Death of the English language

[derek kelly]

Another Americanism on the way, Schools are now teaching spelling, phonetically, a spokeswoman on the radio says that words like 'Bough' and 'enough' are confusing and make teaching the English language difficult.
how the F*ck did we learn to speak & spell our language. I think what they mean is that teachers are either not educated enough, or too lazy to teach kids to spell correctly, so looks like text speak (txt spk) is the future.

 

[roXXo]

Been done before Derek. You probably learnt English by using phonetics.

 

[gypsy]

and who went and taught him the silly accent then Roxxo?

 

[Wolfie]

feck yeah old hat, both my kids are being taught that way and have been since they started school 3yrs ago.

winds me up cause i had to learn phonetics to tell them how to spell,

 

[derek kelly]

Been done before Derek. You probably learnt English by using phonetics.

I was taught spelling, correctly none of this spelling 'Socks' as Sox. Bev & I spent several hours teaching our daughters how to spell, before they started at school, I am amazed at the number of so called educated people who fail to spell even the simplest of words correctly.

 

[bitontheside]

I was taught spelling, correctly none of this spelling 'Socks' as Sox. Bev & I spent several hours teaching our daughters how to spell, before they started at school, I am amazed at the number of so called educated people who fail to spell even the simplest of words correctly.

Spellchecker working then Derek?

 

[ianrobbo1]

I am crap at spelling, but feel that I should at least make the effort and TRY and spell correctly, 9 times out of 10 I use the spell checker on here prior to "sending" :dunno:
"Text speak" is just plain laziness and ignorance, and possibly only used as part of an "on going" joke by some that wouldn't normally be as ignorant!! :dunno:

 

[derek kelly]

Spellchecker working then Derek?

Don't need one mate, I was taught spelling before spellcheckers were invented, I was also taught Maths (or Math as the Americans say) before electronic calculators were popular.











But I am crap at Maths, must have had a bad teacher.

 

[roXXo]

Are kids really taught to spell socks, sox,.
Mine weren't.
You don't stop learning after leaving school. I am sure those of us of mature years are better spellers now because we have had more practice.
Why should certain words be spelt so strangely and differently from the way they are pronounced? Just because of mistakes or translaltions centuries ago.
All languages are dynamic and are constantly evolving, shouldn't spelling be the same.
Who is to say what is correct? Regional differences? The venacular, colloquialisms?
Just because a certain group of people spell a word in one particular way, does that mean everybody should spell it that way?
Is it really that important a part of communication as long as all parties understand what is being written?
Learning things by rote does not show intelligence, only a good memory.
Some of the most intelligent and educated people are bad spellers.

Lots of questions. Lots of answers, no doubt. But who is to say what is correct? Is there a definitive answer? Does it matter?

Discuss
:beer:

 

[marcella]

I am crap at spelling, but feel that I should at least make the effort and TRY and spell correctly, 9 times out of 10 I use the spell checker on here prior to "sending" :dunno:
"Text speak" is just plain laziness and ignorance, and possibly only used as part of an "on going" joke by some that wouldn't normally be as ignorant!! :dunno:

fuk of! wot wud u no bout hardwork den?:k

 

[derek kelly]

Are kids really taught to spell socks, sox,.
Mine weren't.
You don't stop learning after leaving school. I am sure those of us of mature years are better spellers now because we have had more practice.
Why should certain words be spelt so strangely and differently from the way they are pronounced? Just because of mistakes or translaltions centuries ago.
All languages are dynamic and are constantly evolving, shouldn't spelling be the same.
Who is to say what is correct? Regional differences? The venacular, colloquialisms?
Just because a certain group of people spell a word in one particular way, does that mean everybody should spell it that way?
Is it really that important a part of communication as long as all parties understand what is being written?
Learning things by rote does not show intelligence, only a good memory.
Some of the most intelligent and educated people are bad spellers.

Lots of questions. Lots of answers, no doubt. But who is to say what is correct? Is there a definitive answer? Does it matter?

Discuss
:beer:

I was using the Sox/socks as an example as that is exactly how they tried teaching my eldest daughter when she started school at Wrenthorpe, we went to pick her up from school and she was upset because we had taught her the correct spelling and the teacher was trying to teach her to spell as it sounds, we complained but didn't follow it through as we were moving to Gawthorpe, where she was taught the correct way, we later found out that Wakefield schools abandoned the Phoneticising.

 

[roXXo]

Are we getting mixed up between learning to read and spelling.

When a child comes across the word "enough" for example, for the first time. How on earth does it know how to pronounce it? Doesn't phonetics help then?

 

[Stevebrooke]

I sometimes sneak a look at the teenager's homework and am shocked to see that his spelling mistakes are not corrected. If I spot one I point it out to him, he spells it correctly for me, and I hope he doesn't mis-spell the word again.

I don't use the site's spell checker. I proof read the post before I submit and if there's anything I'm not sure about I look it up in a dictionary.

 

[derek kelly]

Are we getting mixed up between learning to read and spelling.

When a child comes across the word "enough" for example, for the first time. How on earth does it know how to pronounce it? Doesn't phonetics help then?

To read properly you must be able to spell properly.
the way I was taught (or should that be tort?) was through repetition any words I found difficult I was told the word and made to repeat it over & over so the next time I came across it I knew what it was.

 

[roXXo]

We used to have vocabulary books. Smallish about 6" x 4".

You had about a dozen words on a page and you learned them ready for the spelling test. That way you increased your vocabulary, learned how to spell and built up a reference book.