About the book The author of this book is a classroom assistant in Scotland. He conceived of this book series after struggling to learn a foreign language and wondering what stumbling blocks someone new to English would have, in increasing his or her own knowledge of the language. He also sought out and discovered ways to actively build up vocabulary and introduce grammar to the learner through usage i.e. samples, rather than trying to teach the rules and letting them acquire the vocabulary, which he considers back to front as a process. The ideas behind this series are not totally original but their format as workbooks is as far as he knows, as is their use at all levels (Secondary, Remedial, Adult Literacy and Second Language learning). It is hoped that this set of volumes will help reduce the growing trend in illiteracy, by reproducing easily assemble material, through teaching memorable patterns in all areas as the series progresses. In the authors opinion, language should be taught scientifically as with Mathematics – one symbol at a time, then in combinations and variations, that is letters, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, essays. Language is music (sound) and this links to Math’s through harmony of effort as in poetry or song, its highest, most enjoyable form - where both sorts of sound come together (instrumental and vocal). |
Assimilating any language (Too many systems on the market seemed more it easy for the learner to understand how the actual language works and can be easily picked up). This I have attempted to do with English, my own tongue, in the hope that others will reciprocate and create their own transparent layouts for learning German, French etc. My method reduces English to its bare bones, so that like music or mathematics, the patterns are clear and obvious (Not hidden behind mumbo-jumbo) and are self-evident: Bad teaching obscures the truth like a magic trick, where you are left confused as to how it was done - not enlightened by what you yourself see. The method of delivery too is equally simple - see the spelling, hear the sound of the word and watch the meaning displayed as images (nouns/ adjectives) or short videos/ actions (verbs/ adverbs). Dr Robert Titzer on his site 'Your Baby Can' , shows similar methods for acquiring vocabulary in children as young as 2-3 years old but mine further enhances this, through logical groupings, ensuring accuracy of spelling (see volume 2) and through displaying common patterns (volume 1) that make bulk memorization easy: Testing my material against random word groupings, would easily prove this for adult learners, secondary level students, foreign students and in remedial classes by school teachers (private or public), private tutors or parents, carrying out home schooling on their own children. |
It’s amazing how difficult it can be to define rhyme. Go on. Have a go. Not easy is it? The best I have ever been able to do when putting rhyme up as a key word on a white board, is that a rhyming word matches the previous word’s vowel sound and final consonant sound. But it’s not good enough is it? Doesn’t quite satisfy. Wikipedia has it as, “a repetition of similar sounds,” which is even shoddier than my own useless attempts. The difficulties in defining rhyme are further compounded by the myriad different versions of the same: did you know they separate into masculine, feminine, imperfect, semi, oblique; dactylic even? There’s head rhymes and there’s there’s half rhymes; forced rhymes and syllabic rhymes. The English teacher I remember most fondly from school pointed us in several directions that I couldn’t quite master: T S Eliot, for one, along with the mystifying instruction that we should listen to the music of the language. “But, sir,” blurted out the vastly younger I, “Language isn’t music. It’s words.” He twinkled. And in so doing set me on a path: I now partially understand fragments of what Eliot was trying to do, and hear music in every word. Yesterday I spent much of the day, an English teacher myself now, passing on the same virus; instructing students into the ear that you need to cultivate to relate the music to the meaning. “It is not enough to point out that you have noticed alliteration, class, you have to say how the music it creates reflects the poems themes. Why does the meter change here? For what reason did the poet choose a half rhyme here?” And it is with matters of rhyme that this book is concerned. Tony has collected an encyclopedia of them. How you use this encyclopedia is up to you. Though its authors has specific ideas). For me, its chief use will be when constructing sonnets with my classes. Stuck for an idea? Reach for this text. It’ll help you make language into music. Phil Beadle English teacher Author of Dancing About Architecture: A Little Book of Creativity. |

Logical captain?, 9 Feb 2012 By paigetheoracle "None" (Scotland) - This book offers the chance to build up a vocabulary through simple repetitive techniques - hence Logic Lists English. Most, if not all civilizations of the past and present, used writing to record important information (It's memory), whereas tribal society exists only by word of mouth. Verbal dexterity isn't literacy and reading doesn't ensure the ability to spell. According to philosopher Alain De Botton, secular society rewards novelty, forbids repetition and encourages forgetting, which is the antithesis of the method used here - could this explain the growing illiteracy in this country and disinterest in science subjects? This is the first of a series of books by this author, attempting to stem the tide that is forcing industry and commerce to seek its university graduates elsewhere in Europe because the basic building blocks aren't being encouraged at the start of children's education but actively discouraged, in order to be 'fair' (Do you want your children to soar to their individual height or wallow in the collective failure that British Education has become?). |
I heard this book dismissed as 'just columns of words' - try telling an accountant that there work is just columns of numbers! Literacy is the written word and this is where education is failing as it is taught as verbal story telling, which misses out on spelling altogether and condemns rote learning as old fashioned but how do you memorise anything without repetition? The mind is like a gun - the science is to load it with bullets and the art where you aim those bullets and how. I have been told my ideas are unworkable by people who have never tried them - perhaps it them that are not working? As we say in The UK 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating' (Things work if you do - nothing in, nothing out). The link between music and language is well researched (Chris Brewer 1995 Dee Dickinson 1993 Dr Nina Kraus 2011). It is also known to enhance learning in general. |


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