By Sean Byrne, Lecturer in Economics, Dublin Institute of Technology
Irish Independent, Wednesday May 30 2007
"The recent report of the Chief Examiner in English for the Junior Certificate deplores the impact of texting on the spelling, syntax and vocabulary of second level students. The examiner, who seems to consider that 'impact' is a verb, must be aware that there are other factors leading to declining literacy among second level students..."
As many of you know may not have access to the web-link I was going to provide, you ran read the full text in the first comment on this post.
3 comments:
The recent report of the Chief Examiner in English for the Junior Certificate deplores the impact of texting on the spelling, syntax and vocabulary of second level students. The examiner, who seems to consider that 'impact' is a verb, must be aware that there are other factors leading to declining literacy among second level students.
He might like to explain why the amount of required writing in English has been reduced at both primary and secondary level and why no English grammar is taught at either level.
As always when there is any questioning of academic standards in Irish schools, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) responded to the examiner's comments by telling us how well Irish students score on international tests of literacy.
Undertaking comparative studies of literacy is difficult and the results of such studies should be treated with caution.
While the proportion of Irish 15-year-olds who are functionally literate may be high by international standards, the level of literacy of those entering third-level education has certainly declined in the past 20 years. John White of the ASTI is right to argue that spelling and grammar evolve over time but a literate student knows how English is currently written by educated people.
Mr White might also reflect on the fact that since language is the vehicle of thought, an impoverished vocabulary and syntax inevitably leads to an impoverishment of thought.
For third-level students, literacy means being able to express ideas in a clear and coherently structured manner, an accomplishment of which few are capable. Many student essays are incoherent with no discernible line of argument or arrangement of material. Syntax is garbled, vocabulary impoverished and often the only punctuation used is the full stop. Because many students read so little other than their text books (and frequently not even those), they often write as they speak.
Essays and reports are written either in long garbled tracts or in 'bullet points' without elaboration. Many third level students do not know the difference between 'it's' and 'its' or between 'there' and 'their'.
The origin of these problems lies in the fact that the volume of writing in both primary and secondary school has decreased considerably in the past 20 years. In primary schools, English is taught through 'workbooks' that require children to fill in gaps rather than compose essays. Several Junior and even Leaving Certificate exams are structured in such a way that little writing is required in answering questions.
There is little discursive writing in subjects other than Higher Level English and Higher Level History at Leaving Certificate level. The numbers taking History have declined steeply (too much reading and writing) and in English even the writing of essays is kept to a minimum.
Because they write so little at school, many students when they enter third level education cannot even take notes at lectures.. The capacity to extract the key points from a discursive lecture and note them, once essential for third level students, has all but disappeared, and most lecturers must now use PowerPoint 'presentations' or most of their student will sit staring at them blankly.
Even writing down the 'bullet points' on the PowerPoint slides is beyond the ability of some students. When I used slides that required students to write additional notes in lectures, I was told that this was 'unfair' as some students could write faster than others!
The only solution to declining literacy among Irish second level students is to increase the amount and variety of writing in English at both primary and secondary level. At primary level, in fifth and sixth class pupils should be required to read and write more than they do at present and some of the writing should be genuine composition, not 'filling in the gaps'.
The Curriculum and Assessments Board should consider introducing English Language as a Leaving certificate subject. Even the most gifted teacher of English will fail to evoke a response to literature in many pupils, but the capacity to write clear, coherent English can be taught to all.
- Sean Byrne, Lecturer in Economics, Dublin Institute of Technology
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I don't understand the jab about the use of "impact," since it is both a noun and a verb; at least, it is according to any dictionary you might pick up...
In any case, I'm surprised that there were no attacks on the influence of the Internet. In the US, my high school English teacher would frequently complain about students using "netspeak" in their essays.
Caitlin,
I have a similar stance on the jab about the use of "impact". I actually met Sean Byrne for lunch yesterday, and meant to ask him about it then!
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