Graded Lessons in English, Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg [books on motivation .txt] 📗

is illustrated by a large number of detached sentences, chosen with the utmost care as to thought and expression. These compel the pupil to confine his attention to one thing till he gets it well in hand. Paragraphs from literature are then selected to be used at intervals, with questions and suggestions to enforce principles already presented, and to prepare the way informally for the regular lessons that follow. The lessons on these selections are, however, made to take a much wider scope. They lead the pupil to discover how and why sentences are grouped into paragraphs, and how paragraphs are related to each other; they also lead him on to discover whatever is most worthy of imitation in the style of the several models presented.

+The Use of the Diagram+.—In written analysis, the simple map, or diagram, found in the following lessons, will enable the pupil to present directly and vividly to the eye the exact function of every clause in the sentence, of every phrase in the clause, and of every word in the phrase—to picture the complete analysis of the sentence, with principal and subordinate parts in their proper relations. It is only by the aid of such a map, or picture, that the pupil can, at a single view, see the sentence as an organic whole made up of many parts performing various functions and standing in various relations. Without such map he must labor under the disadvantage of seeing all these things by piecemeal or in succession.

But, if for any reason the teacher prefers not to use these diagrams, they may be omitted without causing the slightest break in the work. The plan of this book is in no way dependent on the use of the diagrams.

+The Objections to the Diagram+.—The fact that the pictorial diagram groups the parts of a sentence according to their offices and relations, and not in the order of speech, has been spoken of as a fault. It is on the contrary, a merit, for it teaches the pupil to look through the literary order and discover the logical order. He thus learns what the literary order really is, and sees that this may be varied indefinitely, so long as the logical relations are kept clear.

The assertion that correct diagrams can be made mechanically is not borne out by the facts. It is easier to avoid precision in oral analysis than in written. The diagram drives the pupil to a most searching examination of the sentence, brings him face to face with every difficulty, and compels a decision on every point.

+The Abuse of the Diagram+.—Analysis by diagram often becomes so interesting and so helpful that, like other good things, it is liable to be overdone. There is danger of requiring too much written analysis. When the ordinary constructions have been made clear, diagrams should be used only for the more difficult sentences, or, if the sentences are long, only for the more difficult parts of them. In both oral and written analysis there is danger of repeating what needs no repetition. When the diagram has served its purpose, it should be dropped.

SUGGESTIONS FOR COMPOSITION EXERCISES

The exercises in composition found in the numbered Lessons of this book are generally confined to the illustration and the practical application of the principles of the science as these principles are developed step by step. To break up the continuity of the text by thrusting unrelated composition work between lessons closely related and mutually dependent is exceedingly unwise.

The Composition Exercises suggested in this revision of “Graded Lessons” are designed to review the regular Lessons and to prepare in a broad, informal way for text work that follows. But since these Exercises go much farther, and teach the pupil how to construct paragraphs and how to observe and imitate what is good in different authors, they are placed in a supplement, and not between consecutive Lessons of the text.

To let such general composition work take the place of the regular grammar lesson, say once a week, will be profitable. We suggest that the sentence work on the selections in the Supplement be made to follow Lessons 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 77; but each teacher must determine for himself when these and the other outlined lessons can best be used. We advise that other selections from literature be made and these exercises continued with the treatment of the parts of speech.

For composition work to precede Lesson 30 we suggest that the teacher break up a short story of one or two paragraphs into simple sentences, making some of these transposed, some interrogative, and some exclamatory. The pupils may be required to copy these, to underline the subject and the predicate, and to tell, in answer to suggestive questions, what some of the other words and groups of words do (the questions on the selections in the Supplement may aid the teacher). The pupils may then write out the story in full form. To vary the exercise, the teacher might read the story and let the pupils write out the short sentences.

 

A TALK ON LANGUAGE.

 

The teacher is recommended, before assigning any lesson, to occupy the time of at least two or three recitations, in talking with his pupils about language, always remembering that, in order to secure the interest of his class, he must allow his pupils to take an active part in the exercise. The teacher should guide the thought of his class; but, if he attempt to do all the talking, he will find, when he concludes, that he has been left to do all the thinking.

We give below a few hints in conducting this talk on language, but the teacher is not expected to confine himself to them. He will, of course, be compelled, in some instances, to resort to various devices in order to obtain from the pupils answers equivalent to those here suggested.

 

LESSON 1.

+Teacher+.—I will pronounce these three sounds very slowly and distinctly, thus: b-u-d. Notice, it is the power, or sound, of the letter, and not its name, that I give. What did you hear?

+Pupil+.—I heard three sounds.

+T.—+Give them. I will write on the board, so that you can see them, three letters—b-u-d. Are these letters, taken separately, signs to you of anything?

+P.—+Yes, they are signs to me of the three sounds that I have just heard.

+T.—+What then do these letters, taken separately, picture to your eye?

+P.—+They picture the sounds that came to my ear.

+T+.—Letters then are the signs of what?

+P.—Letters are the signs of sounds+.

+T+.—I will pronounce the same three sounds more rapidly, uniting them more closely—bud. These sounds, so united, form a spoken word. Of what do you think when you hear the word bud?

+P+.—I think of a little round thing that grows to be a leafy branch or a flower.

+T+.—Did you see the thing when you were thinking of it?

+P+.—No.

+T+.—Then you must have had a picture of it in your mind. We call this +mental picture+ an +idea+. What called up this idea?

+P+.—It was called up by the word bud, which I heard.

+T+.—A spoken word then is the sign of what?

+P.—A spoken word is the sign of an idea+.

+T+.—I will call up the same idea in another way. I will write three letters and unite them thus: bud. What do you see?

+P+.—I see the word bud.

+T+.—If we call the other word bud a spoken word, what shall we call this?

+P+.—This is a written word.

+T+.—If they stand for the same idea, how do they differ?

+P+.—I see this, and I heard that.

+T+.—You will observe that we have called attention to four different things; viz., the +real bud+; your mental picture of the bud, which we have called an +idea+; and the +two words+, which we have called signs of this idea, the one addressed to the ear, and the other to the eye.

If the pupil be brought to see these distinctions, it may aid him to observe more closely and express himself more clearly.

 

LESSON 2.

+Teacher+.—What did you learn in the previous Lesson?

+Pupil+.—I learned that a spoken word is composed of certain sounds, and that letters are signs of sounds, and that spoken and written words are the signs of ideas.

This question should be passed from one pupil to another till all of these answers are elicited.

All the written words in all the English books ever made, are formed of twenty-six letters, representing about forty sounds. These letters and these sounds make up what is called artificial language.

Of these twenty-six letters, +a, e, i, o, u+, and sometimes +w+ and +y+, are called +vowels+, and the remainder are called +consonants+.

In order that you may understand what kind of sounds the vowels stand for, and what kinds the consonants represent, I will tell you something about the human voice.

The air breathed out from your lungs beats against two flat muscles, stretched like strings across the top of the windpipe, and causes them to vibrate. This vibrating makes sound. Take a thread, put one end between your teeth, hold the other in your fingers, draw it tight and strike it, and you will understand how voice is made.

If the voice thus produced comes out through the mouth held well open, a class of sounds is formed which we call vowel sounds.

But, if the voice is held back by your palate, tongue, teeth, or lips, one kind of consonant sounds is made. If the breath is driven out without voice, and is held back by these same parts of the mouth, the other kind of consonant sounds is formed. Ex. of both: b, d, g; p, t, k.

The teacher and pupils should practice on these sounds till the three kinds can easily be distinguished.

You are now prepared to understand what I mean when I say that the +vowels+ are the +letters+ which stand for the +open sounds of the voice+, and that the +consonants+ are the +letters+ which stand for the sounds made by the +obstructed voice+ and the +obstructed breath+.

The teacher can here profitably spend a few minutes in showing how ideas may be communicated by Natural Language, the language of sighs, groans, gestures of the hands, attitudes of the body, expressions of the face, tones of the voice, etc. He can show that, in conversation, we sometimes couple this Natural Language of tone and gesture with our language of words, in order to make a stronger impression. Let the pupil be told that, if the passage contain feeling, he should do the same in Reading and Declaiming.

Let the following definitions be learned, and given at the next recitation.

+DEFINITION.—Artificial Language, or Language Proper, consists of the spoken and written words used to communicate ideas and thoughts+.

+DEFINITION.—_English Grammar_ is the science which teaches the forms, uses, and relations of the words of the English Language+.

 

LESSON 3

Let the pupils be required to tell what they learned in the previous lessons.

+Teacher+.—When I pronounce the two words star and bud thus: star bud, how many ideas, or mental pictures, do I call up to you?

+Pupil+.—Two.

+T+.—Do you see any connection between these ideas?

+P+.—No.

+T+.—When I utter the two words bud and swelling, thus: bud swelling, do you see any connection in the ideas they stand for?

+P+.—Yes, I imagine that I see a bud expanding, or growing larger.

+T+.—I will connect two words more closely, so as to express a thought: Buds swell. A