[etni] interesting article about teaching Englsih

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*Watchdog launches review of English teaching*

*Polly Curtis, education correspondent
Wednesday February 23, 2005*

The exams watchdog, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, will 
today launch the first major review of the way English is taught in 
schools.

Under the brand name English 21, the review will seek to establish what 
the subject should include in the 21st century.

Speaking at the launch at the Royal Society of Arts, the chief executive 
of the QCA, Ken Boston, is expected to say: "This is a genuine look 
forward, seeking to explore the future directions for English in years 
to come. We know that in any discussion about English teaching we will 
hear strong views that are firmly held. We want those voices to be 
heard. "Children starting school this year will be nearing the end of 
their schooling by 2015. English 21 will look at how English might need 
to change to embrace new thinking, priorities and technologies."

Discussion areas will include how to make the curriculum more inspiring, 
how much emphasis there should be on the "nuts and bolts" of language, 
the impact of the digital age on reading and writing, the significance 
of English as a global language, what the basics should be for all 
children to study and what kinds of assessment would be best for 
students in 2015.

The Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, welcomed the initiative. "English 21 
starts a conversation to find the answers - a vital conversation, which 
aims to conclude with a set of practical decisions.

"As it begins, it would be counter-productive to suggest where it might 
end: the whole point is that is should range freely, think the 
seldom-thought, be bold. But we can be clear that if it doesn't mix 
idealism with nuts and bolts, then it will have missed a golden 
opportunity, and denied English the chance to fulfil its proper 
responsibilities - which are to strike a complex balance between 
functional values (how to communicate), literary values (how to enjoy 
and understand writing), human values (how to create), and philosophical 
values (how to get wisdom)."

*Teaching of English faces review*

*Rebecca Smithers and Matthew Taylor
Tuesday February 15, 2005
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>*

The way children are taught English and history is to come under renewed 
scrutiny amid concerns that much of the curriculum is irrelevant and out 
of date, it emerged yesterday.

The Guardian has learned that a review of the English curriculum will be 
launched by the government next week, reflecting growing anxiety that 
what youngsters are learning in both primary and secondary schools fails 
to reflect the needs of the 21st century.

It has also emerged that a report from the Historical Association 
commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills, due to be 
published next month, will recommend an overhaul of the way history is 
taught in secondary schools which it says is excessively narrow with a 
"heavy concentration on Hitler."

The inquiry into English - the first substantive one for 15 years - will 
look at teaching and assessment methods, examining everything from the 
effectiveness of "phonics" (sounding out individual letters) to the use 
of computer games in the classroom.

It is expected to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the national 
literacy strategy, which has been compulsory in primary schools since 1998.

Led by the government's exam regulator, the Qualifications and 
Curriculum Authority (QCA), its findings will be influential because 
they will feed into the government's parallel work on revising the 
education system for the 14-19 age-group.

Last night a QCA spokesman confirmed that the study would be launched 
next week. "We want to explore where we are now and where we should be 
heading."

The review of English comes amid a growing debate about the teaching of 
literacy. Last week the government was under pressure to withdraw a key 
part of compulsory literacy lessons for primary schools after new 
evidence that it could be hampering progress in reading and writing, 
particularly among boys.

A new study found that children taught to read and write using intensive 
phonics - which is not the government-approved method - are typically 
three years ahead of their peers by the end of primary school.

The results of the seven-year pilot study into "synthetic phonics" by 
academics at Hull and St Andrews universities revealed that 11-year-olds 
who learned skills using this technique made faster progress in reading 
and spelling than children taught using conventional methods.

At the same time, a government-funded study published last month argued 
that teaching children grammar does not help them to learn how to write.

The QCA review - dubbed English 21 - will look at four key areas; 
assessment; information and communication technology, English for the 
14-19 age group; English for up to 14. Its findings will be submitted by 
July with a view to the report being produced in September.

The Historical Association's report, commissioned by the former 
education secretary Charles Clarke, claims that although history is well 
taught, the curriculum and exam questions have "serious flaws".

It claimed the system leaves pupils with a poor sense of "chronological 
context" with topics like the development of parliament or the British 
Empire often neglected. It called for an overhaul of the way history is 
taught to 14-19-year-olds.





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