At 12.03 +0100 0-04-10, Martin Owen scrobe:
>There is therfore a tension between the language right of an individual to
>morph language in whatever way they desire, and the right of a wider
>community to expect a standard in language which ensures its reprodcution
>in successive generations. By and large our current approach to schooling
>is about that collective maintenance.
Ai, Martin! let's individualistically appropriate and morph the globalistic
languages like English, and let's collectively maintain standards for the
"little" languages that might otherwise be eroded.
Pedagogically, though, I would not be a hardliner (as you could all
probably guess) -- i.e. I think it's more important to get kids writing,
creative spelling and all, and to be careful about personal integrity when
guiding towards orthodox orthography and grammar... As I'm not actually
teaching these things, I haven't elaborated my position further than that.
And, Martin I do approve of your dyslectic and proud approach to writing
(tho I've got no idea about how bilingual your stance is in that respect).
best
Eva
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 23 2000 - 09:21:14 PDT