, usually a jury of schoolmates from whom he may receive frank but friendly criticism. The importance of such an audience can scarcely be overemphasized, for skill in composition comes both from having something to say and from having someone to whom to say it.

Insomuch as the pupil in his every-day life naturally expresses most of his thoughts by the tongue rather than the pen, the greater stress has been placed upon oral composition; and, further, in keeping with this same practical nature of the book the exercises in written composition have been confined largely to letter writing, which is the single form of written composition which most pupils will employ frequently in their life beyond the school walls.

The sections indicated by the heading Lesson are intended to mark subdivisions of the subject matter, and these sections are not designed to divide the text into portions adapted for recitations.