Teaching of English

This is a book for the modern school teacher of English. In it, good teachers try to say in concrete language how they have handled problems relevant to any English classroom: in the teaching of language, writing and literature. As they do, the central motif of the book emerges: the problem of thinking; from this all else grows. Our main concern is that the words which we and our classes use should have roots in reality, that words should have a connection with the operations they are describing. If words are used to convey ideas, then ideas must underlie the words. If words are a way of communicating, what do we communicate when we use them? The study of grammar (and not many people agree on what grammar is) will not solve these problems; it tells us rather how words go together. The good teacher will always relate the grammar to the situation being described. He will not say that this sentence is right or wrong, but will ask, "What are you trying to say, and have you said it?" Our students should be forced in all their speaking and writing to define key words, to expand abstractions, to minimize jargon; in short, to make clear what they are trying to say. It is then that we are teaching thinking.