English Spelling Books Published around the Meiji Restoration<BR><BR>

　　The role that English spelling books played in the early stages of English teaching in Japan cannot be overestimated. It is important for us to have a full understanding of their construction and the process by which they were compiled. There were three major spelling books around the Meiji Restoration.<BR>
  Ａ　Eigo-Kaitei (1866)<BR>
  Ｂ  K. Ishikawa: The First Primer For the Use of the School Shoobunkwan at Yokohama (1869）<BR> 
  Ｃ  S. Yanagawa: Yogaku-Shishin (Eigaku-bu)<BR>
　　The fact that Eigo-Kaitei was a reprinted edition of the first chapter of L. Murray's An English Spelling Book (first published in York, 1804) was revealed by C. Ishihara. Another fact that The First Primer used W. Mavor's The English Spelling-book (first published in London, 1801) as a source book has been found by the present writer. The First Primer can be said to be an inadequate abridgement of Mavor's spelling book, because its editor, Ishikawa, was not able to comprehend the true objectives of the original book. A close examination of the arrangement of the two-letter or three-letter words indicates that Yogaku-Shishin (Eigaku-bu) may have been based on T. Dilworth's A New Guide to the English Tongue (first published in London, 1740).
　　The three major spellers published and used before and after the Meiji Restoration were compiled on the basis of the British spellings books, but not N. Webster's speller. This is because, for Japanese students who have just begun to learn English, Webster's speller is too disorganized. On the contrary, British spelling books concentrate more on the organization and the division of letters and syllables and supplement each lesson with various practice exercises.    In Britain demand for spelling books created intense competition between a variety of spellers. Among them,  Dilworth's book was used for a long time as an elementary speller especially in the latter half of the eighteenth century. And in the first half of the nineteenth century Mavor's and Murray's enjoyed popularity among British elementary pupils.