McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson Intro 4 · Part 1: Reading aloud well
4. Accent and inflection optional
Goal: Your child hears and uses the rising and falling inflections when reading questions and statements.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- Paper and a pencil
What's in the book
Accent (stress on one syllable) with examples, then inflection: the rising and falling slides of the voice, with question-and-answer pairs to practice.
The lesson, step by step
Accent
The book defines it:
Accent, marked thus ('), is an increased force of voice upon some one syllable of a word.
Say a few words and have your child clap on the strong syllable: col-o-ny, re-mem-ber, rec-ol-lect. This is the same mark your child will see in the word lists at the end of each lesson.
Inflection
Inflection is the slide of the voice up or down. Ask a yes-or-no question (Has he come?) and notice how the voice rises at the end. Make a plain statement (He has gone.) and notice how it falls.
Practice the pairs
The book gives pairs where the voice rises on one word and falls on the other. Read them as question and answer, you asking and your child answering:
Is the dog white', or black\?
The dog is black\ not white'.
Then swap parts. The rising mark (') and the falling mark (\) show which way the voice goes.
Make your own
Your child makes up three "Is it this, or that?" questions with answers, and reads them aloud with the voice rising on the first choice and falling on the second.
Keep listening
The book says the pupil should practice these examples until perfectly familiar with the rising and falling inflections. Over the next lessons, when your child reads a question in a story, listen for the voice to go up.