The Third Graders had been promoted into the Fourth Grade! They sat very
tall and behaved just like Fourth Graders as Miss Merlin, their new
teacher, said pleasantly: “This morning as I rode to school in the
street car, I read over the market advertisements. I found in one a word
that is new to me. I don’t know how to pronounce it, and I don’t know
what it means. I will write it on the board. Perhaps some one may know
the word and tell me how to pronounce it and what it means.”
Miss Merlin wrote the word on the board—_broccoli_—then turned to the
pupils and said, “Can any one pronounce this word?”
Alice stood by her desk ready to speak. “Have you seen this word before,
Alice?” asked Miss Merlin.
“No,” answered Alice, “but I think I can guess how it is pronounced.”
“Oh!” said Miss Merlin, “I don’t want any guessing. You might guess
wrong. If I hear the word incorrectly pronounced for the first time, I
am afraid I shall find it harder to learn the correct pronunciation. Two
reasons why so many words are pronounced incorrectly are: people guess a
wrong pronunciation instead of finding the correct one; and people hear
the incorrect pronunciation instead of the right one. I want the correct
pronunciation for the word on the board. If you cannot give it to me,
perhaps you can tell me where I can get it.”
John jumped to his feet. “Go ask the market man,” he said.
“I might,” answered Miss Merlin, “but there are reasons why I would
rather not.”
“It’s too far to the market,” “It would take too long,” “You can’t go
until after school and by then the market may be closed,” were some of
the objections made by the pupils.
“Those are all good reasons,” answered Miss Merlin, “but if there were
no other way to learn the correct pronunciation of the word I might
manage somehow to make a trip to the market. And I really need not take
the trouble. I can find out all I want to know about that word right
here in our own schoolroom.”
The pupils looked at one another with troubled faces. In the third grade
they had always gone to their teacher with bothersome words, and here
was Miss Merlin bringing hard words to them and expecting them to help
her to learn the pronunciation and the meaning. Never had they felt so
helpless. Suddenly John cried out, “Oh, I know! The dictionary!” and
running to the front of the room, he placed his hand on a great, heavy
book that lay on the small table near Miss Merlin’s desk. “My father has
a dictionary like this,” he continued, “and he often looks up words in
it.”
“Good, John!” said Miss Merlin, “you have shown me the best place to go
for the help I need. This book contains 400,000 words. My word is one of
those 400,000. How can I find my one word among so many?”
“I know,” answered John. “My father showed me. The words are arranged
like the alphabet, first the _a_’s, then, the _b_’s, and then the _c_’s,
and so on.”
“John is right,” said Miss Merlin. “If you will all come forward and
stand near the table I will show you just as John’s father showed him.”
The pupils came forward and Miss Merlin showed them that the dictionary
words were arranged in alphabetical order. “Now where shall I look for
my word?” she asked.
The pupils glanced at the word on the board and answered, “Look among
the words beginning with _b_.”
Miss Merlin opened the dictionary and held all the pages containing
words beginning with _b_ between her two hands. “If I begin with the
first word beginning with _b_ and read each one, it will take me hours,”
she said, “but the maker of the dictionary has so arranged the words
that I can find the word I want in a few seconds. Let us see if we can
discover just how the words have been arranged to help us find any one
quickly. We have seen that the words are arranged alphabetically
according to the first letter in each. Now let us look at the second
letter in the word beginning with _b_.”
The pupils watched as the pages were turned over and discovered that the
words were grouped in alphabetical order according to the second letter
in each.
“Then,” said Miss Merlin, “if I want to find a word beginning _ba_ where
in the list of words beginning with _b_ shall I look?”
“Look near the beginning,” was the answer.
“If I want one beginning _bl_ where shall I look?” asked Miss Merlin.
“Look towards the middle of the list,” answered the pupils.
“But I want to find one beginning with _br_,” said Miss Merlin, pointing
to the word on the board.
“Look near the end of the list,” said Alice.
Miss Merlin found the first word beginning with _br_. “Shall I find my
word near the beginning of the _br_ list?” she asked, holding the page
toward the pupils.
They looked at the page and answered, “No, all the words on this page
begin _bra_ and you want a word beginning _bro_.”
“How shall I find my word?” asked Miss Merlin.
John turned over the pages slowly while the other pupils looked on.
“Oh,” cried Alice, “the words are arranged in alphabetical order for the
third letter, so you must look beyond the middle of the list!”
Miss Merlin asked Alice to find the first word beginning with _bro_.
When it was found the children discovered that the alphabetical
arrangement of letters extended to the fourth and fifth letters and even
unto the end.
“Some job!” said John, moved by the efficiency of the arrangement as
well as by the bigness of the task. “Now I know how I can find any word
in the dictionary—just trail the alphabet from the first to the last
letter of the word you are looking for.”
Miss Merlin laughed. “I don’t believe that I’ll try to improve upon your
rule, John,” she said. “The Alphabet Trail is a pretty good one to
follow in tracking any word to its dictionary den.”
Following John’s rule, the word sought—_broccoli_—was soon found. “So
that you may all see exactly how the dictionary helps us pronounce this
word, I will copy on the blackboard exactly what I find written here.”
Stepping to the board, Miss Merlin copied the word, divided
into syllables and marked exactly as it appeared in the
dictionary—(brǒk´ō-lǐ).
Some of the pupils understood the diacritical marks for the short sounds
of _o_ and _i_; others did not. None knew the meaning of the mark above
the _o_ of the second syllable.
“Well,” said Miss Merlin, “let us see how the dictionary is ready to
help us. Look at the words written at the bottom of the page. They are
all little words that you know. What letter is marked in the first eight
words?”
The pupils near enough the dictionary to read replied, “The letter _a_.”
“And,” added Mary, “each _a_ is marked in a different way.”
“Read the words with the marked _a_’s and see if you can discover the
reason why each _a_ has a different mark,” said Miss Merlin.
Mary read the words, pronouncing each clearly and distinctly. When she
had finished every child was ready to answer; but Miss Merlin smiled at
Mary, who said, “The _a_ in each word has a sound different from all the
other _a_’s.”
In the same way the pupils discovered the different sounds of _e_, _i_,
_o_, and _u_. “Those are all the vowel sounds,” said Alice.
“Yes,” added John, “and the dictionary man has arranged them in
alphabetical order. Didn’t he stick close to the alphabet though!”
“These little words at the bottom of the page are called key words,”
said Miss Merlin. “Can any one tell why?”
The pupils thought for a moment. Then Tom said, “I know. Because they
unlock the pronunciation of the new word.”
“Good,” said Miss Merlin, “pronounce the first syllable in our new word
on the board, Tom, using the key word.”
Tom looked at the mark over the _o_ in the first syllable, found the
same mark over the _o_ in _odd_, the key word at the bottom of the page,
and said, “Odd—ǒ—brǒk.”
“Good!” said Miss Merlin. “That’s the way. Now, Jack, pronounce the
second syllable.”
Jack looked at the mark over _o_, the only letter in the second
syllable, found the same mark over the _o_ in the key word _obey_ at the
bottom of the page, and said, “Obey—ō.”
In the same way Alice studied the last syllable, finding a mark like the
one used over the _i_ in the key word _ill_ at the bottom of the page
and said very clearly, “Ill—ĭ—lĭ.”
“Fine!” said Miss Merlin. “John, you may pronounce the whole word.” John
did so, sounding the letters correctly but placing the accent on the
second syllable, thus, “Brok-o´-li.”
“Not quite right,” said Miss Merlin. “I am going to pronounce the word
correctly. As I speak it notice which syllable I accent or emphasize.”
She then repeated the word, placing the accent correctly.
“You accented the first syllable,” said Alice.
“Yes,” answered Miss Merlin, “I did. Now look at the word as I have
copied it on the board from the dictionary and see if you can discover
anything that tells me which syllable should be accented.”
“Oh, I know,” cried John. “There is a little mark something like a
slanting exclamation mark after the first syllable! Is that why you read
it like an exclamation, Miss Merlin?”
Miss Merlin laughed and answered, “Well, we call the mark an accent. But
it is something like an exclamation mark in looks, and an accented
syllable sounds not unlike an exclamation, John. Now pronounce the word
correctly.”
John did so, and then other pupils repeated it after him.
“Now I know how to pronounce the new word but I don’t know what it
means,” said Miss Merlin. “The meaning of the word is written right
after the correct pronunciation. Mary, will you read what is written?”
Mary looked at the printed page for a moment, then read aloud,
“Broccoli. A hardy cauliflower.”
“How many know what a cauliflower is?” asked Miss Merlin. She looked at
the upraised hands and added, “I see that you all know, but if any one
didn’t know how could he find out from the dictionary?”
Eagerly the pupils told Miss Merlin how to find the word—“track it
down,” John said—in the dictionary; how to learn to pronounce it; and
how to find the meaning.
“Good,” said Miss Merlin. “What have you learned in this lesson?”
“I have learned that I can find the pronunciation and meaning of any new
word in the dictionary,” said Alice.
“I have learned how to find any word I want,” said Tom.
“I have learned how to unlock the pronunciation of any word with the
keys at the bottom of the page,” said Jack.
“I have learned how to accent the right syllable,” said Mary.
“I have learned where to look for the meaning of a word,” said Henry.
“Then you have learned almost all that is necessary for a helpful use of
the dictionary,” said Miss Merlin. “Tomorrow we will have some
dictionary practice.”
The teacher may read the above story to her pupils or make a similar
introductory study of the dictionary with any word she may select.