Let us notice the manual method, the oral method, and the combined system, considering with the last the "dual method."
The chief elements of the manual method are finger-spelling, reading and writing and signing. These are used, that is to say, as means of teaching English and imparting ideas. Signs are used to awaken the child's thoughts, finger-spelling and writing are used to express these thoughts in the vernacular. The latter are used to express English, the former to explain English.
We give two manual alphabets, the one-handed being used in America, on the continent of Europe with some variations and additions, in Ireland, and also to some extent in England; the two-handed in Great Britain, Ireland and Australia. A speed of 130 words a minute can be attained when spelling on the fingers. Words are quite readable at this speed.
Although reading and writing are common to both methods, the manual and oral, as a matter of fact they seem to be used considerably more in the former than in the latter.
In the oral method articulation and lip-reading are chiefly relied upon; reading and writing are also adopted. The phonetic values of the letters are taught, not the names of the letters; for instance, the _sound_ of the letter a in "hat" is taught instead of the _name_ of the letter (long A), though of course the latter is taught where such is the proper pronunciation, as in "hate."
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ANALYSIS OF THE VOWEL SOUNDS. | +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ | Long. | Middle. | Short. | Broad. | +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ |Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic |Diacritic Phonetic | | mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.| mark. spelling.| +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ | fat(e) = feit | fär = far | f)at = fat | fãll = /fawl | | | | | \fol | | me = /mee | | | | | \mi | | m)et = met | | | pin(e) = pain | | p)in = pin | | | no = nou | möve = muv | n)ot = not | | | tub(e) = tiub | büll = bul | t)ub = tub | | +-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+