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4. As language has for its function the expression of thoughts, and no complete thought can be expressed without a complete sentence, it is plainly convenient to consider the sentence, not the word, as the unit of language. Also, it goes without saying that, other things being equal, the more sentences a child knows the wider is its knowledge of the language. If, however, one child knows a number of discrete, mlassociated sentences, and another has mastered the same number of complete statements arranged in an orderly way in accordance with definite principles, the latter will have gained coherent systematic knowledge beyond comparison more valuable than the scattered scraps of linguistic information that the other has picked up somehow. The " principles " involved in the following sets of examples will be found exceedingly convenient. The teacher may construct groups in accordance with these principles, and let the pupils master them in the way laid down in paragraphs L, 2, and 3. The difficulty that M. Gouin appears to find in constructing his "series" is certainly not encountered when one is forming sufficiently useful language—groups in one's own mother-tongue. In the case of a foreign language even such work would no doubt be very laborious. 5. Examples of Groups of Sentences to be mastered by Pupils. Group A In Order of Time. —(l.) Sarah is very tired. (2.) She goes to bed early (3.) She sleeps soundly all night. (4.) Her mother calls her early. (5.) Sarah now lights the fire. (6.) She washes her face and hands. (7 ) She cooks the breakfast. (8. Now she goes to school.—Ten or twelve sentences will be enough to form a group. Group B End and Means. —(l.) John is to be brought over the river (2.) I call Sam. (3.) We look for the paddles. (4. We untie the boat, (5.) We manage to shove her off. (6.) We get into the boat. (7 )We pull across the river (8. We bring John back with us. Group G Cause and Effect. —(1.) You went far from home in the rain. (2.) You could not change your wet clothes. (3. You came back shivering with cold. (4.) Next day you were very feverish. (5.) You had to take several doses of medicine. (6. Now you are well once more. Group I) Tense, Changes. —(1.) They did not see the steamer yesterday (2.) They have not seen her yet. (3.) They never saw a steamer in their lives. (4.) They do not see one now (5.) They will perhaps see her to-morrow (6.) They will have seen her to-night. (7.) I had seen her before you came. Group E Expression of Subjective Emotions. —(1.) You cruel boy to kick that horse ! (2.) You ought to be ashamed of yourself! (3.) It is most disgusting! (4.) Where did he learn to be so brutal ? (5.) Such conduct is disgraceful ! (6.) Turn him out ! Group F Expression of Complex Thoughts (Order of Time also). —(1.) Having finished my work, lam going home. (2.) I shall tell your brother that you are here. (3.) He will do the work that you have left undone. (4.) When it is finished he will come for you. (5.) I will wait for you, but you must not be long. Group G Description of Series of Acts performed before the Glass. —(l.) The master leaves his desk. (2.) He goes up to the blackboard. (3.) He calls the third class up. 4.) He takes up a piece of chalk. (5.) He writes figures on the board. (6.) He now faces the class. 6. An excellent lesson may be given.- : on- a-.picture...- The. children may be taught to describe objects or actions represented in the picture, or the relations existing between two objects —relations of similarity, for instance, or difference. If natural-history illustrations were being used such sentences as these could be constructed by the' class, with the aid of the teacher and then mastered very thoroughly "That is an elephant." " The elephant has a trunk." "His eyes seem very small. " The elephant is something like the rhinoceros. "He is much larger than the lion." When these sentences have been learnt in one lesson they should be repeated in the next, and so on, until they have fairly become a portion of the pupils' linguistic stock-in-trade. This kind of lesson will be found interesting to the children, and useful as a change but it has the defect that it deals with matters somewhat remote from the pupils' ordinary experience. 7 Although the sentence is to be treated as the unit of language, yet there are many useful exercises that deal minutely with the elements of which such units are composed. It is important to remember that, when words are being dealt with, the verb is by far the most important of all the parts of speech. A pupil that knows how to use a hundred common verbs really well has a very fair grip of the language to which they belong. 8. A teacher will have small success in teaching composition if he tries to teach his pupils to express his own ideas rather than theirs, to overlook or neglect the principle here implied is a common mistake and a fatal one. It is an excellent plan to train pupils to write imaginary dialogues, the choice of matter and manner being very largely left to the children themselves. The Best Way to begin teaching Beading. Teachers often find their very greatest difficulty in dealing with Maori children at the very beginning of the course of instruction. The problem, generally, is to get Maori children of six or seven years of age to make a start in using a language quite unknown to them. In no subject is this difficulty felt more strongly than in elementary reading. It is hoped that the following description of a method will be found to be of some use We select, of course, the easiest lesson that can be found—preferably one containing only words of two syllables. We select a few perhaps half a dozen, of the words in the lesson say so, no, go, he, me, and tue. We first pronounce the vowel sounds—o long and c long—and get the children to do so, and then we train them to connect the sounds with the characters, and vice versa. Afterwards, we treat the consonantal sounds disregarding the mere names of the letters) in the same fashion. Next, we take a consonantal sound and a vowel sound —say, those of s and o —and get these pronounced separately, repeating the process with gradual approximation until the twc sounds coalesce and form the word so. When this has been done with all the six words, the preparation for this particular lesson may be considered sum-

.1C VVIUIJ. Oi-LA 2—E 2.