"Make the door shut," for example. If the English teacher has some knowledge of German he will be quicker to perceive that little defect and to correct it. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT WILLIAMS: We have purposely omitted to follow the strict order of the program this morning because of a knowledge of the fact that certain speakers were reluctantly compelled to disappoint us. We should now proceed to the section work, but the chairman will be glad to recognize members who desire to discuss from the floor the admirable paper that has been given us this morning, even if we go beyond the time that has been allotted.

MR. SILVERNAIL: Mr. President, I wish to point three concrete illustrations in the way of carrying a step further some things in Mr. Rummell's paper. Most foreigners find difficulty with our "th." They do not have the sound in their language. They have the sound of "t" instead of "th." They are in the habit of putting the sound of "t" in the place of our "th" sound. Following Mr. Rummell's illustration of showing the action of the organs they can be taught it very easily. There is difficulty, especially with Germans, we will say, and I think the same is true in regard to other languages. I want to emphasize the desirability of being acquainted somewhat with the language of the person you are trying to help. It enables you to tell him how it is in his language and to show him. the difference. In most foreign languages you have an aspirated sound of a consonant instead of a vocalized sound. Foreigners therefore are apt to give the aspirated sound in English. You can show them the difference between the vocal and the aspirate. We have a vocal and an aspirate consonant exactly alike except one is made with voice and the other with breath.

I had a bright class of educated young Germans a few years ago who asked me if I would not give them some assistance in overcoming the German accent. They seemed to have especial trouble in knowing when the final "s" was vocalized and when it was aspirated. How can I pronounce that correctly and know whether I am pronouncing it correctly? I was driven to making this rule. You will find that in final syllables in almost every instance the final "s" takes the nature of the consonant preceding

it. Following an aspirate it is aspirated. Following a vocal it is vocalized. Take, for instance, "posts, hands, hairs, floors, desks, hats, palms, chairs." You see the rule works in every case. You can give them that simple rule, that where the preceding consonant is vocalized the "s" is vocalized. We economize effort whether we economize time or not in America, and we do the thing that is easiest. I remember my father said "dollars" instead of "dollarz.”. When a foreigner has learned our language he speaks it better as a rule than we do. So the "b," "d" and "g" are usually aspirated by the German speaking our language because these letters have the aspirated sound in his.

It

MR. FULTON: I wish to explain lest there may be some misunderstanding in regard to the German being a dead language. There is a great difference between dying and dead; we are not ready for the funeral services yet. My meaning, Mr. President, was simply this, that a language. which imbibes from other languages must grow. I referred to a language which does not of itself grow. does not mean the German nation is dying, at all. There is great difference between the aggressive spirit of one nation and another. For instance, the English people are colonizers of the world. Germans are not. The matter referred to by Mr. Babbitt, that foreign words are not incorporated, is an evidence that they stick to their language, and they have not many of the difficulties in their language that we have talked about here this morning. We are battling against the influx of foreign tongues into our language, destroying the purity of our English. The Italian language, which is not imbibing, is dying; the Latin language, which has long ceased to imbibe, is a dead language.

MR. RUMMELL: So far as the German and English languages are concerned, the English imbibes because it does not possess that wonderful quality of the German language which enables the German to make its own words out of its own roots. We in English borrow a term. The Germans make up a new word out of their own language. They take the root and add prefixes and suffixes. The language has grown. The Greek language has lived three thousand years. It is not a dead language, at all. But the Greek has also that power of forming

words out of its own elements which the English does not possess in so large a degree. That is a little aside from our policy.

What Mr. Silvernail has said is perfectly true. I want to add to what he said about the final "z" sound, not only when the "s" follows the sub-vocal element but in the plural of nouns, as in "race-races, house-houses."

That is a good thing to remember in nouns ending in that way.

MR. SILVERNAIL: The sounds followed in that case are vowels, therefore vocal, and the rule holds good.

MR. RUMMELL: Yes, that is true.

MR. SILVERNAIL: There are very few exceptions, and if you lay it down as a universal rule it will help very much.

PRESIDENT WILLIAMS: It is time for your President to introduce to you the chairman of the second section, Miss Aldrich, of Cincinnati, in the section department of methods of teaching.

SECTION I.-METHODS OF TEACHING.

MISS ALDRICH: Ladies and gentlemen, the work of today will require a little explanation, both to the chairman of the Literary Committee and to you as a body. It was intended by the chairman of the section on Methods to have a real public school teacher from Toledo with a class of children here. I wrote the Superintendent of Schools who endeavored to arrange it. Unfortunately it was found impossible. So I had to fill the breach myself. This is not in the nature of an apology but in the nature of an explanation.

In order to give this little typical lesson, I went to the American Book Company to see if I could get them to publish for me a number of copies of "The Chambered Nautilus" which I wanted to use as the reading lesson. They were kind enough to prepare this little pamphlet for us. This is not an "ad." There is nothing on it in the way of an advertisement of their house or their wares. It seems to me when our Committee on Resolutions makes its report a note of thanks should be given to the American Book Co. for this work. It costs us nothing

and we have here not only "The Chambered Nautilus" but the three selections that are to be used Friday, adapted so as to be contained in this four-page pamphlet. It is at your service.

Before taking up the subject of typical lessons another matter should be spoken of, and that is the work as it is presented in the public schools. I hoped that that would be taken up in this morning's program, one of the papers being on that subject, but that deals especially with high school work.

It is our duty to get our young people, boys and girls, to appreciate the value of spoken English, and to teach them we must teach our teachers. I am glad to see that in most of the great universities, normal schools and teachers' colleges in this country today, there are departments for public speaking, either under that heading or under the head of story telling or of elocution. Unfortunately, however, there are a great many institutions that still have no such department. It is for those I am speaking.

In presenting the lesson we must consider children about 12 or 14. I am going to ask that the members of the convention put themselves in that position. Be again only 12 or 14. That may be a little hard for some of you, but we are all working along the line of imaginative art. We all have to impersonate. Just appreciate that you are boys and girls again of 12 or 14 and are going to have a reading lesson. In order to conduct the lesson I will ask Mr. Silvernail to take the chair and I will come down on the floor exactly as I would if I were a teacher.

Miss Aldrich then proceeded to to give a typical lesson upon "The Chambered Nautilus," herself acting as the teacher and the convention taking the part of the class, and at the close asked Miss Wheeler to read the poem. CHAIRMAN SILVERNAIL: We now have a few moment's for discussion.

MRS. IRVING: Mr. Chairman, I just came in this moment. I want to express my appreciation of Miss Wheeler's reading. It was beautiful. I think we work too little on some of these standard selections; that we should put more work upon them.

MR. RUMMELL: I should like to ask Miss Aldrich

whether she finds that pupils are interested in the part of the work which relates to defining words.

MISS ALDRICH: I have found if we approach it in this way, by asking questions and drawing out the pupil's own knowledge, then they are interested; but if it is simply to go to the dictionary and find out then it is lost.

MISS OSTRANDER: I have had some difficulty in the college where I have been teaching in having the pupils ask me to read the lesson for them. I would like to ask the members of the Association if they think it advisable to read the selection for a class of pupils whose ages range from 15 to 18 or 20 years.

MISS HAGENER: I have not had a very large experience as a teacher, but I have always found it was well to let the pupil read the poem first. Oftentimes the teacher gets new ideas from the pupil, and if you let the teacher read it first the child goes away with the teacher's idea simply. (Applause.)

CHAIRMAN SILVERNAIL: Mrs. McCoy is working up such selections, all the while; will she not tell us what is her own method of building herself into the atmosphere of a piece like this?

MRS. MCCOY: My method is to get some one to listen to me if possible while I read it aloud, at first. Try and give some one else the thought, then you get it yourself more easily. It is a lazy method. It is harder to make my mind work when I am by myself. I find I can work anything up in a shorter time; I get new light on it myself while reading in that way, trying to give the thought to some other person instead of simply dealing with the book and the words, myself.

.

MISS NELKE: If I were to say I had never seen this poem, in studying it myself I would read it over carefully and silently to get a clear picture. If there were any allusions I did not understand I would look them up myself. Then I would determine on technically the main point, the underlying motive of the poem, after I had seen the picture. I would decide that; then I would look up the main idea in each stanza and analyze it. This would all be silent work; then I would read it aloud, and have it pretty well learned before I would present it to my class. The teacher should always be well prepared.