Traditional classes in English language are a “bit unnecessary” at a time when pupils have so much access to state-of-the-art technology, it is claimed.
Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, said good spelling and grammar was necessary “maybe a hundred years ago” but “not right now”.
He insisted that children should be encouraged to express themselves in a number of different ways – including using mobile phone text messaging – rather than relying on established linguistic rules.
Who, precisely is this fucking idiot? Anyone who has tried to decipher the mindless gibberish that is text speak will understand that there is a reason for commonly accepted rules for grammar and spelling. Similar sounding words that are spelled differently have different meanings and using the wrong one can mangle your prose beyond recognition. In order to communicate effectively, we need to be able to understand those meanings and to use words correctly so that people understand what we are trying to say. And, of course, if you are planning to learn a foreign language, the whole underpinning foundations of language – grammar – become essential.
But not, apparently in the moronic world of Sugata Mitra. Fuck me sideways, will no one spare us from these stupid cunts?
In an interview with the Times Educational Supplement, he said: “This emphasis on grammar and spelling, I find it a bit unnecessary because they are skills that were very essential maybe a hundred years ago but they are not right now.
“Firstly, my phone corrects my spelling so I don’t really need to think about it and, secondly, because I often skip grammar and write in a cryptic way.”
Yes, and anyone who has half a functioning brain cell realises that the technology can and does get it wrong because despite the wonderful algorithms, it cannot always detect context. You need to understand the rules to recognise that it has got it wrong. This man is a fucking moron. And if he writes in a cryptic way, it is probable that no one understands the drivel that he has written. Which, frankly , is probably just as well, as if this cack is anything to go by he has nothing of value to say. Fucking idiotic twat.
But Joe Walsh, co-director of the National Association for the Teaching of English, criticised the approach.
“The skills of using grammar effectively in the context of writing and spelling accurately are just as relevant today as they were a hundred years ago,” he told the TES. “Electronic devices can suggest alternatives but they cannot think for you.”
They have clearly been doing Prof Mitra’s thinking for him and look what a fine job they’ve done…
You know someone trained my mobile phone’s spell checker to auto correct the word “professor” with “unbelieveable twat”
But that’s ok. The phone says so.
Well, that will leave more time to teach the bairns about sex.
From the age of five, natch.
Poor education, risk-averse, politically correct, sexualised: the next generation of leaders will be fucking embarrassing.
CR.
And the current ones aren’t?
I c u r pissed bowt summat m8. I cunt liv wiv out me mobey. Cunt read un rite wiv out it eever. Lol
And this illustrates my point precisely. I had to read it a couple of times to determine the meaning. Ordinary prose is simple to comprehend. Also, with the advent of large screens and soft qwerty keyboards and predictive text, text speak should be redundant. it is simpler and quicker to use plain English. Unless you are so ignorant you cannot manage it….
For a short time some years ago, my son (now 28) would send me SMS messages in textspeak. I would immediately forward them back to him with an annotation expressing regret that whatever language being used was outside my repertoire.
After a couple of weeks of this, he restarted communicating in English…
I like that. Might try it if I ever get one come my way again.
I was once the year tutor for an Honours year degree in business management, and ran courses in all manner of agricultural/microbiology subjects . I sent back essays copied from the internet (they believed that they’d found something their lecturers and the Honours year tutor had not seen – and in one case, written) and sent back everything in text speak and in unintelligible gibberish.
Then came political correctness and I was redundant. God alone knows what it’s like in there now.
It happened to me on one course but the retard (apologies to the really disabled) actually left the URL’s for the Wikipedia article they copied it from at the base of each page. Candidates were given 0pts for the work and reported to the Board. (Well I warned them at the start of the course that I run a zero tolerance to certain things, like plagiarism etc, I was not believed – I am now!) I currently work in a Secondary School and regularly deal with poor/appalling (read creative on occasion) spelling. Officially, School policy is to correct three examples to avoid “upsetting” the little dears, unofficially I correct everything and encourage them to read what has actually been written. Old fashioned but so what, the “modern” techniques simply do not work efficiently and the idea that spelling and grammar are somehow archaic features is simply nonsensical. (No, I regret that I do not communicate using “text speak” either).
TTFN 🙂
Brings to mind the current absurdity in Potsdam University, among others.
ALL people are now only to be refered to under the “Female” descriptive!
So, “Proffessor” (Male) is now to be refered to in official documents as “Professorin” (Female). Regardless of gender. 😯
If THAT is not “Political correctness gone rabid,” I really do not know what is.
Sorry, it’s an old one but still works;
“Grammar is important! Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse and helping your Uncle jack off a horse.”
“This emphasis on grammar and spelling, I find it a bit unnecessary because they are skills that were very essential maybe a hundred years ago but they are not right now.”
One would think that a professor of ‘educational technology’ would know, that in order to program the technology of which he is a professor, it is essential that correct spelling and grammar (syntax) are used.
If you ask almost any youngster today to define “syntax”, they will reply that it is the VAT on a packet of condoms…
Any time I ever see anyone proclaim that grammar and spelling etc aren’t important, curiously they are doing so with acceptable grammar and spelling and their meaning is perfectly clear.
Of course, most people who can’t manage the same are too busy signing on at the Job Centre or working at a dead end job on minimum wage.
Indeed.
This poor spelling and grammar doesn’t matter shit gets on my tit’s pardon my francais and I am a raging dyslexic, having struggled all my life with punctuation, conjugation and spelling. When I was at school there were no labels you were just “Thick” I was 16 before I was labeled as dyslexic and that was the year before I left school.
I get really fed up with these so called teaching professionals who say spelling etc does not matter YES IT FUCKING DOES. My son is dyspraxic I had a blazing row with his year 3 primary school teacher who said “well it really wont matter if he cant spell even at secondary school as they will be doing most of it on computer!” after I turned purple and red and then green and then tried to stay calm I retorted “well that will be handy then when filling in a job application or a DSS form, when he says scuse me can I use your computer!” she was a bit poleaxed. I strongly believe spelling and grammar are very important. I get sick to the back teeth of reading online articles all spelt wrong with the punctuation in the wrong places and grammatically out of sorts. Any Education professional who says “it doesn’t matter!” should be sacked on the spot as they are possibly saying this A/ because English is NOT their first language or B/ they can’t spell and punctuate themselves so anyone who can makes them look bad.
… but there are times that you can say fook the grammer and the speeling……
my first comment was meant with a certain irony, but my tiping is shete and my spilling even worser, but this debate is about methods of communication that exist. And that is what the youngsters of today are wrestling with.
If you struggle with reading and writing, should that debar you from being successful ? No surely not, and for those that do, that is where technology steps in. I was thinking at the weekend, how the tippex salesmen must be…. crying into their beer, all but redundant with the use of technology. So if a kid is crap at spelling and his phone or computer does it for him…. is that really so bad ?
We have a vast array of getting our message across even without the fundamentals of grammar…. sign language ? bet when you drive along and stick your hand up with just the middle finger showing, quickly followed by closing of your grip….. the other driver will know full well you think he is a fucking wanker…..
I remember at school struggling to learn French with all the emphasis on the grammar and shite. Never learnt it in the end. Then become a grown up and with a holiday in france pending, so I went to night class for conversational french….and I thought sod all the grammar shite, and just learnt to get the words out to make them understand what I was saying….. of course they probably pissed them sens laughing, and no I wouldn’t win any literary awards, but I seemed to get the things I asked for. So it worked… for me at least.
So the bottom line is, there are many reasons for not getting hung up on grammar and correct use of prose, but only where it is truely necessary….. my eldest just finishing her MA in English perhaps……. she wouldn’t have got a first in her degree if she was as thick as me….. but I have got on in life and I couldn’t tell you the difference between a conjunctive and an adjective…. do I care ? do I shit.
Communication comes in many forms and yes the education system should set many important mile stones for those levels, but if a kid is weak with his reading and writing, should we brand him a failure simply because he refuses to accept the help of technology……
Of course as for text speak….. remember that 2 Ronnies restaurant sketch ? F.U.N.E.X ?……. way way before mobile phones but it was amusing then, and still is. SMS txt is merely a means to an end. One which kids are happy to exploit, so why fight it ? You may not agree with it, but it works no matter how much you hate it.
Communication is an evolving beast, but many professions use language to be exclusive….. lawyers – latin ~ medical – verbose complexity ~ shipping – ridiculous meaningless words …what the hell is starboard ? I have to count the letters for my right hand to remember… so why can’t they just say left or right… the reason is to create an exclusive club to exclude…….So taking away some of the rules and some of the mystic means that those have not’s can now become can be’s.
Drives me nuts when a lawyer writes to me citing some latin phrase….. pompous twat is what I usually think.
Technology is there to be exploited…. just like the argument of using calculators rather than doing mental maths. I did my O’level maths at 15 and my A’level at 16 without the aid of calculators…now some 40* years later, I am fooked if I am going to waste brain energy doing mental maths. I reach for the calculator every time. *[it is actually 34 years but I didn’t have a calculator to hand when I first typed it]
So it is all relative.
Well, yes and no. No one here is talking about people who struggle to spell and no one is seeking perfection. What I am saying is that children should be taught the basic structure of their language. This is imperative. If we are to communicate effectively, we need commonly understood rules otherwise everyone might just as well make up their own language and no one will understand each other, which is what happens when people use text speak. I don’t hate it, I despise it and refuse to enable it. If someone cannot or will not show me the basic courtesy of communicating with me in English, then I will not do them the courtesy of wasting my time trying to decipher it.
When someone uses text speak, fails to punctuate, paragraph and capitalise, their missive no longer makes sense to the reader. Worse, it might mean something completely different – see above regarding Jack and the horse..
As for learning a foreign language; fine, a conversational class will get you through a holiday, but if you are planning to live and work there, then you will need to have a grasp of the structure before you get anywhere near fluency.
Sure, technology is wonderful. I use grammar and spell checkers all the time. But because I understand the rules, I also recognise when the technology has got it wrong, which it does, frequently – and that same technology has made text speak superfluous. The only people who now use it despite predictive text are buffoons who think it is cool. It is not, it is stupid, makes you look pig thick and it is not the evolution of language, it is a corruption.
And when you understand the rules, you can think about breaking them. When I write fiction in the first person, I will occasionally use dialect. As I’m writing colloquially, I am deliberately breaking the rules, but I do so just enough to give the narrator a voice but not so much that meaning is lost.
So, yes, I stand by my point – the teaching of language properly is the teaching of an essential life skill. After all badly written CV will get you rejected before you even get a look in….