EduNet® for education, lifelong learning and training

The decision taken some years ago to drop languages from mainstream secondary education has to be seen as suspect.  Language teaching has two purposes. Firstly, it gives the student a second language that they can use in a verbal or written sense and secondly, so that the student can better understand the structure and syntax of their own language and have a framework for learning any future language. Stopping language training and downgrading the importance of English grammar puts the English candidate at a distinct disadvantage against other Europeans.

Language learning also has to be seen in passive and active modes, broadly equivalent to comprehension and speaking.  Recently, on one of the burgeoning range of television quiz shows, there was a question asking for the English meaning of the Latin phrase cave canem, and giving four possible choices, comprising 'welcome', 'beware of the dog', 'keep off the grass' and a fourth that I have forgotten. The contestants did not know and, very sadly, failed to work it out. You do not need a grounding in Latin to see that canem is more likely to relate to dogs (canines) than grass and that the cave bit is like caveat emptor which they almost certainly knew as buyer beware.

This has to be a fundamental teaching problem because it did not call for real language knowledge but the ability to think and chose which of the options was most likely to match the Latin phrase.

In recent years, too much emphasis has been placed on learning facts and ticking boxes without any thought for rationalisation and logical thought.  Unless we re-address this problem, we will end up with a large proportion of the population that are unable to think effectively.