The old recourse was technical grammar. But this is an analytical study, calculated to lead to apprehension of subtle meanings, rather than to an instinct for correct form. Furthermore, the grammar cannot be successfully studied until after the habits of speech are fairly fixed. For these reasons, it bears much the same relation to living speech that formal logic does to real thinking. Grammar makes the mind keen to detect formal errors of speech, just as logic trains one to detect fallacies in reasoning.
The first important instrument for securing good English in the early primary grades is narration by the teacher and repetition by the children. This means, potent enough to form the speech of any child whether from the slums or from the homes of those who know no English, is rarely utilized up to the full measure of its efficiency. Teachers are filled with the prepossession that they must enable their pupils to write good English, forgetting that if the mind is habituated to _think_ in good English first, the problem of writing it is well-nigh solved. The requisites for successful oral training in the mother-tongue are first, the selection of a body of interesting and appropriate literature, and second, skill in narration by the teacher. Given these two things, and we have the first in great abundance, and every child will be able in a year to give extended and correct speech within the range of his sphere of thought to an almost unlimited extent. His tenacious memory for forms frequently heard, together with his delight in repeating almost word for word stories told in his presence, will produce astonishing facility in correct speech. As much of this may be written as seems best, but it is probable that there would not be great loss if a child were not called upon to write a ‘composition’ before he is ten or twelve years old. Could we be sure he would go through the high school, formal writing might be postponed until he enters it. Not much is ever gained by attempts to produce fruit before its natural period for appearing.
Upon the basis of this training in correct oral speech, the children may begin, when nine or ten years of age, to have systematic language lessons, which should be calculated to produce two results: first, a facile use of the pen in recording thought, special caution being given not to weary the mind and body too much by unduly extending the length of the written exercises; second, an inductive approach, through brief written exercises, toward the classifications and distinctions of technical grammar. To be of use, this latter requirement should be clearly understood. The method of approach is purely synthetic. It consists in devices to enable the pupil repeatedly to use a given construction, say a relative pronoun, until the name and construction seem natural from use alone.[35]