Britain

ENGLISH TO GET ENGLISH LESSONS

Appalled at the misuse of apostrophes, a retired journalist establishes a society to teach English to adults whose language knowledge is limited.

(By Alfred Lee – Europe Bureau)

London:

A society has been set up to tech the English language to adults in England. Retired newspaper sub-editor John Richards was so appalled at public misuse of apostrophes that he formed the Apostrophe Protection Society.

After news of his society was revealed, hundreds of people, including teachers, writers, academics and others rushed to support his campaign and to join his society. They have now decided to expand the aims of the organization – and to highlight common errors in English made by English people.

“English people are supposed to be able to write excellent English – but many can’t, said Mr. Richards, 75. “My local fruit-seller writes on posters that he sells bunch’s of banana’s. The public library has a sign saying that it has CD’s. The largest supermarket in town promises 1000’s of products at reduced prices.

“I was so irritated by the mistakes in the use of apostrophes that I had to do something.”

Headmaster Anthony Macrory said the group had ‘a tremendous fight on our hands, with the Internet and e-mails responsible for ‘weblish’ and mobile phone text messages undoing all that is taught in English classes.”..........

A recent survey placed the literacy of adults in England among the lowest of any developed country. When Britain’s education authority tried to fill some administrative posts, only six of 33 candidates with A-level qualifications passed a test in literacy.

One l9-year old applicant, asked to write a short essay on how he would organize a campaign against the use of narcotics, started off by saying: “ I wud reed all the leaflets and complied a questionair concerning how the bodies system was effected by drugs.”

As Mr. Tony Maher of the Plain English Campaign put it: “Sadly, there is a huge army of grown-up English people who are illiterate.”

“They cannot spell properly and their grammar and punctuation are atrocious.”

Professor Roger Holliday, an English expert, said he believed that things have been going downhill in Britain ever since the Rolling Stones sang, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.”

(The Straits Times: Tuesday, May 15, 2001)

British kids can spell Beckham but not Austen

Critics say survey shows pervasive influence of ‘trash culture’
and failure of national literacy strategy

Quote:

Nearly l5 per cent could spell “metatarsal” – after Beckham’s injury.

Only 11 per cent could spell “millennium”.

Only 8 percent could spell “Jane Austen”, while some thought

“Shakespeare” was two words.

Only 10 per cent got “mystique” right. Almost four in 10 thought it was “Mis-teeq”,

like the girl band.

London:

Britain is producing a generation of “tabloid spellers” who can spell “David Beckham” but are stumped when it comes to “Jane Austen” or “William Shakespeare”, newspapers here reported yesterday.

A poll of more than 400 British children aged 10 to 12 by the Oxford University Press found that most of them struggled with common words such as “favourite” or “parliament”.

But they had few problems with words associated with popular culture – such as “metatarsal”, the small bone in the foot that Beckham broke before the World Cup, or “Hogwarts”, the wizard school in the Harry Potter books.

Two thirds of the children spelt “battle droid” correctly, a term coined by the makers of the Star Wars movies. Words associated with football such as “squad” and “defender” did equally well.....

Mr. Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, was quoted by The Telegraph as saying: “it is clear that popular culture is having much more influence on young people than the teaching they are getting in primary schools, and this clearly needs to be remedied.”

“Children are not getting the knowledge that will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives.”