3694
THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.
[No. 89

such programs, if approved by the Minister of Education, and published in
the New Zealand Gazette, shall be held to satisfy the requirements of the
portion of the syllabus to which they refer.

ENGLISH.

29. Speech.—It should be recognized that the foundation of all work
    in English is natural and correct speech. Children should be taught to
    reproduce in oral speech simple stories told by the teacher, and to give
    orally simple accounts or descriptions of common objects and occurrences
    that fall within their experience. These should be expressed in complete
    sentences properly grouped, and clearly and correctly pronounced. Simple
    conversations and talks in which both the teacher and the children take part,
    upon subjects of everyday life, but calculated to extend the interests of the
    children by arousing their observation and other activities, should be largely
    employed in the lower classes. It is not essential that the answers should
    contain complete sentences, but the answers should be as complete and clear
    as they would be in the natural conversation of educated people, and
    slovenly answering should not be passed over at any stage. Any attempt
    to make children speak in a stilted manner, or to use words and forms
    unfamiliar to them should be avoided; the speech should be natural, and
    errors should be corrected as they occur. The practice in oral composition
    should be continued throughout the whole school course, and should not be
    confined to the English class-work only; the children should regularly
    be trained to give orally a simple and clear account of anything that they
    have learnt in history or geography, of any experiment or observation made
    in science, or of any process used in their handwork.

The chief objects of the instruction in reading shall be to impart to the
pupils the power of fluent reading, with clear enunciation, correct pronunciation, tone, and inflexion, and expression based upon intelligent comprehension of the subject-matter; to cultivate a taste for and an appreciation
of good literature; and accordingly to lead the pupils to form the habit of
reading good books. The reading of such books might, indeed, well replace
all other kind of home-work. There should be at least two or three reading-books in each class. The requirements in reading shall be held to be met
by the use of the School Journal*, together with continuous readers suited
to each stage. Silent reading should be largely employed in the case of
children in the upper classes, and some of the composition should be based
thereon. Generally, the instruction in reading must be such as to secure
within the limits of the pupils’ ordinary school course the ability to read
at sight with ease and intelligence any reading-matter suited to the age
and mental development of children completing the primary stage of their
education.

Poetry set for recitation should, while suited to the age of the pupils,
be chosen for its literary merit as well as for the interest it arouses. There
is such a wealth of simple and beautiful poetry in English literature that
there is no reason to select for repetition verse that is not worth the trouble
of learning by heart. One of the objects in making children learn verse or
prose by heart is that they may have stored up in their memory masterpieces
that may develop their imagination, and may, whether the children themselves are conscious of the operation or not, mould their taste for good
literature. A sufficient amount of poetry and prose, suitable for learning
by heart, will be provided in the School Journal.

The children should have an intelligent comprehension of the poetry set
for recitation, and be able to answer questions upon the subject-matter of
it. In some classes the pupils might be trained to reproduce in their own
words the substance of poetry previously committed to memory. These
exercises link the recitation to the composition lessons.

Spelling should be taught by means of systematic lessons on word-building, based on a general phonetic scheme, or on the meanings of the words,
or on both principles combined. This teaching should be regularly supplemented by transcription from script and print. Dictation is a useful test,
but not in itself, it should be remembered, a method of teaching spelling.
Indeed, the spelling may be judged rather from the composition and other
written work than from special tests. The learning by heart of lists of
spellings and meanings cannot be considered as serving any useful purpose,
but children may be encouraged to bring to school lists of words and phrases
that they have been unable to understand in the books read at home.

Any spelling shall be allowed that is recognized by the Oxford English
Dictionary, and ceteris paribus, it is recommended generally that where this
authority gives a choice the more phonetic form should be preferred; e.g.,
recognize, rime, gram, kilogram, program, honor, labor, plow, jail, and not
recognise, rhyme, gramme, kilogramme, programme, honour, labour, plough,
gaol.