…Txting can boost spllng an gramer. WTF, you’d need a GSOH to believe that!
An article on the BBC website suggests texting can improve spelling and grammar. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27816819)
Sorry but I have a different POV and I did LMFAO when I read it. GR8, I thought, more excuses for the lack of basic skills shown by school children. The research (using a massive 160 children) suggests the most creative texters were the better spellers. No Shit Sherlock. Another way of putting that would be to suggest that there are some who can spell and gram (!) reasonably well anyway and the remainder, whose grammar etc. is not so good, can still text. (I am going to leave that even though it is not a particularly well written paragraph!)
As the psychologist suggests, texting abreviations are often phonetically based but phonics is generally only used on the young. At some point you have to step away from it and “learn” to spell. That many fail in this suggests underlying issues and continuing to use text abreviations will, in my opinion (IMO), set the child back further. it is also possible, of course, that our language is a pain in the neck. Certainly as one who studied Spanish at school that language is so much simpler than ours.
Iuj eble dirus ke adopti simplan lingvon, ekzemple Esparanto, estus pli facile por ni ĉiuj.
What would be more useful would be for this so called psychologist to find out why the so called weaker students are failing. Grammar and spelling were, I believe, around long before texting and there were many who couldn’t do it then. I know this for a fact – I went to school with some of them. Some might argue I am one… I am sorry to say this but the fault doesn’t solely lie with teachers, despite what some areas of the media might like to suggest. I did a small straw poll among parents I know and was actually surprised at the result. Most read stories to their children when they were young. But equally most did not read WITH and LISTEN TO their children read when they started school. This was in the belief that it was schools job, not the parents! These parents, in the main, are intellegent, well educated people and I actually cannot understand how they can behave like this. For the record my youngest is 9 and we still listen to hime read.
I am often critical of the standard of teaching (solely based on personal experience) and I can very much support that opinion with evidence. However thankfully, again in my experience, such poor teaching is rare. What is more common is the lack of resourses. Different children learn in different ways and our education system doesn’t allow the time and resourse to give each child what s/he needs. Again in my experience prep and fee paying schools seem to have a higher success rate but that is, I should stress, very unscientific arrived at! I am not a fan of private schools either.
I should also say that many can and do succeed despite poor grammar and spelling. One boy who lived close to me during my schooldays was not the most intellegent being and (unknown to his mother but known to me) often skipped school. He now runs 2 successful taxi businesses and lives in a nice expensive house. On his Friends Reunited page he says very simply “I run 2 taxi ferms”. Point made.
For the record: I know my grammar and spelling are far from perfect and I deliberately did not strive for perfection in this piece! Actually I rarely check such things on anything as I tend to write quickly and publish before I lose my bottle!
Equally for the record and again in my opinion the system needs to do two things. Get rid of under-performing teachers (sorry unions but they do exist). Remind (some) parents that they do have a responsibility to their children.
And finally: Third thing, Get rid of Michael Gove.
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