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THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES IN LEARNING TO READ.
Language Defined.Language is the conventional means by which man communicates his thoughts. It is a complex unity composed of thought and symbol, spoken or written. Because it is the means by which different minds are identified in thought, it becomes an essential factor in social organization.
Symbolism.In a wider sense all means of social communication, material and pictorial expressions, as well as spoken and written words, may be called language. Thought, through symbol, to thought, is the whole social process of language, spoken and written, for every meaning has a symbol and every symbol has a meaning.
The Problem in Learning to Read.The problem in teaching reading is to bring the symbol and its meaning into vital unity in the mind of the learner. Hence it is necessary that the teacher distinguish clearly between these elements. When the thought and the symbol have become so united that each is essential to the other, the problem of learning to read has been solved.
Fundamental Principles.There are three chief fundamental principles involved in the process of learning to read, namely:
First. Images.The thought aspect of language depends upon clear and vivid images. This is so important that unless children have such images they cannot master the symbols which represent them. One purpose of nature study, handicraft, and art is to give children these images.
First. Images.The thought aspect of language depends upon clear and vivid images. This is so important that unless children have such images they cannot master the symbols which represent them. One purpose of nature study, handicraft, and art is to give children these images.
Second. Wholes to Parts.In acquiring knowledge the mind moves from the vague whole to the parts and then back again to the clarified whole. An understanding of the parts gives a fuller meaning to the whole. The mind analyzes in order to reach a better synthesis. When we wish to make known to a child a coat, for instance, we do not show him separately the sleeves, the lapels, the pockets, the buttons. We hold up the whole garment and say, "Here is a coat." It is necessary to do the same in teaching reading. Give the child first an image of the whole situation which he is to think himself into, and then come to the details to make the whole clear.Third. Self-Activity.The child is an active, creative agent, vitally concerned in adjusting himself to his physical and spiritual environment. Self-activity manifests itself in some external form, which in language is the symbol of the self-active thought. Success in teaching reading depends upon the amount of self-active response the symbol awakens in the thought of the child.
Second. Wholes to Parts.In acquiring knowledge the mind moves from the vague whole to the parts and then back again to the clarified whole. An understanding of the parts gives a fuller meaning to the whole. The mind analyzes in order to reach a better synthesis. When we wish to make known to a child a coat, for instance, we do not show him separately the sleeves, the lapels, the pockets, the buttons. We hold up the whole garment and say, "Here is a coat." It is necessary to do the same in teaching reading. Give the child first an image of the whole situation which he is to think himself into, and then come to the details to make the whole clear.
Third. Self-Activity.The child is an active, creative agent, vitally concerned in adjusting himself to his physical and spiritual environment. Self-activity manifests itself in some external form, which in language is the symbol of the self-active thought. Success in teaching reading depends upon the amount of self-active response the symbol awakens in the thought of the child.
These three fundamental principles, namely, clear and vivid images, whole situations, and self-activity in the form of response and interest on the part of the child, should be kept in the foreground in teaching reading.