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Teaching ESL EFL Listening and Speaking 2nd Edition
The second edition of this bestselling text, Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing, is a fully updated and expanded guide for teaching learners at all levels of proficiency how to develop their reading and writing skills and fluency. Practical and accessible, this book covers a diverse array of language teaching techniques suitable for all contexts.
Updated with cutting-edge research and theory, the second edition is an essential and engaging text. Key insights and suggestions are organised around four strands – meaning-focused input, meaningfocused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development –to allow teachers to design and present a balanced programme for their students. Bringing together research and theory in applied linguistics and education, the text includes useful examples and practical strategies and features new topics related to technology, assessment, and genre. The second edition includes new tasks and further reading sections in every chapter.
Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing is designed for practising and pre-service teachers of all levels, and is ideal for certificate, diploma, masters, and doctoral courses in English as a second or foreign language.
I.S.P. Nation is Professor Emeritus in Applied Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
John Macalister is Professor in Applied Linguistics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
ESL & Applied Linguistics Professional Series
Eli Hinkel, Series Editor
Language Curriculum Design
2nd Edition
John Macalister and I.S.P. Nation
Teaching Academic L2 Writing
Practical Techniques in Vocabulary and Grammar
Eli Hinkel
What English Language Teachers Need to Know Volume II
Facilitating Learning, 2nd Edition
Denise E. Murray and MaryAnn Christison
English Morphology for the Language Teaching Profession
Laurie Bauer with I.S.P. Nation
Conversation Analysis and Second Language Pedagogy
A Guide for ESL/EFL Teachers, 2nd Edition
Jean Wong, Hansun Zhang Waring
English L2 Reading
Getting to the Bottom, 4th Edition
Barbara M. Birch and Sean Fulop
Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing
2nd Edition
I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister
Reconciling Translingualism and Second Language Writing
Tony Silva and Zhaozhe Wang
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/ ESL-Applied-Linguistics-Professional-Series/book-series/LEAESLALP
Teaching ESL/EFL
Reading and Writing
Second edition
I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister
Second edition published 2021 by Routledge
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The right of I.S.P. Nation and John Macalister to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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First edition published by Routledge 2008
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nation, I. S. P., author. | Macalister, John, 1956- author.
Title: Teaching ESL/EFL reading and writing / I. S. P. Nation and John Macalister.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020013375 | ISBN 9780367433772 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367433765 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003002765 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: English language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. | English language—Rhetoric—Study and teaching. | English teachers—Training of.
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013375
ISBN: 978-0-367-43377-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-43376-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00276-5 (ebk)
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Appendix 1: Spelling and Pronunciation – Points of Correspondence 178
Appendix 2: A List of Conjunction Relationships 186
Appendix 3: Ananse Tales Plan 187 References 190 Index 200
Preface
This book (and its companion book Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking which is also available in a second edition) is intended for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. It can be used both by experienced teachers and for teachers in training. In its earlier forms this book has been used on graduate diploma and masters level courses, and with teachers in training.
The second edition of this book contains numerous changes and updatings, and contains three new chapters: Chapter 2 “Using the Four Strands to Plan a Reading or Writing Course”, Chapter 9 “Writing and Digital Technology”, and Chapter 12 “Applying Principles to Reading and Writing Courses”, making a total of 12 chapters. Chapter 4 has a lot of changes largely as a result of a recent book, Teaching Extensive Reading in Another Language (Nation & Waring, 2020).
In this second edition, each chapter is now followed by three tasks and suggestions for further reading that could be used with teachers in training. The tasks focus on understanding and applying some of the ideas covered in the chapter.
Several of the techniques described in this book can be found at https:// tinyurl.com/Language-Teaching-Techniques. The videos are short and very practical and are a useful supplement to the descriptions in this book.
The book has three major features. First, it has a strong practical emphasis - around a hundred teaching techniques are described in the book. Second, it tries to provide a balanced programme for developing the skills of reading and writing. It does this by using a framework called the four strands. These are called strands because they run through the whole course. They are the strands of meaning-focused input, meaningfocused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. In a well-balanced language program covering the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, each of the four strands should have roughly equal amounts of time. The organisation of the book largely reflects these four strands. Third, wherever possible, the ideas in this book are research based. This is reflected in the principles which are
described at the end of Chapter 1 and in Chapter 12, and which are referred to throughout the book. The idea which lies behind these principles is that it is not a wise idea to closely follow a particular method of language teaching, such as communicative language teaching or the direct method. It is much more sensible to draw where possible on research-based principles which can be adapted or discarded as new research evidence becomes available.
The book is written using clear and simple language. Wherever possible, technical terms have been avoided. However in a few cases, with terms such as phonics, topic type, and extensive reading, technical terms have been used and explained in the text. This book thus does not require any previous knowledge of second-language acquisition theory or language teaching methodology. The book takes account of the effects of digital technology on the nature of reading and writing and the teaching and learning of reading and writing.
The first six chapters look at reading, and the next five at writing. Chapter 1 compares first and second-language reading. Chapter 2 looks at planning a well-balanced language course. Chapter 3 focuses on intensive reading. Chapters 4 and 5 look at extensive reading and fluency. Chapter 6 looks at assessing reading, giving particular attention to the reasons for testing. Chapter 7 presents a range of ways for supporting writing. Chapter 8 examines the writing process and Chapter 9 looks at how digital technology can affect the writing process. Chapter 10 has relevance for both reading and writing, looking at topic types which describe the kinds of information contained in different kinds of texts. Chapter 11 examines a range of ways that can be used to respond to written work. Finally, Chapter 12 looks at some important principles of language learning and how they apply to reading and writing.
As a result of working through this book, teachers should be able to design a well-balanced reading and writing course which provides a good range of opportunities for learning. The teacher’s most important job is to plan so that the learners are learning useful things, so that the best conditions for learning occur, and so that the learners are getting a balance of learning opportunities. This book should help teachers do this.
The reviewers of the book before it was published provided many helpful and frank comments which helped us to see the book through others’ eyes. We are very grateful for this. Both this book and its companion volume, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking, were largely written and used in teacher training courses before they were offered for publication. There was thus lot of input from the teachers who were studying on these courses.
We would feel that the book’s purpose has been achieved if, as a result of reading it, teachers learn some new techniques and activities,
understand why these activities are used and how they relate to principles of learning, and see how they fit into the larger wellbalanced program.
Teaching English and training teachers of English are challenging but very rewarding professions. We have been involved in them for a very long time and they have given us a great deal of enjoyment. We hope that this enjoyment is apparent in the book and that the book will help readers gain similar enjoyment.
1 Learning to Read in Another Language
Learning to Read in the First Language
People learn to read their first language in a wide variety of circumstances. The following description is of a fortunate child in a fortunate country where reading is well prepared for and well taught. An excellent account of the teaching of reading to native speakers in New Zealand can be found in Smith and Elley (1997).
Children are prepared for reading at an early age by listening to stories, being read to, and interacting with adults and others about the stories they hear. This is done not with the main purpose of preparing a child for reading but as a way that parents and others interact with and entertain and educate children. The interaction involves asking questions about what is going to happen in the story, getting the child to complete sentences in a known story, talking about the interesting and scary parts of the story, and generally having fun.
When children start to learn to read, they already have a large vocabulary of several thousand words which includes most of the words they will meet in early reading. They also have good control of the grammar of the language, have a lot of knowledge about books and reading conventions, and have had many, many stories read to them. They are very keen to learn how to read.
They begin formal schooling at the age of about five. The teacher and learners work with books that are interesting, well illustrated, use language that is close to spoken language, and not too long. The texts contain a lot of repetition and are often very predictable but in an interesting way.
The techniques used to teach reading are largely meaning-focused; that is, they give primary attention to understanding and enjoying the story. They include shared reading, guided reading, and independent reading. A small amount of attention may be given to phonological awareness, phonics, and spelling, but this is in the context of enjoying the story and only takes a very small amount of time. Let us now look at the typical techniques used to teach reading to young native speakers.
2 Learning to Read in
Shared Reading
The learners gather round the teacher and the teacher reads a story to the learners from a very large “blown-up” book while showing them the pictures and the written words. The teacher involves the learners in the reading by asking them what they think will happen next and getting them to comment on the story. Where they can, the learners read the words aloud together. The procedure is an attempt to make the sharedbook activity like a parent reading a child a bedtime story.
The learners are asked to choose what blown-up book they want read to them and the same book may be used in the shared-book activity on several occasions. In the later readings, the learners are expected to join in the reading much more. At other times, learners can get the small version of the blown-up book and read it individually or in pairs. After a reading, the learners draw, write, act out the story, or study some of the language in the story.
The shared-book activity is a very popular reading activity in New Zealand pre-schools and primary schools. It was developed by a New Zealander, Don Holdaway, and is such a normal part of a primary teacher’s repertoire that publishers now print blown-up book versions of popular children’s books.
The purpose of the shared-book activity is to get the learners to see the fun element in reading. In the activity, this fun comes from the interesting story, the interaction between the teacher and the learners in predicting and commenting on the story, and the rereading of favourite stories.
Teachers can make blown-up books (Ministry of Education, 1993). Although a blown-up book takes some time to make, it will be used and re-used and well repays the effort of making it or the cost of buying it. The books also make attractive displays in the classroom. There are also commercially produced blown-up books. You can search for them on the internet (search for “Big books for children”). Titles include Where Do Monsters Live?, Bears, Bears Everywhere, Mr Noisy, and What Do You See? The shared-book activity was used in one of the experimental groups in the Elley and Mangubhai (1981) Book Flood experiment.
Guided Reading
Guided reading can be done silently or with a child reading aloud to a friend, parent or teacher. Before the reading the learner and teacher talk about the book. Research by Wong and McNaughton (1980) showed that for the learner they studied, pre-reading discussion resulted in a greater percentage of words initially correct, and a greater percentage of errors self-corrected. The teacher and the learner look at the title of the book and make sure that all the words in the title are known. Then they talk about the pictures in the story and make predictions about what
might happen in the story. They also talk about any knowledge the learner already has about the topic. Important words in the story are talked about but need not be pointed to in their written form. So, before the learner actually starts to read the story, the ideas and important words in the story are talked about and clarified. Then the learner begins to read.
If the learner is reading aloud to the teacher, then it is good to use the pause, prompt, praise procedure (Glynn et al., 1989; Smith & Elley, 1997: 134–136). This means that when the learner starts to struggle over a word the teacher does not rush in with the answer but pauses for the learner to have time to make a good attempt at it. If the learner continues to struggle the teacher gives a helpful prompt, either from the meaning of the story or sentence or from the form of the word. When the learner finally reads the word correctly the teacher then praises the attempt.
If the learner is reading silently, then a part of the text is read and there is a discussion of what has just been read and the next part of the text.
Independent Reading
In independent reading the learner chooses a book to read and quietly gets on with reading it. During this quiet period of class time, the teacher may also read or may use the time as an opportunity for individual learners to come up to read to the teacher. In beginners’ classes there is a set time each day for independent reading and learners are expected to read out of class as well, often taking books home from school.
Learning to read is also helped by learning to write and learning through listening. In writing as in reading, first-language teachers emphasise the communication of messages and expect the learners to gradually approximate normal writing over a period of time.
Research indicates that the best age to learn to read is about six to seven years old. Starting early at five has no long-term advantages and may make it more difficult for some learners to experience success in reading. At the age of about six or seven children are intellectually ready to begin reading.
It should be clear from this description that native speakers learning to read have the advantage of bringing a lot of language knowledge and a lot of experience to learning to read. They might have the disadvantage of beginning to learn a complex skill when they may not be quite ready for it.
Learning to Read in Another Language
There are numerous factors that affect the difficulty of learning to read in another language. Table 1.1 focuses on three factors but as the footnote to the table suggests there are other factors that are important particularly when working with a group of learners. Let us look at the factors in
4 Learning to Read in Another Language
Table 1.1 L1\L2 differences for an individual beginning to read
Constraints
L1 beginning readers already know a lot of the language they are beginning to read (sounds, vocabulary, grammar, discourse). L2 learners do not.
L2 beginners can already read in their L1.
General effects
Learning to read an L2 involves a great deal of language learning.
Particular effects
L2 learners need very controlled texts. L2 learners need a greater amount of pre-reading activities.
L2 beginners are usually older than L1 beginners.
They have general cognitive skills. They have preconceptions and attitudes to reading. They have language specific skills. There will be interference and facilitation effects.
L2 learners have greater metalinguistic and metacognitive awareness.
They do not need to learn what they can transfer from the L1. They may need to change attitudes to reading. Learners may have to learn a different writing system.
It is easy to transfer L1 skills. L2 learners can use more explicit approaches and tools like dictionaries.
Note: This table has been kept simple by focusing on only one learner who is just beginning to read. It is more complicated if you have several learners with different L1s, different L2 proficiencies, different L1 reading proficiencies, and different motivations for reading.
Table 1.1 by focusing on a learner from a particular language background, Thai, who is in the very early stages of learning English. The learner is 12 years old and can already read fluently in Thai.
A Thai learner beginning to read English will know very little English vocabulary. There are English loan words in Thai like free, but a Thai learner might not realise that they have an English origin. This means that the initial reading material will need to be much more controlled than the material aimed at young native speakers of English who already know close to three thousand words. Thai learners may also need much more preparation or pre-teaching before they start on their reading. These are all disadvantages. There are, however, numerous advantages that the Thai learner has. First, the Thai learner can already read Thai and so knows a lot about reading. Thai is an alphabetic language so the Thai learner is already very familiar with the alphabetic principle; that is, that letters can represent sounds and these letters can go together to make up words. Thai script is not related to English script so the Thai learner will have to spend time learning letter shapes. An Italian learner of English does not have this problem because Italian uses substantially the same script as English.
Second, if the Thai learner is good at reading Thai, the learner will have many reading strategies like guessing from context, scanning, skimming, and careful decoding which could be carried over to the reading of English if the conditions for reading were suitable. There is evidence, for example, that training in increasing reading speed in the first language can transfer to another language if the materials in the other language are at a suitable level (Bismoko & Nation, 1974; Cramer, 1975). Third, reading is largely a valued and enjoyed activity in Thai society so there may also be positive attitudes to reading carried over to English. Fourthly, a 12-year-old is much more able to learn to read than a five-year-old. A 12-year-old has much more developed cognitive skills and is much more able to learn from direct instruction.
Learning to Recognise and Spell Words
An essential part of the reading skill is the skill of being able to recognise written forms and to connect them with their spoken forms and their meanings. This involves recognising known words and also deciphering unfamiliar words.
There has been considerable debate in first-language reading over the role and nature of direct systematic teaching of word-recognition skills. (See Moorman, Blanton, and McLaughlin, 1994 for an example of this.) There is also debate over the role of form-focused activities like reading aloud (see Griffin, 1992; Rounds, 1992; Mullock, 2008). The position taken in this book (see Chapter 2) is that there needs to be a balance of the four strands of meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning and fluency development, and there is thus a role for appropriate amounts of formal word-recognition instruction in the language-focused learning strand. The principles that should guide this formal teaching are that most attention should be given to rules and items that occur frequently, that are simple, and that are regular.
Prerequisites for Formal Reading Instruction
To be able to benefit from instruction on spelling rules, learners need to (1) know at least some of the letter shapes, (2) be aware that words are made up of separable sounds (phonemic awareness), (3) know basic English writing conventions (we read from left to right, beginning at the top and moving down the page), and (4) know the spoken forms of most of the words that will be met in the initial stages of reading.
Learning Letter Shapes
If a second-language learner is already able to read in their first language, and their first language uses the same alphabet as English, then little if any letter-shape learning will be needed.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that spoken words are made up of sounds that can be separated; that is, that /kæt/ (cat) is made up of the sounds /k æ t/. If the learner can already read in their first language and the writing system of the first language is alphabetic, the learner will already have phonemic awareness. Here is a classic test of phonemic awareness (Yopp, 1988).
Today we’re going to play a different word game. I’m going to say a word, and I want you to break the word apart. You are going to tell me each sound in the word in order. For example, if I say old, you will say o-l-d. Let’s try a few words together. (Three more examples are given: ride, go, man) Total score = 22. Takes about 5–10 minutes.
dog lay keep race fine zoo no three she job wave in grew ice that at red top me by sat do
In essence, phonemic awareness is not awareness of particular sounds. It is awareness of the general principle that words are made up of separable sounds. It is likely that learners who are not literate in their L1 but who are above the age of seven or eight will already have phonemic awareness in their L1 but this should be checked.
Learners who are between four and six years old could be tested for phonemic awareness and, if necessary, could be given phonemic awareness practice which is just like the test above. Phonemic awareness activities should be done with known words and should be fun.
Phonemic awareness and letter knowledge are the two best predictors of how well first-language children just entering school will do at learning to read during the first two years of school. Phonemic awareness training can have positive long-term effects on spelling.
In the vast majority of cases, learners of English as a second language will not need phonemic awareness activities because they will already have this knowledge.
Writing Conventions
English has the following writing conventions. Not all languages follow the same conventions.
1 Writing goes from left to right (cf. Arabic – right to left, Japanese –top to bottom).
2 The lines of writing go down the page (cf. Japanese).
3 The pages go from front to back (cf. Japanese – back to front).
4 Words are separated by spaces (cf. Thai – no spaces between words).
5 Sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop, question mark, or exclamation mark.
6 Quotation marks are used to signal speech or citation.
7 English has upper-case (capital) letters and lower-case (small) letters. The use of capital letters may carry an extra meaning.
8 Sentences are organised into paragraphs.
9 In formal and academic writing there are conventions that need to be learned, such as the use of bold and italics, the use of headings and subheadings, the use of indentation, the use of footnotes, the use of references, and page numbering.
In early reading, learners may need to be checked for knowledge of these conventions, and some may need to be pointed out and explained.
Spoken Language and Reading
The experience approach to reading is based on the idea that, when learning to read, learners should bring a lot of experience and knowledge to their reading so that they only have to focus on small amounts of new information. Sylvia Ashton-Warner’s (1963) approach to teaching young native speakers to read is an excellent example of this. Here are the steps in her approach.
1 Each learner draws a picture illustrating something that recently happened to them or something that they are very interested in.
2 One by one the learners take their picture to the teacher who asks them what it is about.
3 The teacher then writes the learner’s description exactly as the learner said it, using the same words the learner said, even if it is non-standard English.
4 This then becomes the learner’s reading text for that day. The learner reads it back to the teacher and then takes it away to practise reading it, and to read it to classmates, friends, and family.
5 These pictures and texts all written by the same learner are gathered together to be a personal reading book for that learner.
Note that most of the knowledge needed to read and comprehend the text is directly within the experience of the learner. The ideas come from the learner, the words and sentences come from the learner, and the organisation of the text comes from the learner. The only learning
needed is to match the new written forms provided by the teacher with this knowledge.
It is possible to learn to read a foreign language without being able to speak it, but learning to read is much easier if the learner already has spoken control of the language features that are being met in the reading. Reading texts used with young native speakers of English use language that is already known to them and that are on topics that interest them. However, young native speakers learning to read have an oral vocabulary size of around 3,000 words. Non-native speakers will have a very much smaller English vocabulary and so if native-speaker texts are used to teach second-language reading, they need to be checked to make sure that they contain known and useful vocabulary.
Phonics and the Alphabetic Principle
Learning phonics is learning the systematic relationships between written letters and sounds; for example, learning that the written form p is usually pronounced /p/. At a very general level, learning phonics means learning the alphabetic principle; that is, that letters and groups of letters represent sounds in a largely systematic way. At a detailed level, learning phonics involves learning the range of spelling–sound correspondences that exist in a particular language (see Appendix 1).
Some languages like Chinese do not follow the alphabetic principle. They do not have separate letters that represent the individual sounds that go together to make a spoken word. Other languages follow the alphabetic principle in a very regular way. The Māori language for example has 12 consonant sounds and five vowel sounds (ten if long and short versions of vowels are not counted as the same sound). These are represented by 11 consonant letters and five vowel letters. The only exceptions to a one letter–one sound (not necessarily one phoneme) rule are that the letters wh represent a sound which is not /w/ plus /h/, and the letters ng represent a sound /ŋ/ which is not /n/ plus /g/. After a few lessons in Māori pronunciation, it is possible for anyone familiar with the English alphabet to learn all the Māori spelling–sound correspondences in a few minutes.
This is an over-simplification because there are different dialects of Māori. However, there are frequent, systematic relationships in English that can provide a good basis for effective phonics instruction (see Appendix 1). Here are some English spelling–sound rules that are regular and very frequent. The letter b is pronounced /b/, f - /f/, k - /k/, m - /m/, v - /v/. There are exceptions to these rules, but most of the exceptions are rule-based (bb - /b/, mm - /m/) or do not occur in many words.
As a fluent reader of English, you already know the regular rules and can thus make a reasonable pronunciation of written words that you have probably never seen before – lyncean, glogg, cordwain, sclerotium, tussah.
Because phonics involves spelling–sound relationships, it is significant both for learning to read and for learning to spell.
Spelling: Productive Phonics
Being familiar with spelling–sound correspondences can be seen as a receptive skill in that it relates to the receptive skill of reading. The productive equivalent of this part of the reading skill is spelling which is part of the skill of writing.
There has been considerable research with native speakers on the learning of spelling and the definitive collection of research reviews is Brown and Ellis’s (1994) Handbook of Spelling. From an applied linguistics perspective, the study of research on spelling is rewarding not only for the information it provides on the teaching and learning of spelling, but also because it provides valuable insights into many of the central issues involved in second-language learning. English spelling is a very limited and clearly defined area, involving only 26 letters and a definable set of combinations of letters. Working within this limited area makes the issues clearer and easier to deal with in a comprehensive way. It is worth thinking about how the same issues apply to the learning of word parts, vocabulary, collocations, and grammar. Table 1.2 lists the most important of these issues with a brief summary of findings from L1 research. Let us look briefly at some of these.
There is evidence of positive and negative effects of the first language on the second at the levels of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and discourse. Spelling is no exception, and there is plenty of evidence of first-language spellings having both positive and negative effects according to the degrees of similarity and difference between the language items and rules.
Designing a Focused Spelling Programme
If spelling is a significant problem for learners, it may be worthwhile giving it some focused, planned special attention. Numerous studies focusing on spelling and on other learning issues have shown the positive effects of a balanced, focused programme. Table 1.3 lists general principles that can be applied to any focused programme. These are organised under the headings affective, cognitive, and social to make them easier to remember and to put into practice the idea that an effective programme will approach a problem from several perspectives; in this case, the attitudes and feelings of the learners (affective), the knowledge involved (cognitive), and the support that others can give (social). Table 1.3 also gives examples of application of the principles. There could be a third column in Table 1.3 and that would show the particular applications to a spelling programme. Let us take an example. Under the applications of the affective principle Keep learners
10 Learning to Read in Another Language
Table 1.2 Issues in spelling that apply to other language levels
Issues
Deliberate and incidental learning
Findings
Deliberate analytic learning can speed up learning and can help with learning problems. Regular tests help.
Most learning of spelling is incidental. Substantial reading improves spelling.
System learning and item learning
A single kind of learning and interactive systems
The effect of other levels of language on this level and this level on others
Some words can be dealt with by rules, others have to be learned as unique items.
The unpredictability of the English spelling system is a major obstacle to learning to spell.
Alphabetic learning interacts with lexical learning.
Phonological awareness affects spelling and has long-term effects on spelling. Spelling affects word recognition.
Poor spellers have problems in writing –they use avoidance strategies.
Phonological awareness affects reading and reading can affect phonological awareness.
Writing the letter shapes helps learning.
The direction of the effect
Spelling affects use, use affects spelling.
The effect of the origin of the feature Etymology affects spelling.
The treatment of irregularity
The effect of frequency on the type of storage
The effect of age on learning
The role of developmental sequences
The treatment of error
Some high-frequency items are irregular. Irregular items are learned as lexical units.
Highly frequent items, even regular ones, are stored as lexical items.
Regular low-frequency items are dealt with by rules.
Older learners are better at deliberate learning.
Complex items need to be learned through a series of stages.
Letting students invent spellings can have positive effects.
The effect of the first language The writing system of the first language can have positive and negative effects on the second language.
motivated there is the application Do mastery testing. Mastery testing involves repeated learning and testing until learners gain near perfect scores in what they have to learn. For mastery testing to work, there needs to be a clearly defined set of things to learn and there needs to be repeated and varied opportunities to do this learning. Mastery testing could be applied to a spelling programme in the following way. For a particular
Table 1.3 Features of a good intensive learning programme
Principles Applications
Affective
Keep learners motivated
Praise success
Give quick feedback
Do mastery testing
Measure progress
Record success on graphs or tables
Make learning fun
Cognitive
Encourage thoughtful processing
Plan for repetition and revision
Provide training
Organise the items to learn in helpful ways
Plan for transfer of training
Social
Provide peer support
Aim for individual responsibility
Use attractive aids
Have amusing competitions
Use rich associations, mnemonics, rules, retrieval, visualisation, deliberate learning, movement
Use both analytic and holistic techniques
Isolate and focus on problems
Give regular practice
Plan increasingly spaced revision
Combine activities into strategies
Train learners in strategy use
Get learners to reflect on learning
Group the items to learn into manageable blocks
Avoid interference
Group helpfully related items together
Provide fluency training
Do peer tutoring
Get learners to report progress to others
Organise support groups
Let learners choose what and how to learn
Encourage autonomy
course, the focus may be the regularly spelled words in the first one thousand words of English. Those words would be ones that could be completely described by sections A and B of Appendix 1. Each week a few correspondences would be focused on and these would be tested by word dictation tests to see if learners had mastered the rules. If they did not score 18 or more on a 20-item test, they could sit another test focusing on the same correspondences. Before sitting another test, the teacher or learners could analyse the errors in the previous test and the learners could work on some practice items.
Table 1.3 can also be used as a basis for evaluating a focused programme. Not all of the applications need be used but there should be variety and balance.
Spelling is only a small part of learning a language and for some learners it may not be an important focus, either because they have no problem
12 Learning to Read in Another Language
with it or because writing is not a major part of their language use. Spelling is no different from other aspects of language use. If it is given attention, this attention should be balanced and in proportion to other focuses.
Having focused on spelling, let us now look more widely at the principles that could guide a reading programme.
Principles for Teaching Reading
The following principles can guide the design and practice of a reading programme. For another list of principles see Williams (1986).
Meaning-focused Input
1 Practice and training in reading should be done for a range of reading purposes. A reading course should cover these purposes – reading to search for information (including skimming and scanning), reading to learn, reading for fun, reading to integrate information, reading to critique texts, and reading to write.
2 Learners should be doing reading that is appropriate to their language proficiency level. The course should include reading simplified material at a range of levels, particularly extensive reading of graded readers.
3 Reading should be used as a way of developing language proficiency. Learners should read with 98 per cent coverage of the vocabulary in the text so that they can learn the remaining 2 per cent through guessing from context.
Meaning-focused Output
4 Reading should be related to other language skills. The course should involve listening, speaking and writing activities related to the reading. See, for example, Simcock (1993) using the Ask and answer technique or Macalister (2014) using the Say-it activity.
Language-focused Learning
5 Learners should be helped to develop the skills and knowledge needed for effective reading. The course should work on the sub-skills of reading and the language features needed to read, including phonemic awareness activities, phonics, spelling practice, vocabulary learning using word cards, and grammar study. Some of this can be done through intensive reading.
6 Learners should be given training and practice in a range of reading strategies. These strategies could include: previewing, setting a purpose,
predicting, posing questions, connecting to background knowledge, paying attention to text structure, guessing words from context, critiquing, and reflecting on the text. Janzen and Stoller (1998) describe a similar list of strategies.
7 Learners should be given training and practice in integrating a range of strategies. Learners should be familiar with a strategy package procedure like reciprocal teaching or concept-oriented reading (CORI).
8 Learners should become familiar with a range of text structures.
Fluency Development
9 Learners should be helped and pushed to develop fluency in reading. They need to read material that is very familiar and contains no unknown language features. There should also be speed-reading practice in word recognition and in reading for understanding. These can include activities like speed reading, repeated reading, paired reading, scanning, and skimming.
10 Learners should enjoy reading and feel motivated to read. Learners should have access to interesting texts and be involved in activities like listening to stories, independent reading, and shared reading (blown-up books). Native-speaking children like to read scary books, comics and cartoons, books about sports, and magazines about popular culture (Worthy, Moorman, & Turner, 1999). These are not usually found at school.
11 Learners should read a lot. This can be monitored and encouraged through the use of extensive reading and issue logs.
We will examine many of these principles in detail in later chapters of this book.
Tasks
1 Think of a particular group of learners of English who have the same L1. List the difficulties they will face when learning to read English. What advantages will they have?
2 Learners of English who are beginning to read need to have books with a controlled vocabulary. List three reasons why using books with a controlled vocabulary is useful.
3 Practise the shared-book activity.
Further Reading
Chapter 1 of P. Nation (2013c) What should every ESL teacher know? compares learning English as a foreign language and learning as a
second language. This book is available free in electronic form from the Compass Publishing website (https://www.compass-publishing.com/).
Note that there is also a companion book to this for sale called What should every EFL teacher know? This book is available in hard-copy and electronic form.
2 Using the Four Strands to Plan a Reading or Writing Course
The Four Strands
The four strands is a principle used primarily to guide course design (Nation, 2007a, 2013b). It says that a well-designed course should contain four equal strands of learning through meaning-focused input (listening and reading), learning through meaning-focused output (speaking and writing), deliberate language-focused learning, and fluency development. Ideally, the topic matter content of the course should be the same across the strands because this sets up good conditions for vocabulary and grammar learning, namely repetition and deeper quality processing through retrieval, varied meetings, and varied use.
The most important aspect of understanding the four strands is to know the criteria that determine each strand. Table 2.1 provides this information. The criteria for each strand are ranked in order of importance. The first two or three criteria for each strand are essential features for the existence of each strand. If the criteria are not met, the strand does not exist in the course, or that particular activity does not fit into that strand.
Let us now discuss the features listed in the table. The strand of meaning-focused input requires a small number of unfamiliar language features so that there is opportunity for language learning to occur. These unfamiliar features could include some completely unfamiliar words, words that are only partly known, an unfamiliar morphological feature, an unknown or only partly known grammatical construction, unfamiliar topic content that stretches the meaning of familiar vocabulary, or an unfamiliar organisation or presentation of content (the first criterion). When reading or listening to factual material, the learners should be trying to understand the input and process it in appropriate ways such as understanding, relating it to existing knowledge, drawing implications, evaluating the content or applying the content. When reading or listening to fiction, the learners’ focus should be on comprehending and hopefully enjoying the content (the second criterion). The essential meaning-focused input activities are extensive reading and extensive listening in large
Table 2.1 The criteria typifying each of the four strands
Strand
Meaning-focused input
Criteria
Texts that contain some but less than 2% unknown vocabulary and few unfamiliar grammatical features
A focus on comprehending with incidental language learning
Large quantities of reading and listening
Support for unknown features
Meaning-focused output
Language-focused learning
Fluency development
Output that requires only a few unfamiliar language and content features
A focus on communicating messages with incidental language learning
Large quantities of speaking and writing
Support for unknown features
Deliberate intentional learning
A focus on language features or strategies
Easy, familiar material with no unknown vocabulary or grammatical features
Pressure to perform at a faster speed
Quantity of practice across the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing
A focus on meaning rather than language features
quantities (the third criterion) (see Nation, 2014, for suggested quantities of reading). The fourth criterion for meaning-focused input, support for unknown features, can include glossing or electronic look-up, dictionary use, the opportunity to listen to or read an L1 version of the text beforehand, the opportunity to read while listening, the opportunity to do repeated reading or listening, reading with a partner, and content-focused or language-focused experience before reading or listening. Ideally, most meaning-focused input should involve individualised and independent extensive reading and listening to make sure there are large quantities of relevant and engaging comprehensible input. Support should be minimal but available. If a lot of support is needed, the first criterion of only a few unfamiliar features is not being met.
The strand of meaning-focused output is the productive equivalent of receptive meaning-focused input. The oral communicative parts of a course contain a mixture of input and output. One person’s output is another person’s input. The unfamiliar output features may simply involve having to produce what is already receptively known. Turning receptive knowledge into productive knowledge can be challenging. Similarly, having to use familiar language to say or write unfamiliar things can be challenging. If the meaning-focused output part of a course is closely related in language and content to the meaning-focused input part of the course, lesson planning is easier, then there are ideal conditions for language learning
(repetition and deeper quality processing), and input can provide support for output. Linked skills activities provide this input/output relationship, as do pair and group activities. Typical meaning-focused output activities include assignment writing, spoken communicative activities (ranking activities, split information activities, role-plays, problem-solving discussion), emailing and letter writing, notetaking, and oral presentations.
Meaning-focused input and meaning-focused output all involve incidental language learning. That is, the learners’ main focus is on the content not the language. Language-focused learning, however, involves a deliberate focus on (1) language features (discourse analysis, deliberate vocabulary study, grammar analysis, intensive reading, feedback on writing and speaking, pronunciation practice, attention to spelling), and (2) strategy training for language learning (vocabulary learning, finding opportunities to practise the language) and language use (understanding cultural features, communication strategies, discourse strategies). This strategy training also can involve encouraging the development of learner autonomy. Language-focused learning can involve independent study such as using word cards, teacher-led classroom activities such as substitution tables and intensive reading, and direct teaching. If we define teaching narrowly as the teacher being the focus and source of learning, then most teaching will occur in the language-focused learning strand. However, only part of the language-focused learning strand should involve teaching.
Fluency development involves the use of very easy material (the first criterion) with no unknown vocabulary or grammatical features. Fluency involves making the best use of what you already know. You do not get fluent struggling with difficult material. Because the material is easy and often familiar, learners can process it more quickly than usual (the second criterion). This does not mean that they listen, speak, read, or write at abnormally fast speeds. They simply increase their speed until it is close to what a native speaker would do. This means reading at speeds around 200 words per minute, and speaking at speeds of around 100–150 words per minute. Fluency development requires regular practice (the third criterion) in each of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and the fluency development strand is divided into four equal parts, one for each of the four skills.
Although a course should have four equally sized strands, each lesson does not need to contain four strands. However, over the period of a month or so there should be roughly equal amounts of time given to each of the four strands.
The four strands is not a method of language teaching. It is simply a course design principle guiding the planning of a language course. Courses could be run in many different ways and still apply the same principle. See Nation and Yamamoto (2012) for the four strands being applied to independent language study.
Maximizing Vocabulary Learning through the Four Strands
Vocabulary learning depends primarily on repetition of vocabulary and the quality of mental processing of each repetition (Webb & Nation, 2017, Chapters 4 & 5). Repetition and quality of processing are linked to each other because quality of processing largely depends on enriching the effects of previous meetings through retrieval, varied meetings and varied use, and elaboration. Teachers and course designers need to make sure that repetition is built into a course and that this repetition is accompanied by opportunities for thoughtful quality of processing. Table 2.2 contains a set of recommendations for making sure that repetition and quality of processing are designed into a course (for more discussion of this table see Nation and Gu, 2019, Chapter 2). The recommendations are ranked in order of importance for helping learning.
As Table 2.2 shows, the recommendations cover all four strands. The first recommendation is vocabulary control which involves the use of material within a clearly defined limited vocabulary. Without such controlled material, which includes graded readers and graded listening material and general course books, meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, and fluency development are not possible at the beginning and intermediate stages of language learning. Without properly controlled material, too much time is spent on vocabulary that is way beyond learners’ present needs and vocabulary which will not be met again before it is forgotten. The main pedagogical effect of vocabulary control is to exclude words that need not be learned at this particular level of proficiency. The second recommendation focuses on language-focused learning. Deliberate learning of vocabulary using word cards or flash card programmes is so effective and efficient that learners need to know how to do it effectively, and quickly become aware of its effectiveness. It provides an important step in the cumulative learning of words, and allows learners to quickly progress to higher levels of meaning-focused input. The third recommendation is well known through Krashen’s (1981) advocacy of comprehensible input, and through the growing awareness of extensive reading programmes. To be effective, meaning-focused input needs to occur in large quantities and should be largely under the control of the learners, so that each learner can work at the right vocabulary level for them. After the initial preparation, an extensive reading programme should involve a minimum of work for the teacher and a lot of input for the learners. The fourth recommendation is directed primarily to the ideas content of the course. Lying behind this recommendation is the idea that the different strands of a course need to be integrated with each other so that learning through one strand supports and extends learning through the other strands. At the simplest level, this involves the repetition of vocabulary across the four strands. The other major effect of keeping topics
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F . 162.—O G P S C .
February, or March will give compact blooming plants for the next winter; and thereafter new ones should take their places (Fig. 163).
F 163 —E W G , from a spring cutting.
The Hardwood Cutting. Best results with cuttings of mature wood are secured when the cuttings are made in the fall and then buried until spring in sand in the cellar. These cuttings are usually six to ten inches long. They are not idle while they rest. The lower end calluses or heals, and the roots form more readily when the cutting is planted in the spring. But if the proper season has passed, take cuttings at any time in winter, plant them in a deep box in the window, and watch. They will need no shading or special care. Grape, currant, gooseberry, willow, and poplar readily take root from the hardwood. Fig. 164 shows a currant cutting. It has only one bud above the ground.
The Graft.—When the cutting is inserted in a plant rather than in the soil, it is a graft; and the graft may grow. In this case the cutting grows fast to the other plant, and the two become one. When the
F . 164.
C C .
cutting is inserted in a plant, it is no longer called a cutting but a scion; and the plant in which it is inserted is called the stock. Fruit trees are grafted in order that a certain variety or kind may be perpetuated, as a Baldwin or Ben Davis variety of apple, Seckel or Bartlett pear, Navel or St. Michael orange.
Plants have preferences as to the stocks on which they will grow; but we can find out what their choice is only by making the experiment. The pear grows well on the quince, but the quince does not thrive on the pear. The pear grows on some of the hawthorns, but it is an unwilling subject on the apple. Tomato plants will grow on potato plants and potato plants on tomato plants. When the potato is the root, both tomatoes and potatoes may be produced, although the crop will be very small; when the tomato is the root, neither potatoes nor tomatoes will be produced. Chestnut will grow on some kinds of oak. In general, one species or kind is grafted on the same species, as apple on apple, pear on pear, orange on orange.
The forming, growing tissue of the stem (on the plants we have been discussing) is the cambium (Chap. X), lying on the outside of the woody cylinder beneath the bark. In order that union may take place, the cambium of the scion and of the stock must come together. Therefore the scion is set in the side of the stock. There are many ways of shaping the scion and of preparing the stock to receive it. These ways are dictated largely by the relative sizes of scion and stock, although many of them are matters of personal preference. The underlying principles are two: securing close contact between the cambiums of scion and stock; covering the wounded surfaces to prevent evaporation and to protect the parts from disease.
On large stocks the commonest form of grafting is the cleft-graft. The stock is cut off and split; and in one or both sides a wedge-
shaped scion is firmly inserted. Fig. 165 shows the scion; Fig. 166, the scions set in the stock; Fig. 167, the stock waxed. It will be seen that the lower bud—that lying in the wedge—is covered by the wax; but being nearest the food supply and least exposed to weather, it is the most likely to grow: it will push through the wax.
Cleft-grafting is practised in spring, as growth begins. The scions are cut previously, when perfectly dormant, and from the tree which it is desired to propagate. The scions are kept in sand or moss in the cellar. Limbs of various sizes may be cleft-grafted,—from a half inch up to four inches in diameter; but a diameter of one to one and a half inches is the most convenient size. All the leading or main branches of a tree top may be grafted. If the remaining parts of the top are gradually cut away and the scions grow well, the entire top will be changed over to the new variety.
F . 165. S A
F . 166.—T S I .
F . 167.—T P W .
Another form of grafting is known as budding. In this case a single bud is used, and it is slipped underneath the bark of the stock and securely tied (not waxed) with soft material, as bass bark, corn shuck, yarn, or raffia (the last a commercial palm fibre). Budding is performed when the bark of the stock will slip or peel (so that the bud can be inserted), and when the bud is mature enough to grow. Usually budding is performed in late summer or early fall, when the winter buds are well formed; or it may be practised in spring with buds cut in winter. In ordinary summer budding (which is the usual mode) the “bud” or scion forms a union with the stock, and then lies dormant till the following spring, as if it were still on its own twig. Budding is mostly restricted to young trees in the nursery. In the spring following the budding, the stock is cut off just above the bud, so that only the shoot from the bud grows to make the future tree. This prevailing form of budding (shield-budding) is shown in Fig. 168.
S . 128. Name the plants that the gardener propagates by means of cuttings. 129. By means of grafts. 130. The cutting-box may be set in the window. If the box does not receive direct sunlight, it may be covered with a pane of glass to prevent evaporation. Take care that the air is not kept too close, else the damping-off fungi may attack the cuttings, and they will rot at the surface of the ground. See that the pane is raised a little at one end to afford ventilation; and if the water collects in drops on the under side of the glass, remove the pane for a time. 131. Grafting wax is made of beeswax, resin, and tallow. A good recipe is one part (as one pound) of rendered tallow, two parts of beeswax, four parts of resin; melt together in a kettle; pour the liquid into a pail or tub of water to solidify it; work with the hands until it has the colour and “grain” of taffy candy, the hands being greased when necessary The wax will keep any length of time For the little grafting that any pupil would do, it is better to buy the wax of a seedsman 132. Grafting is hardly to be recommended as a general school diversion, as the making of cuttings is; and the account of it in this chapter is inserted chiefly to satisfy the general curiosity on the subject. 133. In Chap. V we had a definition of a plant generation: what is “one generation” of a grafted fruit tree, as Le Conte pear, Baldwin, or Ben Davis apple? 134. The Elberta peach originated about 1880: what is meant by “originated”? 135. How is the grape propagated so as to come true to name (explain what is meant by “coming true”)? currant? strawberry? raspberry? blackberry? peach? pear? orange? fig? plum? cherry? apple? chestnut? pecan?
CHAPTER XVII
HOW PLANTS CLIMB
We have found that plants struggle or contend for a place in which to live. Some of them become adapted to grow in the forest shade, others to grow on other plants, as epiphytes, others to climb to the light. Observe how woods grapes, and other forest climbers, spread their foliage on the very top of the forest tree, while their long flexile trunks may be bare.
There are several ways by which plants climb, but most climbers may be classified into four groups: (1) scramblers, (2) root climbers, (3) tendril climbers, (4) twiners.
Scramblers.—Some plants rise to light and air by resting their long and weak stems on the tops of bushes and quick-growing herbs Their stems may be elevated in part by the growing twigs of the plants on which they recline. Such plants are scramblers. Usually they are provided with prickles or bristles. In most weedy swamp thickets, scrambling plants may be found. Briers, some roses, bedstraw or galium, bittersweet (Solanum Dulcamara, not the Celastrus) the tear-thumb polygonums, and other plants are familiar examples of scramblers.
Root Climbers.—Some plants climb by means of true roots. These roots seek the dark places and therefore enter the chinks in walls and bark. The trumpet creeper is a familiar example (Fig. 36). The true or English ivy, which is often grown to cover buildings, is another instance. Still another is the poison ivy. Roots are distinguished from stem tendrils by their irregular or indefinite position as well as by their mode of growth.
Tendril climbers.—A slender coiling part that serves to hold a climbing plant to a support is known as a tendril. The free end swings or curves until it strikes some object, when it attaches itself
F . 169. T , to show where the coil is changed.
and then coils and draws the plant close to the support. The spring of the coil also allows the plant to move in the wind, thereby enabling the plant to maintain its hold. Slowly pull a wellmatured tendril from its support, and note how strongly it holds on. Watch the tendrils in a wind-storm. Usually the tendril attaches to the support by coiling about it, but the Virginia creeper and the Boston ivy (Fig. 170) attach to walls by means of disks on the ends of the tendrils.
Since both ends of the tendril are fixed, when it finds a support, the coiling would tend to twist it in two. It will be found, however, that the tendril coils in different directions in different parts of its length. In Fig. 169, showing an old and stretched-out tendril, the change of direction in the coil occurred at a. In long tendrils of cucumbers and melons there may be several changes of direction.
F . 170. T B I .
Tendrils may represent either branches or leaves. In the Virginia creeper and the grape they are branches; they stand opposite the leaves in the position of fruit clusters, and sometimes one branch of a fruit cluster is a tendril. These tendrils are therefore homologous with fruit clusters, and fruit clusters are branches.
In some plants tendrils are leaflets (Chap. XI). Examples are the sweet pea and the common garden pea. In Fig. 171, observe the
leaf with its two great stipules, petiole, six normal leaflets, and two or three pairs of leaflet tendrils and a terminal leaflet tendril. The cobaea, a common garden climber, has a similar arrangement. In some cases tendrils are stipules, as probably in the green briers (smilax).
The petiole or midrib may act as a tendril, as in various kinds of clematis. In Fig. 172, the common wild clematis or “old man vine,” this mode is seen.
F 171 —L P ,—very large stipules, opposite leaflets, and leaflets represented by tendrils.
Twiners.—The entire plant or shoot may wind about a support. Such a plant is a twiner. Examples are bean, hop, morningglory, moon-flower, false bittersweet or waxwork (Celastrus), some honeysuckles, wistaria, Dutchman’s pipe, dodder. The free tip of the twining branch sweeps about in curves, much as the tendril does, until it finds support or becomes old and rigid.
Each kind of plant usually coils in only one direction. Most plants coil against the sun, or from the observer’s left across his front to his right as he faces the plant. Examples are bean, morning-glory. The hop twines from the observer’s right to his left, or with the sun.
F . 172. C L - .
S —136. Set the pupil to watch the behaviour of any plant that has tendrils at different stages of maturity. A vigorous cucumber plant is one of the best. Just beyond the point of a young straight tendril set a stake to compare the position of it. Note whether the tendril changes position from hour to hour or day to day. 137. Is the tip of the tendril perfectly straight? Why? Set a small stake at the end of a strong straight tendril, so that the tendril will just reach it. Watch and make drawing. 138. If a tendril does not find a support what does it do? 139. To test the movement of a free tendril draw an ink line lengthwise of it, and note whether the line remains always on the concave side or the convex side. 140. Name the tendril-bearing plants that you know. 141. Make similar observations and experiments on the tips of twining stems 142. What twining plants do you know, and which way do they twine? 143. How does any plant that you know shoot up? 144. Does the stem of a climbing plant contain more or less substance (weight) than an erect self-supporting stem of the same height? Explain
CHAPTER XVIII
THE FLOWER—ITS PARTS AND FORMS
The function of the flower is to produce seed. It is probable that all its varied forms and colours contribute to this supreme end. These forms and colours please the human fancy and add to the joy of living, but the flower exists for the good of the plant, not for the good of man. The parts of the flower are of two general kinds—those that are directly concerned in the production of seeds, and those that act as covering and protecting organs. The former parts are known as the essential organs; the latter as the floral envelopes.
Envelopes.—The floral envelopes usually bear a close resemblance to leaves. These envelopes are very commonly of two series or kinds—the outer and the inner. The outer series, known as the calyx, is usually smaller and green. It usually comprises the outer cover of the flower-bud. The calyx is the lowest whorl in Fig. 173.
F . 173. F B S .
The inner series, known as the corolla, is usually coloured and more special or irregular in shape than the calyx. It is the showy part of the flower, as a rule. The corolla is the second or large whorl in Fig. 173.
The calyx may be composed of several leaves. Each leaf is a sepal. If it is of one piece, it may be lobed or divided, in which case the divisions are called calyx-lobes. In like manner, the corolla may be composed of petals, or it may be of one piece and variously lobed. A calyx of one piece, no matter how deeply lobed, is gamosepalous. A corolla of one piece is gamopetalous. When these series are of separate pieces, as in Fig. 173, the flower is said
to be polysepalous and polypetalous. Sometimes both series are of separate parts, and sometimes only one of them is so formed.
F . 174. F F S .
The floral envelopes are homologous with leaves. Sepals and petals, at least when more than three or five, are in more than one whorl, and one whorl stands below another so that the parts overlap. They are borne on the expanded or thickened end of the flower stalk; this end is the torus In Fig. 173 all the parts are seen as attached to the torus. This part is sometimes called the receptacle, but this word is a commonlanguage term of several meanings, whereas torus has no other meaning. Sometimes one part is attached to another part, as in the fuchsia (Fig. 174), in which the petals are borne on the calyx-tube.
Subtending Parts.—Sometimes there are leaf-like parts just below the calyx, looking like a second calyx. Such parts accompany the carnation flower. These parts are bracts (bracts are small specialized leaves); and they form an involucre. We must be careful that we do not mistake them for true flower-parts. Sometimes the bracts are large and petal-like, as in the great white blooms of the flowering dogwood: here the real flowers are several, small and greenish, forming a small cluster in the centre.
Essential Organs.—The essential organs are of two series. The outer series is composed of the stamens. The inner series is composed of the pistils.
Stamens bear the pollen, which is made up of grains or spores, each spore usually being a single plant cell. The stamen is of two parts, as is readily seen in Figs. 173, 174,—the enlarged terminal
part or anther, and the stalk or filament. The filament is often so short as to seem to be absent, and the anther is then said to be sessile. The anther bears the pollen spores. It is made up of two or four parts (known as sporangia or spore-cases), which burst and discharge the pollen. When the pollen is shed, the stamen dies.
The pistil has three parts: the lowest, or seed-bearing part, which is the ovary; the stigma at the upper extremity, which is a flattened or expanded surface, and usually roughened or sticky; the stalk-like part or style, connecting the ovary and the stigma. Sometimes the style is apparently wanting, and the stigma is said to be sessile on the ovary. These parts are shown in the fuchsia (Fig. 174). The ovary or seed vessel is at a. A long style, bearing a large stigma, projects from the flower See also Figs. 175 and 176.
F 175 T S P B se, sepals; p, petals; sta, stamens; o, ovary; s, style; st, stigma. The pistil consists of the ovary, the style and the stigma It contains the seed part The stamens are tipped with anthers, in which the pollen is borne The ovary, o, ripens into the fruit
Stamens and pistils probably are homologous with leaves. A pistil is sometimes conceived to represent anciently a leaf as if rolled into a tube; and an anther, a leaf of which the edges may have been turned in on the midrib.
The pistil may be of one part or compartment, or of many parts. The different units or parts of which it is composed are carpels. Each carpel is homologous with a leaf. Each carpel bears one or more seeds. A pistil of one carpel is simple; of two or more carpels, compound. Usually the structure of the pistil may be determined by cutting horizontally across the lower or seed-bearing part, as Figs. 177, 178 explain. A flower may contain a simple pistil (one carpel), as the pea (Fig. 177); several simple pistils (several separate
F . 176. S
P
B , one in longitudinal section
carpels), as the buttercup (Fig. 176); or a compound pistil with carpels united, as the Saint John’s wort (Fig. 178) and apple. How many carpels in an apple? A peach? An okra pod? A bean pod? The seed cavity in each carpel is called a locule (Latin locus, a place). In these locules the seeds are borne.
Conformation of the
F . 177. P G P , the stamens being pulled down in order to disclose it; also a section showing the single compartment (compare Fig 188)
F . 178. C
P S . J ’ W . It has 5 carpels
Flower.—A flower that has calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils is said to be complete (Fig. 173); all others are incomplete. In some flowers both the floral envelopes are wanting: such are naked. When one of the floral envelope series is wanting, the remaining series is said to be calyx, and the flower is therefore apetalous (without petals). The knot-weed (Fig. 179), smartweed, buckwheat, elm are examples.
Some flowers lack the pistils: these are staminate, whether the envelopes are missing or not. Others lack the stamens: these are pistillate. Others have neither stamens nor pistils: these are sterile (snowball and hydrangea). Those that have both stamens and pistils are perfect, whether or not the envelopes are missing. Those that lack either stamens or pistils are imperfect or diclinous Staminate and pistillate flowers are imperfect or diclinous.
When staminate and pistillate flowers are borne on the same plant, e.g. oak (Fig. 180), corn, beech, chestnut, hazel, walnut, hickory, pine, begonia (Fig. 181), watermelon, gourd, pumpkin, the
F . 179. K , a very common but inconspicuous plant along hard walks and roads. Two flowers, enlarged, are shown at the right. These flowers are very small and borne in the axils of the leaves
plant is monœcious (“in one house”). When they are on different plants, e.g. poplar, cottonwood, bois d’arc, willow (Fig. 182), the plant is diœcious (“in two houses”). Some varieties of strawberry, grape, and mulberry are partly diœcious. Is the rose either monœcious or diœcious?
F . 181.—B F . Staminate at A: pistillate below, with the winged ovary at B.
Flowers in which the parts of each series are alike are said to be regular (as in Figs. 173, 174, 175). Those in which some parts are unlike other parts of the same series are irregular. Their regularity may be in calyx, as in nasturtium (Fig. 183); in corolla (Figs. 184, 185); in the stamens (compare nasturtium, catnip, Fig. 185, sage); in the pistils. Irregularity is most frequent in the corolla.
F . 180. S C O . The pistillate flowers are in the leaf axils, and not shown in this picture.
F . 182. C W . A staminate flower is shown at s, and a pistillate flower at p The staminate and pistillate are on different plants.
F 183 F
G
N
Separate petal at a. The calyx is produced into a spur
F 184 T F P
P , detached to show the form
F 185 F C
Various Forms of Corolla.—The corolla often assumes very definite or distinct forms, especially when gamopetalous. It may have a long tube with a wide-flaring limb, when it is said to be funnelform, as in morning-glory and pumpkin. If the tube is very narrow and the limb stands at right angles to it, the corolla is salverform, as in phlox. If the tube is very short and the limb wide-spreading and nearly circular in outline, the corolla is rotate or wheel-shaped, as in potato.
A gamopetalous corolla or gamosepalous calyx is often cleft in such way as to make two prominent parts. Such parts are said to be lipped or labiate. Each of the lips or lobes may be notched or toothed. In 5-membered flowers, the lower lip is usually 3-lobed and the upper one 2-lobed. Labiate flowers are characteristic of the mint family (Fig. 185), and the family therefore is called the Labiatæ. (Literally, labiate means merely “lipped,” without specifying the number of lips or lobes; but it is commonly used to designate 2lipped flowers.) Strongly 2-parted polypetalous flowers may be said
to be labiate; but the term is oftenest used for gamopetalous corollas.
Labiate gamopetalous flowers that are closed in the throat (or entrance to the tube) are said to be grinning or personate (personate means masked). Snapdragon is a typical example; also toadflax or butter-and-eggs (Fig. 186), and many related plants. Personate flowers usually have definite relations to insect pollination. Observe how an insect forces his head into the closed throat of the toadflax.
F . 186. P F T .
The peculiar flowers of the pea tribes are explained in Figs. 187, 188.
Spathe Flowers.—In many plants, very simple (often naked) flowers are borne in dense, more or less fleshy spikes, and the spike is inclosed in or attended by a leaf, sometimes corolla-like, known as a spathe. The spike of flowers is technically known as a spadix. This type of flower is characteristic of the great arum family, which is chiefly tropical. The commonest wild representatives are Jack-in-thepulpit, or Indian turnip, and skunk cabbage. In the former the flowers are all diclinous and naked. In the skunk cabbage all the flowers are perfect and have four sepals. The common calla is a good example of this type of inflorescence.
Composite Flowers.—The head (anthodium) or so-called “flower” of sunflower (Fig. 189), thistle, aster, dandelion, daisy, chrysanthemum, goldenrod, is composed of several or many little flowers, or florets. These florets are inclosed in a more or less dense and usually green involucre. In the thistle (Fig. 190) this involucre is prickly. A longitudinal section discloses the florets, all attached at bottom to a common torus, and densely packed in the involucre. The pink tips of these florets constitute the showy part of the head.
F . 187. F
C B , with one flower opened (a) to show the structure
F . 188.—D A F S :
C, calyx; D, standard; W, wing; K, keel; T, stamen tube; F, filament of tenth stamen; X, stigma; Y, style; O, ovary; the dotted lines at E show position of stamen tube, when pushed upward by insects
Enlarged
Each floret of the thistle (Fig. 190) is a complete flower. At a is the ovary. At b is a much-divided plumy calyx,
189 H S
known as the pappus. The corolla is long-tubed, rising above the pappus, and is enlarged and 5-lobed at the top, c. The style projects at e. The five anthers are united about the style in a ring at d. Such anthers are said to be syngenesious. These are the various parts of the florets of the Compositæ. In some cases the pappus is in the form of barbs, bristles, or scales, and sometimes it is wanting. The pappus, as we shall see later, assists in
F
F . 190. L S
T H ; also a F
T
distributing the seed. Often the florets are not all alike. The corolla of those in the outer circles may be developed into a long, straplike, or tubular part, and the head then has the appearance of being one flower with a border of petals. Of such is the sunflower (Fig. 189), aster, bachelor’s button or cornflower, and field daisy (Fig. 211). These long corolla-limbs are called rays. In some cultivated composites, all the florets may develop rays, as in the dahlia and the chrysanthemum. In some species, as dandelion, all the florets naturally have rays. Syngenesious arrangement of anthers is the most characteristic single feature of the composites.
Double Flowers.—Under the stimulus of cultivation and increased food supply, flowers tend to become double. True doubling arises in two ways, morphologically: (1) stamens or pistils may produce petals (Fig. 191); (2) adventitious or accessory petals may arise in the circle of petals. Both these categories may be present in the same flower. In the full double hollyhock the petals derived from the staminal column are shorter and make a rosette in the centre of the flower. In Fig. 192 is shown the doubling of a daffodil by the modification of stamens. Other modifications of flowers are sometimes known as doubling. For example, double dahlias, chrysanthemums, and sunflowers are forms in which the disk flowers have developed rays. The snowball is another case. In the wild snowball the external flowers of the cluster are large and sterile. In the cultivated plant all the flowers have become large and sterile. Hydrangea is a similar case.
F . 191. P S
C H , and accessory petals in the corolla-whorl.
F . 192. N D . Single flower at the right.
S —145. If the pupil has been skilfully conducted through this chapter by means of careful study of specimens rather than as a mere memorizing process, he will be in mood to challenge any flower that he sees and to make an
effort to understand it. Flowers are endlessly modified in form; but they can be understood if the pupil looks first for the anthers and ovaries. How may anthers and ovaries always be distinguished? 146. It is excellent practice to find the flowers in plants that are commonly known by name, and to determine the main points in their structure What are the flowers in Indian corn? pumpkin or squash? celery? cabbage? potato? pea? tomato? okra? cotton? rhubarb? chestnut? wheat? oats? 147. Do all forest trees have flowers? Explain 148. Name all the monœcious plants you know Diœcious 149. What plants do you know that bloom before the leaves appear? Do any bloom after the leaves fall? 150. Explain the flowers of marigold, hyacinth, lettuce, clover, asparagus, garden calla, aster, locust, onion, burdock, lily-of-the-valley, crocus, Golden Glow, rudbeckia, cowpea. 151. Define a flower.
N T —It cannot be urged too often that the specimens themselves be studied If this chapter becomes a mere recitation on names and definitions, the exercise will be worse than useless. Properly taught by means of the flowers themselves, the names become merely incidental and a part of the pupil’s language, and the subject has living interest.
