ID :
15341
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 17:55
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/15341
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Students from India and other former colonies better at English than the British, say lecturers
London, August 7 (PTI) Students from India and other former colonies have better English language skills compared to their local British counterparts, academics feel.
Many undergraduates in British universities have such low competence with
spelling, punctuation and grammar that despairing lecturers often spend time
teaching the basics of English to the English.
Lecturers say that international students from India and other former colonies
often have higher standards of basic English than their British colleagues in
the same classroom.
Some of the most common mistakes are in spelling, often using 'their' when
students mean 'there', 'who's' for 'whose', 'truely' for 'truly', 'occured' for
'occurred' and 'speach' for 'speech'.
An Indian-origin university lecturer told PTI that British students even in
their second year of degree study, use "atrocious" English language in their
assignments.
He said that he often found it challenging to figure out what students wanted
to express in English. International students, in contrast, had better English
language skills, he added.
English language standards have deteriorated to such an extent that one leading
academic has been forced to ignore common errors altogether.
Ken Smith, a senior lecturer in criminology at Bucks New University, told The
Daily Telegraph that many students failed to apply basic rules, such as 'i'
before 'e', except after 'c'. The words 'weird', 'seize', 'leisure' and
'neighbour' are regularly misspelt by students, he said.
Some universities have already extended courses by a year to give weak students
extra tuition in core subjects that they failed to pick up in the classroom.
Bernard Lamb, a Reader in genetics at Imperial College London, said those from
Singapore and Brunei made fewer mistakes in their work, despite speaking
English as a second language.
Many British students appear to have been through school without mastering
basic rules of grammar and punctuation, or having their errors corrected, he
said.
Writing in the Times Higher Education magazine, Smith said mistakes were now so
common that academics should simply accept them as "variants".
He wrote: "Teaching a large first-year course at a British university, I am fed
up with correcting my students' atrocious spelling. But why must we suffer?
Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct
the same mistakes year after year, I've got a better idea.
University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our
students most commonly misspell, he added.
Jack Bovill, chairman of The Spelling Society, said "All the data suggests that
there are more and more students at university level whose spelling is not up
to scratch. Universities are even finding they have masters-level students who
cannot spell."
Many undergraduates in British universities have such low competence with
spelling, punctuation and grammar that despairing lecturers often spend time
teaching the basics of English to the English.
Lecturers say that international students from India and other former colonies
often have higher standards of basic English than their British colleagues in
the same classroom.
Some of the most common mistakes are in spelling, often using 'their' when
students mean 'there', 'who's' for 'whose', 'truely' for 'truly', 'occured' for
'occurred' and 'speach' for 'speech'.
An Indian-origin university lecturer told PTI that British students even in
their second year of degree study, use "atrocious" English language in their
assignments.
He said that he often found it challenging to figure out what students wanted
to express in English. International students, in contrast, had better English
language skills, he added.
English language standards have deteriorated to such an extent that one leading
academic has been forced to ignore common errors altogether.
Ken Smith, a senior lecturer in criminology at Bucks New University, told The
Daily Telegraph that many students failed to apply basic rules, such as 'i'
before 'e', except after 'c'. The words 'weird', 'seize', 'leisure' and
'neighbour' are regularly misspelt by students, he said.
Some universities have already extended courses by a year to give weak students
extra tuition in core subjects that they failed to pick up in the classroom.
Bernard Lamb, a Reader in genetics at Imperial College London, said those from
Singapore and Brunei made fewer mistakes in their work, despite speaking
English as a second language.
Many British students appear to have been through school without mastering
basic rules of grammar and punctuation, or having their errors corrected, he
said.
Writing in the Times Higher Education magazine, Smith said mistakes were now so
common that academics should simply accept them as "variants".
He wrote: "Teaching a large first-year course at a British university, I am fed
up with correcting my students' atrocious spelling. But why must we suffer?
Instead of complaining about the state of the education system as we correct
the same mistakes year after year, I've got a better idea.
University teachers should simply accept as variant spelling those words our
students most commonly misspell, he added.
Jack Bovill, chairman of The Spelling Society, said "All the data suggests that
there are more and more students at university level whose spelling is not up
to scratch. Universities are even finding they have masters-level students who
cannot spell."
