A survey of the educational system of the Philippine islands by the Board of educational survey, created under acts 3162 and 3196 of the Philippine Legislature.

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

263

Because no such investigation has been carried on, uniform language
topics primarily of a literary type are suggested in the Course of Study
with the inevitable result that the subject matter now used results many
times in the use of highly artificial situations and causes teachers and
children to resort to memorized material. The vocabulary resulting
from the use of such topics does not contribute to the speaking needs of
children as it should. Until a study of children's interests and the
vocabulary which they use is made the instruction in language will not
function as it should. Many teachers write on the board a list of words
and ask the children to use these in sentences. It would be better to
stimulate an interest in a topic which will require the use of such words.
Ability to use the English language can never be developed unless
there is definite subject matter with which children have had experience
for them to talk about. This subject matter can be given through
excursions, specimens brought into the classroom, pictures related to
children's interests, poems, stories, and material taken from the other
school subjects. Excellent topics for discussion are given in the report
under, "Suggested health topics for use in the grades." Stories read
silently in the reading period can be dramatized in the language period.
A group report on some phase of geography work such as, "The Place
in Manila I would Like Best to Visit," or "Games the Japanese
Children Play" will furnish desirable content for English work. A
wealth of material can be taken from nature study. This would lead
to a study of the local environment and require the use of a natural
speaking vocabulary. No more vital or interesting topics could be
used than those naturally arising in the industrial work; See the
discussion of Industrial Work in the primary school.
The children must not only have something to talk about but the
topic used must not be too broad in scope. One essential of language
training is to give children the ability to think and talk to the point.
For this reason such a topic as "What trick does your dog do?" results
in better training than the title, "Dogs' tricks."
CONVERSATIONAL ENGLISH.-The period devoted to conversational
English is frequently wasted. As a rule, the teacher has no definite
worth-while topics for the children to talk about. Many situations calling for discussions, such as the criticism of seat work, the playing of
games, and the industrial work, are constantly arising during the day.
These discussions could be deferred until the period scheduled for
conversational English. If, however, these discussions could take place
when the need arises, better results would be secured. For this reason,
many teachers and officers have suggested that the period devoted to
conversational English be dispensed with and periods of five minutes
scheduled after seat-work periods.