THE READER THE FOCUS OF LANGUAGE-TRAINING. SWINTON'S ADVANCED FIRST READER COPYRIGHT, 1886, BY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND CHICAGO EDITOR'S NOTE. It is assumed that children taking up this book have mastered some First Reader, which implies: 1. That they can recognize at sight some two hundred and fifty or three hundred English words. 2. That they have acquired some elementary knowledge of the phonic values of the characters composing our English alphabet. To build on this knowledge, to enlarge and consolidate it, is the purpose of this Advanced First Reader. It has no theoretical aim, the single object being to bring the child-mind in contact with simple pieces, the thought and language of which may forward the little ones in the mystery of reaching ideas through the printed · word. And on this subject one remark:- If the thought in a sentence is, such as appeals to the apprehension of children, and if that thought is clothed in words, either within their knowledge or within their grasp, the sentence will be read spontaneously in the tone in which they would speak it. This is reading, - - a thing very different from the articulating of vocables. This Reader contains some technical educational features that will readily be discerned by the intelligent teacher. |