A NEW SERIES OF ENGLISH MANUALS.-(No. 1.) THE PUPIL'S MANUAL OF SPELLING, CONTAINING THE CHIEF DIFFICULTIES IN SPELLING, PRONUNCIATION, AND ENGLISH ETYMOLOGIES, WITH DIRECTIONS AND EXERCISES. By T. B. SMITH, PRINCIPAL OF THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM. AUTHOR OF THE "NATIONAL ILLUSTRATED READING AND SPELLING BOOK." LONDON: PIPER, STEPHENSON, AND SPENCE, 23, PATERNOSTER ROW. PREFACE. This Manual has been prepared, to supply the Compiler's Pupils with additional facilities for the study of English, at a very moderate price. It is submitted to the notice of Teachers generally, in the hope that it may prove equally serviceable to them, in giving English Exercises to their Pupils, whether these are to be done in School or at home. Leading Features. 1. The words containing the greatest difficulties in Spelling and Pronunciation, are grouped in such a manner as will best assist the judgment and memory. 2. All directions and explanations, which could most effectually be supplied by the Teacher viva voce are excluded. 3. Considerable prominence has been given to the rich, but somewhat neglected, Saxon element of our language.* 4. The acquisition of correct spelling, &c., is made as subservient as possible to mental training. 5. All essential assistance is given for the correct spelling of Participles and such other derivatives as are not found in Dictionaries. 6. Particular attention is paid to the improvements in spelling made or suggested by Dr. Webster; and which are so much approved of in America, as removing many anomalies from our common language. Directions to the Teacher. As the eye and the ear are the principal media for the acquisition of knowledge and as there is a natural love for variety in the minds of the young-orthographical difficulties are best overcome by constant practice in reading, writing, and recitations aloud. In the early stages, the most judicious plan is for the Teacher-after a reading or an object lesson-to select various words, one after another, and request the Pupils to tell him what letters to write, in chalk, on the board, to form such words. After each has been thus written, let the Class be asked whether the spelling be correct or otherwise. Whilst all are eager to give their opinions, one onlyselected for the purpose is allowed to speak at a time. If this Pupil fail, another had better try; and so on, until the word-if incorrectly speltis rectified by the Pupils themselves, if possible. To be able to read * "For magnificence, for pathos, for vehement exhortation, for subtle disquisition, for every purpose of the Poet, the Orator, and the Divine,-this homely dialect was sufficient. There is no book in our literature on which we would so readily stake the fame of the old unpolluted English Language [as the Pilgrim's Progress]; no book which shows so well how rich that language is in its own proper wealth, and how little it has improved by all that it has borrowed." Macaulay's Essays, Vol. I., p. 139 "BUNYAN." writing may be mentioned among the additional advantages which attend this practice. There are various other methods for improvement in spelling, such as the following: 1.-Let the Pupils, either separately or simultaneously, spell every word in any sentence that may be selected. 2. Take the more difficult words and treat them in like manner, or let them be spelt by letters or syllables; that is, let each name one letter or syllable only at a time, and so round the Class until each word is complete. 3.-Write from dictation, or from memory, either difficult words or whole sentences.-All written exercises, if examined and corrected, greatly promote orthographical accuracy. 4.-The most effectual method for mastering difficulties in spelling, is to recite the words aloud, several times, slowly and distinctly; and then, a few times also, to write them out from memory. It is suggested that the Teacher require from his Pupils oral definitions or explanations of the words most suitable for this purpose-such as words pronounced alike, but spelt and meaning differently-and that, after he has viva voce given his own corrections or explanations, the Pupils be desired to write out such words, with their meanings, as evening exercises. Various other uses to which the text may be subservient, are pointed out in the exercises prescribed at the end. To Pupils farther advanced, such illustrated terms might be made the subjects for composition. By these means the difficulties in the way of giving evening lessons and exercises will be greatly lessened. If occasionally, or at stated times, the Pupils be required to re-produce on paper the substance of any particular lessons received at School, it will be all the better, as meeting that irrepressible love for variety so apparent in youth. Whilst words of the Anglo-Saxon stock are the simplest and strongest, those from the Classic Languages-especially from the Latin-are so numerous, that a knowledge of them, in connection with their roots, is indispensable. However, it has been considered unnecessary to include any Latin or Greek roots, with their derivations, as several cheap and excellent works on the subject are already published.* In compiling this Manual, the writer has been greatly indebted to the publications of Webster, Latham, Arnold, Clarke, Neil, and especially to those of Butter and Sullivan, which are invaluable as Manuals for the Teacher. Two other Manuals, for more advanced Pupils, complete this Series. One of Choice Reading in Prose and Poetry, and the other on the Composition and Analysis of Sentences. * Wilson's Abstract of Hunter's Manual of Derivation (published by the National Society at a very trifling cost) has been found to supply all requisite information. |