“The practice of oral paraphrase which we saw existing in the elementary schools here reaches its climax. The scholars are bidden to prepare a scene or passage of some author, or to read up some period of literary history at home. The next morning, before the lesson begins, one of them is called upon to give a summary of what he has read, a sort of short essay by word of mouth—lasting three or four minutes, and sometimes even longer. The correctness both of style and matter, with which this difficult task is performed, needs to be heard in order to be fully appreciated at its true value. It combines many of the advantages gained from a debating society with those of an essay. It cultivates readiness of speech and thought, while, like an essay, by enabling the teacher to gauge the points on which interest has centred, it lends him a proper starting-place for his lecture.”
This oral composition tells very advantageously upon the written work, and could be introduced more generally into English schools; but from quite early years children should be accustomed to write answers to questions upon their lessons, or to tell something that they know. Later, subjects may be given to be thought out or a résumé given of a lesson; and lastly the pupils of the higher class required to read up a subject, and write upon it, or compose an essay.
Grammar taught inductively.As regards the formal teaching of English grammar, I shall say but little. I may instead refer my readers to the long and interesting paper by Dr. Abbott in the volume edited by Mr. Barnett, and to his book, How to Tell the Parts of Speech. The system he recommends will form a good foundation for the acquisition of foreign tongues. Pupils are led to make their own definitions, and in part their own grammar. A class thus taught French by our present Mistress of Method were astonished and delighted to find they knew already the chief rules of their French grammar, when at length it was placed in their hands. It is impossible and unnecessary to insist upon all grammatical forms being obtained inductively; life is too short to carry it out in all its details, and so the tabulation and learning of various paradigms becomes necessary; but pupils should learn to form them. I am sure there is much less use in the old-fashioned parsing exercises than is generally supposed; parsing becomes mechanical; nine-tenths of what they have to write children know, and need not think about, and when sentences are given to parse, certain words only should be underlined for parsing. I first questioned its usefulness when I found at school that one who was so dull, that we used to regard her as somewhat of an idiot, always came to the top when we took places for parsing. What the French call analyse logique—classifying all words and phrases according to their function in the sentence—is valuable.
Logical and grammatical analysis.Mr. Blakiston in his School Management endorses this view, and recommends the teaching of logical even before grammatical parsing. Mr. Fearon in School Inspection writes: “What is wanted is to get as quickly as possible a notion of the structure of the sentence, and the logical relation of its parts. The teaching of English should be based on the analysis of sentences. Some may think the teaching of English grammar by means of logical analysis more difficult than the old method. I am perfectly convinced from observation and experience, both as a teacher and as an inspector, that this is not the case. They are not more difficult than the terms which it is necessary to use in teaching grammar on the old system. The great point is to make children have an intelligent understanding of the real things which underlie them and which they represent.”
Professor Woodward (Monographs on Education) writes: “There is need of preparatory drill in forms and language study, to bring a child to the intelligent study of construction, but this done, the analytical method of sentence-study commends itself. Intelligence is called into play, for the pupil is no longer studying words as words, but as the expression of thought; memory is subordinate and reason to the front—nouns, verbs, etc., are in some languages stamped with distinguishing marks, and can be recognised by their forms, but in English the power of any word and its influence in the sentence are rarely dependent on its form; the part of speech cannot be determined at sight, but by its connection and dependency.”
The analysis of sentences is of course very important in the study of foreign languages. Hosts of rules about conjunctions, governing moods, etc., can be discarded if once children can recognise a dependent sentence. Various models of analysis are given in all good grammars. Here is a form which has many recommendations as showing clearly the structure of a complex sentence:—
| Sentence. | Dependent. | Principal. | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The man | - | - | subject of 5 | ||||||
| 2 | who | subj. of 3 | - | adjective | ||||||
| 3 | wrote | pred. of 2 | extension of 1 | |||||||
| 4 | that letter | obj. of 3 | ||||||||
| 5 | said | predicate of 1 | ||||||||
| 6 | that | conj. | ||||||||
| 7 | he | subj. of 8 | - | substantive | object of 5 | |||||
| 8 | would return | pred. of 7 | ||||||||
| 9 | but | conj. | ||||||||
| 10 | he | subj. of 11 | ||||||||
| 11 | did not | pred. of 10 | ||||||||
Another matter which should have great attention is the use of tenses. There is nothing perhaps so difficult for foreigners to acquire as the power of discriminating tenses. Owing to the want of the present and future imperfect in French verbs, many children get an idea that imperfect means past, and few know until they learn Greek that “I have written” is a present tense. Such a table as this can be used to contrast languages:—
| Indefinite. | Imperfect. | Perfect. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | I write | am writing | have written |
| Past | Wrote | was writing | had written |
| Future | Shall write | shall be writing | shall have written |
The authors of the Parallel Grammar Series have sought to reduce the time occupied in learning grammar. In one book the general rules only need be given, and the variations from these rules appear in other grammars. Thus the tiresome repetitions in each grammar of the letters of the alphabet—the definitions of the parts of speech of many rules regarding concords—could appear once for all.