English In Today`s Schools

English in today`s schools

In many respects, today`s children are the most "educated" in the history of the world. Most will spend more than fifteen years in education and most will expect to go to university and emerge with some sort of higher qualification. Yet anyone who has spent much time around the young will find that their command of English is rather shaky. This is not confined merely to their knowledge of the finer points of Shakespeare, or of the gerundive, but to their command of English in general. Working with GCSE students preparing for their exams, I found with all of them that they were unable to complete the rather simple reading tasks set for them. They were unable to analyse a text comprehensively, nevermind summarise its points succinctly. They were universally weak.

In many respects, the new GCSE exams in English have raised the bar for pupils. In particular, the tasks allotted for assessing their reading skills are, if not necessarily more challenging, much more comprehensive. They must also answer them under exam conditions. At the time of writing, we are still waiting for the first set of results for the new (9-1) GCSE, but my feeling is that students will have foundered in this area. The curriculum and widespread teaching practice neglects the importance of reading and reading comprehension in moulding their command of our language. Parents and teachers should thus place greater emphasis on these skills. It is always gratifying to find my students perform much better than their peers. We should not doubt pupils` intelligence or their potential for work, merely the diet of reading and analysis (or lack thereof) they have been fed in recent years.

This has important consequences for the GCSE in English Literature. Students who are unable to analyse previously unseen texts in the language GCSE are likely to do little better when the texts are Shakespeare or unseen poetry. I have found many very able pupils unable to dissect a sonnet or poem independently, having been spoon fed for too long. Of similar importance is children`s relative weakness in persuasive writing. While most are fairly good at creative writing and perform in line with their ability, many lack the knowledge and practice to approach this task. Persuasive writing requires a thorough introduction to good examples and their analysis, which I incorporate into my teaching and tutoring.

Students` performance at GCSE, whether we like to admit it or no, is normally a fair indicator of their previous education and effort. The poor diet many students face in our schools deprives them of what is perhaps the most critical skills for their academic and professional lives. Tackled early, good skills in English equip them to succeed in these spheres of life. Neglected, years of their lives may go to waste due to near-illiteracy.