METCALF'S LANGUAGE SERIES LANGUAGE EXERCISES BY ROBERT C. METCALF SUPERVISOR OF SCHOOLS, BOSTON, MASS. AND ORVILLE T. BRIGHT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, ENGLEWOOD, ILL. NEW YORK: CINCINNATI .: CHICAGO PREFACE. THE use of language is controlled very largely by habit. Hence, language teaching resolves itself into such training as will tend to form correct habits of speaking and writing. Technical grammar is the science of language. We study it to learn of the construction of sentences and of the forms and uses of words. Such knowledge will doubtless help us to a critical rather than to the ordinary use of language. He who depends upon his knowledge of Grammar to help him through a speech, or even in his every-day conversation, will doubtless find that his thoughts, when they are seeking expression in words, are far from Grammars and grammatical rules. He will find that the fluency and correctness of his speech depend almost entirely upon habits which have been formed by long practice. Professor W. D. Whitney, in the preface to his Essentials of English Grammar, very truly says: "It is constant use and practice, under never-failing watch and correction, that makes good writers and speakers; the application of direct authority is the most efficient corrective. Grammar has its part to contribute, but rather in the higher than the lower stages of the work. One must be a somewhat reflective user of language to amend even here and there a point by grammatical reasons; and no one ever changed from a bad speaker to a good one by applying the rules of grammar to what he said." The teacher, then, should aim in the class-room to give his pupils such training as will tend to form correct habits of expression. He must remember that language is an expression of thought; and, consequently, that correct thinking should precede expression. The thought of the pupil being clear, the teacher should give frequent opportunities for its expression. |