RESUME OF LECTURES ON EDUCATION, DELIVERED BY C. C. HOWARD, ESQ, F.R.G.S., AT THE NORMAL SCHOOL, CHRISTCHURCH.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 165, 15 February 1878, Page 2

RESUME OF LECTURES ON EDUCATION, DELIVERED BY C. C. HOWARD, ESQ, F.R.G.S., AT THE NORMAL SCHOOL, CHRISTCHURCH.

Second Course —Methods of Teaching

and Organization,

Lecture Vll.—Subject: Reading, Intermediate and Advanced stages. Reading sheets and books, simultaneous and industrial methods. How to conduct reading lessons.

The lecturer commenced by saying that few good readers are to be found even in our day, while good singers are numerous, and argued that the subject had been far too much neglected in by-gone days, even in the Universities, and hence so few good readers among the clergy. The art of reading well is not easily acquired, and only by long and diligent study and practice can tho difficulties met with in it be overcome. Reading is the key to all knowledge, and the aim of the teacher should be to give facility in reading itself rather than elocution or dramatic power. Good reading should be natural and as spoken, and the teacher should endeavour to make the junior classes read easily and intelligently, and the upper classes cultivate literary tastes and study. Children have many temptations to read bad literature, low novels, &c, and therefore careful selection of books is very necessary. They should never be too difficult, beyond the comprehension of the child, but suited to the capacity of the children, though a little higher than their present mental standard. The teaching of reading, rather than imparting knowledge, should be considered of primary importance, and the books should be cheerful and interesting—both conversational and in dialogue, and suited to the respective ages. Especially in the higher standards should the books be attractive, and contain the best specimens of style. Teachers should privately practice reading aloud, and in school the pupils should be required to read loudly, avoiding shouting and whispering. Great attention should be paid to—lst, Enunciation ; 2nd, Pronunciation ; 3rd, Emphasis. Distinctness of utterance was all-important, without which there could not be good reading. Let the teacher himself speak very distinctly, pronounce every letter and syllable, read slowly but not drawl, and let final consonants be properly sounded. Bad spelling frequently arises from bad pronunciation or defective utterance. Especial attention should be paid to purity of pronunciation and accent. Imitate the best models and patterns, and be careful of vowels and final and double consonants. (The lecturer here gave several ludicrous instances of bad pronunciation, which created roars of laughter.) Neglect of this frequently increased the difficulties which children encountered in overcoming the task of learning to spell correctly. In the position of the accent the tendency now is to throw it upon the beginning of the word, but a good pronouncing dictionary should be consulted whenever a doubt arises. On some words society has not passed a definite opinion ; but, with respect to the silent h, the only words accepted are heir, houi, honour, and honest, together with their derivatives. Speaking ■of emphasis, only general rules could be laid down ; its use is very important. The teacher should first explain the passage, and then encourage the children to "read it naturally, as they would say it—as they would express themselves if uttering their own thoughts. Avoid throwing the emphasis upon relational words, such as conjunctions, prepositions or pronouns, except

when required by antithesis. In reading a passage for the first time, give notional words a slight emphasis, but avoid putting any strong accent anywhere; nouns and verbs require the strongest emphasis. Great attention should be paid to the management of the voice, as a false inflexion tends to spoil the effect of an impressive reading.

There are two methods of teaching reading—the Simultaneous and the Indi-, vidual. The simultaneous method is best adapted for leaching reading, and the individual method for testing progress. Simultaneous reading affords more, practice in reading aloud, gives constant employment to all in the class, enables mistakes to be more easily and more effectually corrected, gives confidences weak readers, and tones down the too confident ones, and conduces to slowness and deliberatehess of reading. The objection that it causes too, much noise is the fault of the teacher rather than the system, and individual mistakes need not really be passed over, as is frequently supposed. Reading with the class in line is better than in desks, and the lessons should be taken in their consecutive order. Lessons should be prepared beforehand by the teacher, and the difficult words and passages in it explained. A paragraph should first be read by the teacher, then by the class together, and lastly by the children singly, but not in the order of their rotation. A little read and well done will be found more profitable than much attempted. Difficult and peculiar words should be written upon the black-board, and these should form part of the passages for dictation which should follow. Recitations of dialogue, verse,'and choice prose passages should be frequently the practice of the upper classes.

The subject of the next lecture was " Spelling, Dictation, and Transcription."