Excerpt from English for New-Canadians

This manual has been written with the intention of helping the adult foreigners, especially those of the industrial class; though it can be used with equal success in teaching children. Almost one-eighth of the total population of Canada at the present time is foreign, a large percentage being adult, and while the children are taught English in our Public Schools, the parents do not have this opportunity with the result that there is a tendency on the part of the children to despise their parents on account of their ignorance of the English language, thus bringing about a break in the home influence. Besides, a large percentage of the adult foreigners are not illiterate consequently are in a position to learn English pro vided they are given some assistance. Many derive their first knowledge of the language from the illustrated sections of our newspapers, while they are daily surrounded by printed English in the way of signs, directions and instructions.

With this in mind the illustrations of upwards a thousand common objects, along with their English names, have been gathered together in this manual. The eye has been appealed to as well as the ear and every effort has been made to make the work concrete. For instance, no abstract nouns are used and most of the verbs are action verbs, while the. Eye takes the place of the dictionary. When the new-canadian looks at the picture of a 'table, ' he knows the name of it in his own lan guage and his desire is to know its name in English. A com parison of numbers will give him this. Hence it will appeal to the new-canadian of any nationality. It is not essential that he should pronounce every word since the word image willstay with him and he will associate-it with the object. Many native-born Canadians have learned to read, and understand foreign languages who have never heard a syllable spoken.

Naturally the new-canadians with a teacher will progress much more rapidly. For a beginning the teacher Should teach his class the numbers up to perhaps fifty. Have them repeat the numbers in concert since this overcomes any timidity they I may have. Then let the teacher point out the picture of 'door' saying that 'one' is 'door' and pointing immediately to the printed word 'door.' Do this with 'key' and so on until all the objects have been pointed out and named. When all the words in the first lesson have been repeated in concert several times, each learner may be asked to repeat them by himself until he has a fair pronunciation. The teacher should finally write the words on the blackboard and have them copied.

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