Language At Play PDF Download

Excerpt from Language Games: A Method of Using Play for Establishing Correct Habits of Speech, in Primary Grades When the mother and other members of the family Circle first attempt to teach the baby to talk they approach him play fully, and common intuition tells us that their efforts would not succeed if they did not employ playful methods. These are the Child's first language lessons. The next come when he first ventures forth to the street and play-ground. Some astonishing things happen then in the way of language acquisi tion all kinds of language. Anxious parents and ambitious teachers wonder why the language of the play-ground is taken with so much greater avidity than that of the school class-room or the family circle. The explanation is simple. Play is the magic power. Nearly all growth in language power, whether with adults or with children, comes when the interest is very high. Hardly any gain is ever made through didactic teaching. With Children high interest means almost altogether play interest. When children go into their play activities they put into them the ut most initiative, originality and interest of which they are capable. That throws them wide open mind-open and heart-open and ready to receive. The language that they hear goes right home, finds lodgment and comes out again right away as their language. If we could analyze exhaustively the language content of the mind of a ten-year-old boy we would find little there that was not put there by play interest. If parents and teachers are to hold their own in their efforts at language teach ing, in competition with the play-ground, they must take their cue from the play-ground. That is what this little book has done. The method indicated in it succeeds; and it is the only method that I have ever known to meet with any degree of success in this field. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.