the background of English culture: a clear realisation of this aim should profoundly affect the books read and the methods of reading them. Books on the English scene, both rural and urban, books on travel, biographies and autobiographies of famous Englishmen, especially men of action, books on games, English folk-lore and English material culture, all these are of infinitely greater value in the earlier stages than the more recondite and abstract works of English men of letters. English prose is more important than English poetry, and it may not be out of place to suggest that the works of Shakespeare are not a pre-requisite of an English course at this stage. The amount of material to be read should be given careful consideration. Great attention to detail is at this stage undesirable; the aim should be to get the pupils to read as much as possible without overburdening them, and as rapidly as possible without over-tiring them.
The preceding paragraph deals broadly with what should be common ground to both grammar and modern schools, and it may perhaps be permitted to indicate where it differs from what has come to be accepted as the "traditional course in English" in these schools. First of all it lays emphasis on the importance of building up a working vocabulary of everyday English. The problem is essentially the same as that which was dealt with in the sections on teaching Welsh as a second language, and it has not been satisfactorily solved in the secondary schools because the approach to English has been almost exclusively through "pure literature". To free the course from this bias is to open the way to the wider range of reading matter suggested above, to which may be added a selection from the rich variety of modern English works of scientific interest. Secondly, stress is laid on the importance of cultivating clear correct English speech. This cannot be done as something incidental to the reading and general oral work; in addition to this there must be direct training, daily practice which should include some specific drill exercises. It need hardly be added that the speech of the staff of the school should set a good standard in this respect. Thirdly, insistence is laid on relation between the study of any language—it happens to be English in this case—and the main elements in the culture and tradition of the people who speak that language. In this way a sound foundation is laid for the study of literature, but it cannot too often be stressed that the serious study of "pure" literature in a second language is a matter for the post-School Certificate stage in the pupil's education.
These broad principles apply to the scheme of grammar and modern schools alike, and for good reasons. The differences between the schools will then be those of degree rather than of kind. The grammar school may find it possible to deal in great detail with the formal and analytic aspects of language study, and the modern may have to proceed more slowly with some of the fundamental skills. These differences are irrelevant; what is relevant is that each school should be aware of the important elements in the study of a second language, and should place these elements in their order of precedence.
