one of the pupils has returned recently from a trip to the section of the country that we have been studying in the geography assignment. The pupil may be called upon to give an account of some specific feature of the country or the people that he has visited. This report by the pupil may have real value from the view point of information. The form of presentation, clearness and accuracy of expression should receive the constructive criticism of the teacher. There may be a nasal twang which has its root cause in some physical ailment. This may be corrected before it gets beyond control. The boy may be shy. The attitude of the teacher may readily inspire confidence. All that the boy needs is assurance. It will not be long before the boy overcomes his hesitancy. In a thousand and one ways, the boys may be guided along the right path. Every case is different. This is why we need teachers who show the ability and who have the time and energy to adapt themselves to the needs of the individual pupils. Much may be done in a quiet way, for a touch here and a touch there will bring large returns later on in life. Neglect of Oral English suggests the principle "Everything for the people, Nothing by the people." Oral English represents constructive effort by the pupil. It shows up best where the teacher works with the pupil rather than for the pupil. In Oral English the pupil stands upon his own feet. He thinks for himself. In modern life we welcome subject matter that will encourage the pupils to think for themselves and foster clear expression of that thought. This is the contribution of Oral English. The story is told of Demosthenes, that when he appeared for the first time before the critical, artistic audience of ancient Athens, he stuttered. He was hissed off the stage. Anything ugly or irregular did not tally with the Athenian ideal of the beautiful and the good. That was why Socrates was always an anomaly. So good, yet so ugly in appearance! Demosthenes overcame his difficulty. 1. He copied seven times the history written by Thucydides. 2. He practiced aloud by the seashore. There are many possible Demostheneses of business, of the arduous activities of life. All they need is the incentive made possible through the right kind of guidance that shows the boy the strategic value of Oral English in the common tasks of life. In the class of Public Speaking conducted by Professor Winter, there are two representatives from Jordan Marsh Company of Boston. One of these men is head buyer of that firm. Even after winning unusual success, they still feel the need of Oral English, in their efforts to meet the demands of their positions. By vitalizing the work in Oral English this same interest can be aroused in the boy with a real life job, some home project which he is putting through. He will then appreciate as a boy what these representatives of the Jordan Marsh Company are doing in a class in Oral English. The Place of English in Foreign Language Work A. A. SHAPIRO, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. OOR English in foreign language study is generally accepted as a corollary evil. Many stu P dents do not know English grammar well until they begin to study a foreign language. Conversely, a good acquaintance with English, especially English grammar, is a great aid to learning a foreign language. The two interwork, and to some extent, form a vicious circle. An attempt to correlate English and foreign modern language work in colleges and universities would be better tried out in small institutions, where the work could be watched and checked up more closely. Ideally, such correlation should take place in the high schools, as it is the high school students who occupy the key position and serve up the material for the college. Besides, such correlation, having a practical aim, would be of the greatest good in the high school. In some colleges, notably flagrant cases are submitted to the special attention of the English Department. Practically, however, nothing is done in the matter-not so much from a laisser-aller policy as because of the increasing specialization and isolation of departments. Whether this should be so, in general, need not be answered here; but for college freshmen, certainly, and perhaps also for sophomores, this state of affairs is not conducive to the highest efficiency. Errors of English in foreign language work are made by poor students almost exclusively. Occasionally good students commit a stupid blunder; but usually they err on finer points only, where their view may find some justification. For example, if a subject follows a verb, they may translate that verb by a passive to keep the original position of the subject. By and large, however, students run true to form; and it is the generally poor students whose work is inadequate in English as well as in a particular foreign language. For the student of low attainment, there appear to be the following chief varieties of error concerned more or less with English: work done mechanically; incomplete knowledge of the subject; general inability to keep to good English; carelessness; looseness of work; inconsistency, illogicality; confusion of what the student thinks a thing should be with what it is; failure of student to realize he is being tested for his knowledge of the subject; some physical defect, as of the eye or ear; pernicious influence of some other language; interworking of English and Spanish spelling (Spanish only is used for illustrative purposes) or grammar; poor English spelling and poor English grammar. Work done mechanically is chiefly the product of an attitude of indifference. A stupid or incorrigible pupil is a comparatively simple problem; it is the indifferent student, with capabilities but without the flame of ambition, who drags down the moral tone of a class. Errors here committed are machine-like; the mind is started ahead in one groove and keeps on until the impetus is exhausted. The student who wrote: "h is always written in Spanish but never pronounced" made a false contrast to the silent character of Spanish h; he committed a mechanical error, one devoid of critical judgment. The same boy might have said: "All horses are quadrupeds; therefore, all quadrupeds are horses." On another examination, the teacher put on the board: "Give the sounds of the following letters," and added, in parentheses: "e. g., k in kip." Two or three students, coming to the parenthesis, gave the pronunciation of e. g. Such a translation as the following is purely mechanical, absolutely free of human reaction: (Se estremecian las carnes y se ponian de punta los cabellos solo de oirla) "The meat was trembling and the hair was made to rise up only by hearing it." Almost as bad as the mechanical type of student is the one with only partial knowledge. He is never sure. He thinks it is so and thus, and he has a vague idea of it; but he never knows clearly and definitely. This is seen both in his English and Spanish. "T is pronounced like in English." "Please prepare toda las leccion bueno." Poor foreign language students have usually little feeling for English. It may be that the quality of their intelligence is wholly inferior. In one fundamental trait, especially, they seem deficient; they do not distinguish between one usage and another, are impervious to language harmony. "All words which disobey this law. . . ." "Madrid is situated on a plane, and the planes that surround it seem a desert they are so and and without trees." "The Incas are a class of Indians in Mexico they make up a part of the mixed blood of the Mexicans. They were one of the original classes or tribes who lived in Mexico, when the white man discovered the new world." "The Incas were a race of Indians inhabitating the North western part of South America four or five centuries ago. The Incas were very advanced to be Indians. Their chief industry was agriculture. The used products which they had grow as money. The king of the Incas would go out once a year to work in the fields setting a good example for his people. He was the head of a large army and with this army conquered many tribes of indians. The incas worshaped the They were conquered by a Spaniard." sun. ... A frequent cause of poor English is the habit of slovenliness, a general attitude of carelessness, of willed mental eclipse. Some students show a remarkable lack of circumspection, of self-criticism, as the boy who wrote: "B is pronounced the same as v;" and three or four lines further on: "V is pronounced the same as b." Students are often so careless that they see only partly the sense of an examination question. Asked to give the meaning of certain words plus the gender of each noun, they give only the meaning or only the gender. Many errors, of course, like most errors in English composition, are due to clouded mental processes. "When the adjective clause is in doubt, it takes the subjunc |