Huber Gray Buehler ...
176 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; (June 1, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1514155710
ISBN-13: 978-1514155714
The art of using one's native tongue correctly and forcibly is acquired
for the most part through imitation and practice, and is not so much a
matter of knowledge as of habit. As regards English, then, the first
duty of our schools is to set before pupils excellent models, and, in
all departments of school-work, to keep a watchful eye on the
innumerable acts of expression, oral and written, which go to form
habit. Since, however, pupils come to school with many of their habits
of expression already formed on bad models, our schools must give some
attention to the special work of pointing out common errors of speech,
and of leading pupils to convert knowledge of these errors into new and
correct habits of expression. This is the branch of English teaching in
which this little book hopes to be useful. All the "Exercises in
English" with which I am acquainted consist chiefly of "sentences to be
corrected." To such exercises there are grave objections. If, on the one
hand, the fault in the given sentence is not seen at a glance, the
pupil is likely, as experience has shown, to pass it by and to change
something that is not wrong. If, on the other hand, the fault is
obvious, the exercise has no value in the formation of habit. Take, for
example, two "sentences for correction" which I select at random from
one of the most widely used books of its class: "I knew it was him," and
"Sit the plates on the table." A pupil of any wit will at once see that
the mistakes must be in "him" and "sit," and knowing that the
alternatives are "he" and "set," he will at once correct the sentences
without knowing, perhaps, why one form is wrong, the other right. He has
not gained anything valuable; he has simply "slid" through his
exercise. Moreover, such "sentences for correction" violate a
fundamental principle of teaching English by setting before the
impressionable minds of pupils bad models. Finally, such exercises are
unnatural, because the habit which we hope to form in our pupils is not
the habit of correcting mistakes, but the habit of avoiding them.
147 pages - Publisher: Pearson Longman; 2nd edition (March, 1995) ... Language: English - ISBN-10: 013340241X - ISBN-13: 978-0133402414 ...
