Dumbing down English

10th June 2005, 1:00am

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Dumbing down English

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/dumbing-down-english
* So Masha Bell (Letters, TES, May 27) wants to dumb down our beautiful written language because some children find it hard to spell. Utter tosh!

Think of the disruption, and the vitriol from the millions worldwide who read, write and revere English as it is.

It would be much better to spend more time and expertise on ensuring that children are taught our spelling code systematically, moving from simple to complex spellings in a structured way. The code lends itself quite easily to this method and most children “get it” eventually.

As for Finnish pupils, their language may be easy to master, but I presume most go on to grapple successfully with English as it is used universally.

We should not make everything easy for our children. The take-up of foreign languages is falling. Let us not compound this by suggesting to children that their own written language is too hard to master.

A Hallett (Mrs)

8 Lighthorne Rd

Solihull

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