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of reforms which we regard gently required in the interests the College.
English.
which of
First, in the teaching of English, may be considered under three heads: Conversation, Composition and the Translation of Chinese into English.
English Conversation. The teaching of this above the eighth class dates from His Excellency's remarks on his first visit to the College; he has several times called attention to the importance of the subject, but there is no time set apart for it, nor has there been any systematic teaching of it. Consequently, great numbers of boys in the upper classes are unable to understand the simplest explanations given in English.
1. Conversation. In the teaching of Composition also, there is no systematic teaching up to the First Class. A story is read to the boys and they are expected to reproduce it without having had any training by means of such graduated lessons and exercises as are essential in learning a foreign language. Hence it is that a boy cannot construct grammatically a simple sentence.
2. Composition.
"Translation into English" consists in committing to memory a "crib" written out on the blackboard by the teacher. In fact, this subject is not taught. No intelligence is called forth, and the best rote-memory gains the highest marks in the examination. As a consequence, boys when they leave school are still incompetent to translate Chinese into English. We once suggested to you that the translation should be printed, so that time might be spared to teach the difference of construction between Chinese and English.