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dropped out of use. Most people use "less" in its place and say "less
books, less chairs" etc., probably because "less" (with one syllable)
is easier to say than "fewer" (with two). And as an arguing point,
some people think it wrong to say such things as "the government
are" instead of the "government is" when, in fact, both are
legitimate, depending on whether the government is looked upon as
a single body or as a collection of individuals. But none of this
should concern the students.
The rules of grammar do, of course, influence the way people speak,
and especially write, but they do not decide the issue for all time.
For example, if, after a time, the majority of educated people say
"Who are you speaking to?" instead of "To whom are you
speaking?" - that then becomes the new grammar.
199
Punctuation test
In order to show the teacher how punctuation varies from one
individual to another, the Director of a school could give his
teachers an unpunctuated extract from a contemporary writer
together with a piece from an earlier writer and get each teacher to
put in his own punctuation. Not only will the teachers' punctuation
differ from the original authors', but it will also differ among the
teachers.
The following two extracts could be used as sample tests. The first
piece is from Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy,
whilst the second piece is from Anthony Burgess's book on D.H.
Lawrence, Flame Into Being. The punctuated versions can be found
at the back of this book.
"In reading any important philosopher but most of all in
reading Aristotle it is necessary to study him in two ways with
reference to his predecessors and with reference to his
successors in the former aspect Aristotle's merits are
enormous in the latter his demerits are equally enormous for
his demerits however his successors are more responsible than
he is he came at the end of the creative period in Greek
thought and after his death it was two thousand years before
the world produced any philosopher who could be regarded as
approximately his equal".
"And it is this stripping down which is of the essence of the
book the characters are in their externals drawn with a
delirious sharpness but they are not human beings as we
expect to meet them either in real life or in fiction they are
close to animals in the discontinuousness of their emotions
with unpredictable shifts of feeling which are always intense
their unconscious minds are as in surface mining a little too
close to the light they are capable of great emotional and even
physical violence they all seem to have a skin missing".
200
As far as the student is concerned, the only important aspect of
punctuation is when it alters the meaning of a sentence, as with the
sentences: "She has two brothers who are farmers" and "She has two
brothers, who are farmers", where the first sentence means she has
other brothers who are not farmers, whilst the second one means she
has only two brothers.
If the teacher is not sure how to punctuate, he should read slowly
aloud (as if making a speech) whatever it is he has written, and
notice where the pauses naturally occur in his delivery. As a rough-
and-ready guide, a semi-colon usually denotes a longer pause than a
comma; a colon a longer pause than a semi-colon; and a full-stop an
even longer pause.
The Callan Method is a practical method
The Callan Method is above all a practical method of teaching. If
sometimes it might appear not to be quite academically correct, it is
because academic accuracy has been sacrificed for clarity and
simplicity. There is no room for the pedant in the early stages of
teaching a language like English which has few pedantic rules of
grammar. This does not mean, however, that the Callan Method
books contain actual mistakes. It just means that sometimes the
English in the books is based on what educated English people
actually say, not on what they perhaps "ought" to say.
Recognition of indifference
The Callan Method is basically aimed at combating indifference in
the classroom. One of the reasons why students usually fail to learn
languages at school is that, apart from the dull presentation of the
subject, 90% of them are just not interested in learning a language -
they find it too boring. They would like to be able to speak a foreign
language, but do not want to go through the slow, hard process of
learning one. The Callan Method, therefore, aims at keeping
everything simple and uncomplicated and removing obstacles to
learning, such as grammar.
201
Consequently, the teacher should not get too academic in his
approach to teaching, and should keep encouraging the student who
is bewildered by grammar by telling him that he can still master the
language and pass the Cambridge exams without a complete
understanding of the rules of grammar - at a private school the
student will have been given a guarantee to assure him that this is
so.
The teacher himself has to learn the grammar
Although the points of grammar throughout the Method are
explained to the teacher at the same time as they are explained to the
students, the teacher should study them before he begins his
teaching. The Director of the school at which he works should test
him on these points. When training himself, the teacher should ask a
friend to question him on the grammar.
What kind of books do you like reading ?
In Stage 7 of the Method there is the question "What kind of jobs
can a youth do better than an old man ?" In such a question some
people might add an "s" to the word "kind", to make it agree with
the plural noun "jobs", whilst others would not. The same people
who add the "s", however, might be found to drop it in a question
like "What kind of books do you like reading ?"
When thinking carefully about it or when speaking slowly,
emphatically or pedantically some people will always add an "s", [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
