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LANGEVIN

1026

LANGUAGE, TEACHING OF

there. In 1882 he was ordained, and for three years was a missionary. In 1885 he became superior of the Grand Seminary at Ottawa and later was sent to St. Boniface as provincial superior of the Oblates of St. Mary's in Winnipeg. He was appointed archbishop of Saint Boniface, and was consecrated by Archbishop Charles Fabre of Montreal.

Langevin, Sir Hector Louis, was born in the city of Quebec in 1826. He was educated at Quebec Seminary, and was called to the bar in 1850. He edited several newspapers for some years, was mayor of Quebec for three years, and was member of the executive council of Canada from 1864 to the union as solicitor-general and postmaster general. Appointed secretary of state of Canada in 1867, he became minister of public works in 1869. He was delegate to the Charlottetown union conference in 1864, to that in Quebec the same year and to the London colonial conference 1886-7 to complete the terms of confederation. One of the Fathers of Confederation. In 1871 he was sent to British Columbia to study its resources and requirements, and later was elected in succession to Sir George Cartier leader of the Conservatives in the Province of Quebec. He represented Dorchester from 1857 until the union and after the union until 1874, and was postmaster general in 1878 and minister of public works in 1879. He was sent on a mission to England in 1897 in connection with the proposed dismissal of Letellier de St. Just, the lieutenant-governor of Quebec, with the result that the home government admitted the right of the Canadian government to dismiss a lieutenant-governor for cause.

Lang'ley, Samuel Pierpont, an American astronomer, was born at Roxbury, Mass., Aug. 22, 1834. He was educated at Boston Latin School, and became a civil engineer. He was made assistant at Harvard Observatory in 1865, and afterward was appointed professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. In 1867 he was made professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania, and was placed in charge of the observatory at Allegheny. He became an authority upon solar phenomena, and invented an instrument, known as the bolometer, for measuring the slightest changes in temperature. In 1887 ne waf chosen secretary of Smithsonian Institution. Professor Langley was prominent and active in practical astronomical work for many years, wrote upon astronomy and physics, and among other honors obtained the Rumford medal from the Royal Society of London; a membership of the National Academy of Sciences; the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; and memberships of many scientific societies and associations,

American and foreign. His published works embrace The New Astronomy, Researches in Solar Heat, Experiments in Aerodynamics and The Internal Work of the Wind. He died on Feb. 27, 1906.

Langs'ton, John Mercer, an American lawyer, clergyman and educator. He was born a slave in Louisa County, Va., Dec. 14, 1829, but in childhood was given his freedom. He studied theology at Oberlin College, Ohio, and afterward law, practicing from 1854 to 1869. In the latter year he was made professor of law in Howard University, Washington City, and in 1873 became dean of the faculty of the law department of the university. He was United States minister and consul-general at Haiti from 1875 to 1885, and after this was appointed president of a normal and collegiate institute for his race at Petersburg, Va. He was an orator of good ability, and in 1883 published addresses entitled Freedom and Citizenship, He died on Nov. 15, 1897.

Lan'guage, Teaching of. The general name for the elementary school-subject which is used to teach the command of the native or vernacular language. Broadly speaking, the language arts of the ordinary school include oral language, reading, written composition, penmanship, spelling and grammar. In the more restricted meaning language arts refer to the development of the child's power to express himself in speech and in written forms. • The teacher faces two general problems in language instruction: (i) To extend the child's power to use language and (2) tc correct his language errors. These problems require somewhat different methods of treatment.

Inasmuch as the child has considerable command of speech before he enters school, oral language is usually made the foundation for many of the other language arts — for reading, spelling and written composition in particular. Language cannot be taught successfully apart from experiences and the interpretations of experiences. An "enriched' course of study, one with much emphasis upon interesting and varied subject-matter, is regarded as one of the fundamental matters in giving children extensive power in the use of language, oral and written. Words, groups of words and sentences always stand for some meaning or experience. The experience may be concre te and real, it may be imaginary, or it may be the result of a relation or distinction given by the intellect or the feelings. The experience, of whatever form it may be, must have the language Sresented with it which is to express it. ood language teaching associates (i)^ language forms with (2) the meanings which a child has experienced and wants to express. The school guarantees the child a wider and richer experience, to make it possible for him to use more forms of speech. The use of interesting material from the other school-