1961-08-05 — Page 11

1

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1961.

IT IS CERTAINLY REVOLUTIONARY BUT-

AR IS MUCH

SIMPLER

THAN ABC

By DAVID ETTRICK

tional Unión of Tonthers" (BIF) Konald Gould),,

Mr Jahn Downing, the 30- year-old, teacher and psycholo glat, who has moulded the All alphabet for current educational use and launched it into the classroom, has been offered £14,000 by the Nuffield Founda- tion to enable him to study how methods of teaching reading In- fluence the development of intel- ligenco.

One day quite soon, pour child may return home from -school with a book that ap- pears to be written in En- glish, yet somehow not quite...

You have Sir James Pliman's highly expert word for it that you will be doing the right thing by supporting, the experiment; that ÁR is easier for the learner because it eliminates the con- capital lower- case, and cursive (written) let- ters.

MEET AR, And, if word of their fairy-story books ure to write down what they fusion between

polnful puzzlement as: "On- say?

nu

you have ever key upon a me...

AR, he is sure, protects the AR b struggled to follow

mumbo-jumbo beginner from all these pitfalls mystery. It Is Augmented unill he is sidlful in getting the strange cadences Roman: a new alphabet of 43 meaning rapidly out of the confident of a foreign friend's letters, comprising 24 of the printed word, and is

in his ability to do so. traditional 20, plus 19 nug- conversational mentations.

"It is not for us English", says Queen's English, re-

Sir James, "to Impress on peo- ple abroad that English is thụ world's second languages 7. 1 would far rather it came from AR is here to end all

then, and I can tell you that I Its aim is to remove the spe- hva had letters on these lines. that. It is a bright new gin difculties of English spell from nineteen different coun- weapon of amazing sim- ing for children and speakers of tries

other languages, during the

joice.

Eliminates

ute claimed for it: not murginal lish to their students abroad,

He assures you that It makes up the deflelencies of the con- ventional

alphabet that cause most of the confusion; that it is easily learned and read because, "epasting" along the tops of its letters, the eye finds little dif- feulty.

Questions

There are some urgent ques- tions, nevertheless, that you will wish to ark Sir James, This is how he aruwors them:-

usual?

plicity, and it stands painful first stage of learning "Many of the people writing arrayed against the to read. Already, fantastic im- are very much interested in this Q: Will reading lessons babel of uncomprehend. Prvements in reading prowess because they are teaching Eng start at an age earlier than ing tongues that begins to menace mass-com- munication in the English-speaking world,

Next September, when the British school year be- gin*, Оло thousand

youngsters in Oldham, Lan- cashire and in the county of

cerit.

Will you object to your child learning it?

of 200 per the countries that do not normal- Jy use the Roman alphabet - must of Asia and Africa, that

Staffordshire will begin improvements merely, but huge and this is particularly true in learning to read a dramatic rains of the und.r new way: by AR. At least another 1,500 will join thom the following year.

No mystery

Afterwards. It may not be so Very Jong before Malayans, Maoris and Malaccans can swap funny stories without low- ing the point; ve before little girls in the African bush no Jonger spell out the

opening

CHESS

By LEONARD BARDEN

22

(GOT)

DY

Here is a position won Ecotland's top player W. A. Fairhurst against the Danish grandmaster Larsen: Black to move and win.

London Express Serales.

True, it means learning two ja.” alphabets, But the ali-Intport. ant kernel of the idea is that AR is used only until the begin- er has acquired his first fucn- He then discards I ke an old shoe, and moves

Typewriter

In Britain already, 80 tench- (easily, ers from 20 schools are attend

A: Not necessarily. The teach-

littl red

Wuns upon a tiem littl red hen

livd in a barn with her fiey chicks.

a pig, a cat and a duck mæd

thær hom in the sæm barn. eech de litt red hen

led her chicks out

two look for food.

but the pig, the cat and the duck

wood not look for food.

ان

Nursery rhyme in the now alphabet.

ors will begin, as usual, when they judge the child to be suf- flolently developed physically, mentally and emotionally to be the teachers will шке this "ready for reading.”

Q: What advantage does AR have then!

A: The advantage should come in more rapid progress. Previous research suggests that the time needed for learning to read can be cut to 50 or 60 per cent of what it is at present and this includes the transition to tradi- tionat spelling."

Q: Will children be able to make this transition?

A: Previous research suggests that there will be no difaulty, It is claimed), into the convening courses at which they learn The alphabets are not substan. tinel alphabet and spelling. how to spell in AR. About 200 tally different: they are closely different books have been trans-related. AR has been designed How exactly does AR help? cribed into the new alphabet and very carefully to ease the trans In many ways, says its growing spelling, including the "Janet" flox to traditional priat army of enthuriasts, First, it and “John" books, Britain's most eliminates from learning to read popular school reading serios. that perplexing old childhood

There is problem

llko of why words

an AR typewriter "done", "gone", *Home** and with its own special keyboard; there will be AR books in "one", despite their Common vowel, are not all pronounced homes and pubile ibraries as

well as schools. allks

"

Or why words like "Hoo", "though", "no",

"goal", "yolk" "ywoman" sound yet look so different,

20

"owe", "show",

Ideas as new and striking as this one do not always find rently srceptance. Bitter opposi tion on some fronts would not similar, surprise the AR-men. Not every- one in the educational world is yot convinced. Not every par- AR is the realisation of #

ent. until he knows much more lifetime's study and eleven about it, is sure that he wants years' hard work for the man his child to learn from the behind it. Sir James Pitman, strange-locking new story- M.P., grandson of the inven. books an alphabet that he tor of Pitman's Shorthand going to have to unlearn later.

and a friend of the Inte George Bernard Shaw.

Protects

Is it any wonder, he asks, that the global clamour of mangied English grows almost dally, and audibly? Or that teachers grow worried about their pupil foil-

'Not quite'

Q: Why is it that this transfer acenia to present little difficulty for children?

A: We must remember that children learning with the AR alphabet at school will see tradi- ional print at home and in the alrock and that this will bulld up a store of knowledge of the traditional print through incid ental learning.

Previous re- has search

shown that some children mado the transfer on their own without the need of

to

special help. We have, however. devised special reading and writ- ing teaching techniques smooth the transfer stages. An- other factor is that each child will make the transition when be as an individual is ready for it.

Q: Will children write in this new alphabet ?

But AR la galning, ground. The AR research scheme has

The new letters seem teen commended by Britain's strange to na sa adulla, but the Minister of Education (Sir David chlidren will approach them in Eccles) and by the general sc- the same way as they do the cretaries of the Association of traditional ones. The best way of Education Committees (Sir Wil- training children to write the liam Alexander) and the Na- letters has been worked out ami

method.

4: But will the new alpha- bet help children's writing?

A: All rooms to have an im-

Q: Besides these advantages

JACOBY, BRIDGE

TUIE game was duplicate. Same seby-Smith forcing three, no- Some Bouth players opened trump response. South hai. 14 apade and wound up making high card points of, his own elther four

Ave

tho two aces and spades including Dr five no - trump. Most trump king. Hence, he visual- possiblities and South players opened one club 10 slam and arrived at three no-trump, shows his lowest ace by bid- ding four diamonds. North showe the ace of hearts and

ねじも。 South shows his spade

NORTH. AJBS

BL

УА

K.103 MAQB103

WEST AKEBI

EAST ▲ 100

2556 +9743 104

HOUTI (1) MAQTE

+AXE

West North East

Note that all this bickling has

still left : Ave club haven it North does not want to bid the alam.

:

Of course, North wants to bid tho Klam. Furthermore, North wonders about seven, but contents himself with sa.

Playing #tal Bouth draws trumps; leads the three of spades from dummy and playa the qued.Wort takes his king. Because, the den "of apades drops South does not need to guess the location, "of the dia- mond queers.

♥+CARD SeniseĶI

*EÐ 2

`Both vulnerabla

South

14

· Pau

N.T. Past

Pers

Tam

Pam

你儿 Pos

Pass

19

Openina lend—V O

Pass

The two pairs playing Ja-

coby-Smith arrived at six clubs and tied for top score.

With 14 high card points 1 cluding two aces and a king and tremendous trump aup- port North has a perfect Ja-

Just

North

SNT.

-The bidding has been?

Fast Santa West

Pass

Pas

You, South, holdi

498 VX1 +AQIIIS AKSTU

What do you do?

Amald four cinde, Thero 21F

be a slams somewhere,

TODAY'S QUESTION

Your partner continues to fourį diamonds. What do you do now? Answer on Monday

Fancy That

CAROLINE GODDARD walted with her car too long outside a Bournemouth store and was fined 25. "My mother," she. in reading, writing and spell-wrote from North Cerney Manor, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, . is it expectd that there wanted to buy hat. She said she would be quick but I took may be any general educa- 40 mimates to choose." tional benefits from AR!

| T-149 am he was freed from Pentonville Jail; at 7.50 he was ▲ caught stealing a radio from a car-quite near his home; at 8.16 the police had him, and at 11.15 the North London magistrate sent him in custody to London Sessions for sentence,

Imre Blazso, aged 55, à Czech, had not even been home to **Lcconfeld-road, Highbury, to see his wife, and two small children.

A: Provious research suggenta portant advantage for children's that learning to read with writing. It should improve their mare systematic spelling at this for early age may influence general self-expression in writing. they are less likely to be in mental and emotional develop- takes since they can be confident ported as being better at hiblied for fear of spelling mia- ment. Children have been · re-

in writing as they speak.

tematic problem-solving much as arithmeils ' through .... this enzly Q: Won't their spelling be training in decoding print sys- unI GAGARIN met Gina Lollobrigids in Moscow and said: bad in later life?

tematically. We also know that "My colleagues are jealous that I should meet the stars here. A: A previous experiment maladjuximent I related to I was very close to the real stars but they are, unattainable." with a similar scheme explored reading failure, and a reduction

Bald Loila: "I am attainabla," And kissed. (ké spaosman's cheek, this question and it was found in the frustration of failure that children who had learned to reading is likely to reduce per- read with a simplified alphabet sonality difficulties arising from were better at traditional speil- this source. ing Ister on than children who It is a wildly hopeful note to had been brought ay on tradi- end on. Could AR also be the

spelt books from the long-sought slonally

antidote to the world's teen-age crime waves?

start.

@

RL

LION-HUNT began in the Buckinghamshire village of Little A Brickhill after 79-year-old Charlie King saw a beast with a great shuggy head" prowling near his allotment. A Whipshadə Zoo expert was called to examine, paw-marks, He told the hunters: "It was a Great Dane."

-London Express Service),

'GO

00

(60)

GG

GO

THREE'S A

CROWD BY JAK

NEWS ITEM: Council house tenants in Camberwell, London, have been threatened with court action over parking more than one car outside their houses.

* DAD, SID, FRID, MOVI ONE OF YIK CARS WILL"'" YER—THE MAYOR CAN'T GET 'İS LIKE IN AGAIN.”

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