Is It Still The Queen’s English?
The English language being an amalgam of many other languages is possibly the most adaptive in the world. With complex and changing content the tricks you can play with English has made it one of the best games in education. But although the constantly changing rules refreshes the fun it can trip the unwary and make examination success hazardous.
Many parents, keen to provide active support in their child’s schooling are concerned this may be problematic; citing changes in teaching techniques that may leave them exposed or detract from their child’s progress. Clearly teaching techniques must evolve else we will fail to benefit from progress, but what if the subject matter, English, is evolving at such a rate that can see significant changes occurring during the schooling journey of a child.
English, as any language is the basic structure behind communication. Yet the world of communication is changing fast. The internet has seen exponential growth in speed, usage and range of access to information on a global basis. An historic search for information probably involved a dictionary, thesaurus or encyclopaedia to check spelling, meaning, and synonym or to learn facts. Inevitably during the searching process other words, meanings, interpretations and facts would be revealed across the page which broadened our knowledge base. But has the internet changed the process? Spelling is less critical. even in a search using Google the system itself suggests “did you mean” corrections to spelling. The resultant search, being computer driven, can be extraordinary rapid and far more targeted, but are we missing the opportunity to absorb knowledge from a ramble through additional facts.
The evolution of the English language has developed at a greater pace over the past ten years. The spread of English, fuelled by the internet, cinema, DVD and TV has established a global first language in communications. The arbitrators in education need to be equally dynamic. Spelling games and exams must be a nightmare for teachers and examiners as the content and rules change. Â Any learning resource must first decide whether it is a programme or program. There is growing interest in a society formed to remove redundant letters in words. From their viewpoint the correct spelling of colour is color and ghost doesn’t really need the H and could just as well be gost. This could lead to some interesting debates with the purists who claim the origin of the word should identify how the word is spelt
Handwriting has been largely replaced by a keyboard input inextricably linked to predictive text or spellcheck where the initial comprehension of correct spelling has less impact. The ravages of abbreviation have taken their toll over the years but the English language has largely survived intact from several previous onslaughts. Years ago, communications relying on semaphore, Morse code and teletext, evolved abbreviations and codes to shorten the time to communicate without loosing the context. That’s a 10. 4, O.K. or Roger of course. The current threat from texting abbreviations through the global usage of a cell phones will an interesting test case on the Queen’s English.
