164 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION.
stitutional bad speller, proved by subsequent test to have good powers of
visualization and sound imaging and fair retention, but gifted with a
natural mode of attention unsuited to purposes of spelling.
Of the second mode of attention we will speak later. The third, the
dividual or disjunctive, furnished no bad spellers. Here a fact was
evidently a fact, and the fact that c-a-¢ spelled cat had been duly observed
and pigeon-holed. The ensuing tests served still further to define the
mode of directing attention. The best natural speller perceived long words
in two or more groups of letters, none of the poor spellers having this
habit. Words and irregular geometric figures variously marked were
exposed, and a list written down of the points of relation observed within
a given number of seconds. The poor speller who observed most points of
relation failed utterly in the tests on visualizing and retention. She could
not write fast enough to get the points on paper before they were forgotten.
She represented the pure type of the second or organic mode of attention,
being able to perceive instantly and correctly a combination of nine letters.
Tests for direct and constructive imaging were given by requiring the
student to spell a word backward from the visual image. In the case of
those whose attention centered on the first part of the word, only this could
be distinctly visualized.
The automatic circuit was tested by having a paragraph written with
hand concealed. Mistakes were made of insertion, omission, inversion,
and substitution.
Comparison of the eye and ear series of tests brought out the fact that
one of the poor spellers was an audile.
In conclusion, the following points may be emphasized :
(1) Many constitutionally bad spellers have defective sight ; some defect-
‘ve hearing.
(2) The same causes that have operated to impair the sight or the hear-
ng have frequently impaired the retentive power.
(3) Constitutionally bad spelling may, in part, be the result of a strong
natural bent toward selective attention.
(4) In such cases, where the syllable method of teaching might be
especially ineffective, the mechanical memory would be helped by assisting
attention in its selection. For example, above the word separate might
se written, as an invitation to the eye, the syllable p-a-r.
(56) Apperceptive methods should be employed from the outset in the
.eaching of spelling.
For the class of students just mentioned they are a necessity ; for all
they are an economy. The children could use a set of cards, each contain-
ing a word so chosen as to furnish material for induction, in the finding
of root, prefix, and suffix, and the meaning of each. Then, using these
as tracers, they could notice in reading and blackboard exercise such new
words as contained the familiar elements. The words separate,” ¢ pre-