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GENERAL SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.

1. Let the principles and directions given in the Introduction be thoroughly learned. They occupy less space than is often assigned to such introductory matter, and the learning of them will not be a difficult task.

2. These principles and directions should be practically applied to each of the reading exercises.

3. Every pupil should also be thoroughly drilled in the phonic analysis, according to directions given in that article.

4. We hope teachers will fully understand that the matters just spoken of in 1, 2 and 3, are meant for actual use, and are not inserted to fill up the book, or to give it a respectable appearance.

5. Logically, these matters should be mastered before the reading is begun, but practically it will be best to have them learned in connection with exercises in reading,—every lesson to consist in part of principles, and in part of practice in reading.、

HOW TO USE THE ANALYTICAL QUESTIONS.

1. Let the class take for a lesson, say, for reading, the first stanza of the Gray Old Man of the Mountain, together with the general questions on the piece, and the special questions on the first stanza. Only very able and well disciplined pupils can do so much at one lesson. For most, the

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lesson should not exceed one half of the amount here indicated, and for some not more than one fourth.

2. Let this course be pursued, the teacher dividing the analysis into lessons of suitable length,-until the entire selection has been thoroughly learned and reviewed.

3. While doing what is here indicated, let a constant application be made of the knowledge acquired in the phonic drill. This knowledge can be retained only by constant

use.

4. The teacher may, at his discretion, either pass next to another selection analyzed in the book, or he may take up for analysis and reading a piece similar in character to the one already read. The pupils should prepare such written questions as they can by way of analysis, the teacher carefully examining them, and supplying additional ones wherever necessary to develop the thought.

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5. The pieces analyzed in the book should be studied before other similar ones are attempted.

6. As much of the original thinking as possible should come upon the pupil, and he should, finally, make full and complete analyses for himself.

7. The appendix should be carefully examined when a lesson has been assigned, and all the notes bearing upon the piece carefully learned. Many other points will require explanation beside those set forth in the notes.

bettir 8. Every good teacher will possess one or the other (it

would be best to have both) of our unabridged American dictionaries, and will strive to be on intimate terms with its pages. The notation of the recent edition of Webster is adopted in this book, but there will be no inconvenience in using Worcester in connection with it.

9. The teacher must be prepared to illustrate by his own reading the proper rendering of every sentence the pupils are called upon to pronounce. It is impossible to teach

We used to read.

Sentences, surel

young people, or any one else, to read well, except by setting
a good example before them.

10. LET THE TEACHER SEE TO IT THAT, AT EVERY STEP,
IIE IS THOROUGHLY MASTER OF THE LESSON IN ALL ITS
BEARINGS, THAT HE NOT ONLY KNOWS IT FOR HIMSELF,
BUT IS PREPARED TO LEAD HIS PUPILS INTO A CLEAR AND
COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF IT.

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No one will deny that a ready and exact enunciation is a
prerequisite to good reading. Persuaded that such prompt-
ness and accuracy can be best attained by a thorough drill |
on what are called the vocal elements, the following Lessons

for some time tested in the Illinois State Normal University
-are presented for use in other schools.

Every intelligent and unprejudiced mind will welcome any
means by which loose and pernicious habits of enunciation
may be cast off, and correct ones formed in their stead. This
is not an easy task. The pupil of fifteen or eighteen years
of age, who has been accustomed to say givun for giv'n,
kitch'n for kitchěn, and smort for smart, will not be likely, by
a single effort, to set his speech right. By well directed and
persevering effort he can do it: with proper guidance and
encouragement he will do it.

Most who thus mar the English are unconscious of their defects. They have either never observed a different style of pronunciation-possibly have heard no other-or they have accounted whatever differences they have noticed in others as peculiarities, worthy only of a smile or a jest. If the ear, because of dullness, has failed to report the actual diversity, it must be quickened; if the judgment and taste are false, they are to be corrected: in both cases, the organs, untrained to the just utterance of the language, are to be exercised on elements, combinations, syllables, words, and

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Before calling Pina pupil to utter element, for him be sure that he is prepared the sitter is firmwel!

18

EDWARDS'S SIXTH READER.

collocations of words, until they become loyal to well-spoken
English.

Nor is it to those alone whose enunciation or pronunciation
is excessively bad, that this drill is of use. To the thousands
who speak and read with passable accuracy, the study and
drill upon vocal elements is not less useful. These are often
ready to seize upon the leading principles, as well as the
grosser facts, pertaining to the science of Orthoëpy, and they/
find ample compensation for their labor, in the generalizations
suggested by a few weeks' practice in phonetic analysis.

SUGGESTIONS.

1. This drill, to be of real use, must be thorough. THE TEACHER MUST MASTER IT FIRST. Let him, at least, be sure of this, that, before calling upon a pupil to utter a given element, he is prepared to utter it himself.

2. The teacher may need to exercise some care and patience, before each pupil is prevailed on to abandon the habit of saying "em" for the first sound in the word make, and "kay" for the last sound. The aim has been to make the "Lessons" explicit on this point.

3. ALLOW NO FEEBLE WORK. In recitation, the pupil should stand erect, have the lungs well supplied with air, and utter each element forcibly. Repetition is all-important; but repetition with inaccuracy is almost an unmixed evil. Before, as well as after, analyzing a word, the pupil should pronounce it with all the clearness and precision he can command. If it be a polysyllable, still more repetition is recommended; thus,—“melody; měl mel | ō melō | d i di | melody."

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4. The manner of beginning with a class, and especially
where the exercise is a novelty, must be left to the judgment
of the teacher. A concert exercise may be judicious, as
tending to remove the feeling of awkwardness and to beget /
confidence. After a lesson or two, however, there should be

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