The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-12-11
G:otal ano 0ersonal.
Urges Better English.

"There i. no doubt that there is a de-
ficiency somewhere in-the instructor
of English" said Dr.. J c. French, OF
the department of English at the johns
Hopkins University, in discussing the
report of the faculty Of the City College
in which it was said that few, if any, OF
the students could speak and write the
mother tongue with any degree OF
accuracy.
at i. a fact" continued Dr.. French,
ssthat tine students who matrlculate
here many of whom are products of the
secondary schools, know very little
obout the English language. Many of
them do not know the difference be-
tween a participate and an adjective"
Continuing DR.. French said he did
not advocate the return of the old sys-
tenn of teaching technical grammar OF
the old DAYS, when this constituted the
ONLY instruction in English. Il do be-
levs, however" said DR.. French, that
the subj. CT is perhaps being neglected
too much in this day. In my opinion,
the most succ essful method OF teaching
English is to have the pupils express
themselves in written words. These
compositions should be gone over care
fully in the classroom and mistakes IN
dictisn and structure clearly pointed
In this way technical grammar can be
explained to the pupils in an impressive
manner.
DR.. French said there were many
eminent scholars who were sincere In
the belief that literature as such should
net be taught to pupils. "lf this is the
case" he said, many of the modern
educators are striving after the i'm
possible, as the chief aim seems to be
make classical students of all pupils.
The speaker said that the boy WHO read:
much could often express himself IN
clear concise language, but that he was
frequently deficient in his knowledge OF
the fundamentals of the language. 81
wish that more attention" said Dr.
French, ''was given to punctuation,
paragraphing, proper phTaslng and C."
tinuity in the structure of sentences
and less to the fiowory parts Of speech.
There is no doubt that the modern
method of instruction in the secondary
schools 10 far in advance of the methods
in vogue when l was student in the
schools" he continued. However, IN
my opinion, the scope of the secondary
schools is toe ambitious The teachers
know that most of the pupils will never
enter college for higher training, and
take the view that it is their duty Il.
give pupils some idea Of the whole Held
of literature, They are taught sorae
shing of the lyric poetry, Of the drama,
the sonnet and the other forms IF Gem
position This is very laudabs ambi-
ton, but. in my opinion, it would be
better to pay more attention TO the
fundamentals Of composition and ex-
preston.
DR.. French emphszied tbs i'm portance
of composition work. He said thai
teachers frequently corrected the writ
ten work of the pupils and returned il
to them. They, in turn, put it in thea
pockets, he said, without locking at til.
corrections and suggestions. and later
at an opportune time, threw it away
He said that as far as practicable the
teacher should point out the mistakes il
the work Of each pupil in the classroom
and dwell upon those mistakes and
offer suggestions for Improvement. \
while the work in the secondar
schools" said De. French, "lesve,
much that is desired, on the whole thu
work is commendable. 1t is utterl.
impossible for teacher who has large.
class, to give much attention to writer
work. Still this is my idea of the solu-
ton.
when pupil starts to learn to play
the piano the instructor does not spend
time in explaining hsrnony, accent
and other technical features OF tins
work, but the student is told to finger
the keys SO that the fingers may become
nimble and the difernt keys understood
in their relation to each other. Later
the teacher explains the technique OF
the composition"
DR.. French further stated that sine.
his connection with the university, in
1901, he has not noticed any peTcePtible
improvement in the English work OF
the students at the entrance examina
ton.
Both DR.. H. E. Green and myself
share this opinion" he concluded.
A Personal Appeal.