jaw open as before. Insert two fingers and proceed as before. Insert three and proceed. Tongue Twisters The old-fashioned tongue-twisters are perhaps simpler and are as valuable in making the organs of enunciation facile as are finger exercises for piano players. Every one knows or can easily find examples.* Several are added as illustrative: "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, "Six slim, sleek, slick saplings." "Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran." "A cup of coffee in a copper coffee pot." These are often repeated rapidly a number of times. But in all of these exercises, whether given rapidly or slowly, one must take time to get each word out clear and clean-cut. Say "a cup of," not "a-cup-a." * A number of tongue twisters are to be found in Miss Carolyn Wells's "Whimsey Anthology," pp. 37, 67, 72, 122, 124, and elsewhere. Two poems containing good material are Southey's "Cataract of Lodore" and Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." The thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians and the first stanza of Tennyson's "Sir Galahad" are also good. "Betty Botter bought some butter; It will make my batter bitter.' "When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw." "Amidst the mists and coldest frosts, "Some shun sunshine and some shun shade." "Alone, alone, all, all alone.” "Down dropt the sails, the sails dropt down." "She sells sea shells, sea shells sells she." "An owl uttered an awful outcry in an old empty attic all out of order." Original Exercises Such tongue-twisters appeal peculiarly to children in the intermediate and early grammar grades, and consequently they often seize upon them with avidity and give them much more practice than the teacher expects. In one school the eighth grade became so much interested in this drill and apparently profited by it so much that the teacher encouraged them to compose original jingles which should give practice on all the letters of the alphabet. To illustrate what almost any school can do, we append a few that were brought in. "Daisy Daly doted on David Dickens. David Dickens decided that David didn't dote on Daisy Daly; so David Dickens disappointed Daisy Daly by doting on Dorothy Daugherty." "Fickle Frank fought fifty-five fist-fights. After Frank fought fifty-five fist-fights, funny Fanny fried fickle Frank five finny fish. Funny Fanny's five finny fish filled fickle Frank full." "Monday morning Nancy Manning noticed Mandy May making Martha Menke a mat. Nancy moved noiselessly away. Next noon Martha missed her mat." "Mary's mamma had many mice. Mary's mamma's mice spilt mamma's mush and Mary's mamma mentioned that mice make much muss." "Pretty Patty petted Polly, And the petting was upset." “Quaint Quentin quickly quarreled with the queer, quizzical Quaker queen." "Thirsty Thisby thrust a thick thistle through the thriftless but thriving Theophilus's thigh." "Venerable Vernon vended a variety of valuable valentines to vagrant visitors at Venice." While composing these jingles the children became interested in the way sounds are made, and thus they easily learned the general classes of consonants: the labials, the palatals, the dentals, the aspirates, and the liquids. This proved of some help to them later in learning to place and utter difficult combinations of sounds. The teacher who is interested in the subject will find a detailed discussion. in The Guide to Pronunciation of the International Dictionary, pages ixl-xlvii. The Voice Good reading does not require a loud or shrill voice. Indeed, those qualities are often the very ones that stand most in the way of excellence. If articulation and enunciation are good, the voice is apt to "carry" well without shrillness or loudness; but if it be shrill or loud without good articulation and enunciation, it reaches the hearer merely as a noise, without conveying sense. If a reader or speaker chooses a person in the most remote part of the room and tries to make him hear, takes his time, and throws his voice carefully at this hearer, it is probable that everyone in the room will know what he is saying. But if the reader forgets that his aim is to give the thought to someone else, if he becomes hurried, or if he fails to take proper pains in articulating each syllable, it is almost certain that his reading will fail. Not infrequently there are pupils in school whom it is almost impossible to hear ten feet away. They mumble through their recitations on every subject so that the teacher must guess at what they mean and must interpret what they say if he wishes the rest of the class to understand. This is all wrong, confirming such pupils in what is merely a bad habit and wasting a great deal of valuable time. There is not a normal child in the schools who can not be heard if he tries to be. The teacher must have this matter out once for all; it is foolish to permit it to run on and on in wicked wastefulness of the time of everyone. Explain the purpose of reading and reciting that it is to make some one else hear and understand. Then kindly but firmly insist that this be accomplished, or count what is done no recitation. Sometimes it is well to exaggerate conditions for such a pupil,-have him read from a distant corner of the room and such like. The charge is often made that American voices are loud, harsh, and generally unpleasant. Unfortunately, there is much truth in the charge, as one can easily prove by listening to the conversation about him. Often the singing in schools is so loud and shrill as to defeat many of the ends for which it is introduced. The teacher should especially insist on sweetness and clearness, in class and out. |
