HARRIS' EDUCATIONAL SERIES. THE DICTATION LESSON AND SPELLING BOOK. BY JAMES BURTON, Assistant Master in the High School of the Liverpool Institute. LIVERPOOL: HARRIS & CO., DRURY LANE. very little to this end. The words must be seen, and the necessity of this may be further illustrated by recurring to the manner in which we acquire the orthography of foreign languages. How can we imagine, for instance, a person writing French correctly who had only learned it by hearing it? The power of spelling correctly is just in proportion to the degree to which the eye has been trained to take in the forms of words with accuracy. And, if we arrive at this conclusion before we have considered the numerous anomalies which result from our very defective alphabet, and the frequent occurrence of silent letters, it will be still more forcibly impressed upon us when these irregularities are before us. That mode of teaching spelling, then, is the best which enforces strict and repeated observation of the written or printed forms of words, in order that they may be correctly retained in the memory. As a plan which admits of this, the compiler submits a series of Dictation Lessons, which may be appointed and prepared before they are required to be written from dictation. In the selection of passages suitable for this purpose, he has endeavoured to obtain a large variety of words, combined with a strength of composition and propriety of sentiment, worthy of the close attention. which must be given by scholars, both when they are preparing the lessons at home, and when writing them afterwards. It is now generally admitted that the meanings of words are best learned in imitating their use by exemplary authors. In fact, it may be doubted whether they can ever be adequately apprehended from spelling-books and dictionaries; because the meanings so given are but translations from the works of great writers. Hence the necessity of quotations in our best dictionaries. In a spelling-book, it is scarcely possible to convey the meaning of a word in any way that is appreciable to a boy who sees it for the first time. The connection in which a word occurs will supply the best notion of its signification; and relying upon a child's ability to detect it, is but making use of a power which, from the earliest age, children necessarily exercise whenever they listen to a conversation, or take delight in reading a story. Moreover, many great writers, considering that a careful imitation of good models will sufficiently protect us from error or impropriety in our speech, maintain that by a slavish attention to definitions found in dictionaries, and the formal rules of grammar, we lose the power to express ourselves in a lively and engaging manner. Of course some discrimination is necessary, as to the capacity and requirements of the pupils, and this is believed to have received sufficient attention in the following lessons, advancing from the simplest to the most difficult words. With regard to the previous preparation of a dictation lesson, the author maintains that careful reading, and the observation of difficulties as they occur, afford the best means whereby pupils can acquire new words; the mere dictation of promiscuous passages, as at present so universally practised in schools, being of little or no avail for the attainment of this end. As to the manner in which the book should be used, he begs to suggest that the passages appointed for the lesson should be read aloud by the teacher, who should afterwards require his class to read them sentence by sentence, as in a strict reading lesson. Then the pupils should prepare the lesson at home by committing to memory all words of the spelling of which they are doubtful. When the time has arrived for examination in the lesson, the books should be closed and the passage slowly dictated. The dictation finished, the pupils may then open their books and each one may correct his own mistakes, this being a great advantage, because each pupil is re-directed to the very type and connection from which he had previously tried to learn the words. During the dictation of a lesson, which is always a slow process, and does not sufficiently occupy the quicker boys in a class, running questions may be asked as to the matter supplied in the notes at the foot of each page, on derivation, &c. In the Third and Fourth parts reference to the list of Roots at the end of the book will afford a comparison between the derivative meanings of words and their current application. |