[etni] faulty logic

From: David Reid <reidnomad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 08:59:07 +0200
Hi, all,


In the article cited here on September 28



http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/arabs-speak-hebrew-1.315872



there are some gaps in logic which invalidate its overall conclusions. I
pick out just a few; there are others.



?This gap [between students at Arabic-language schools and those at schools
where the language of instruction is Hebrew or English], linked to the
language's sad situation, exists in the entire Arab world.?



The article attributes this to the difficulty in learning Arabic. The
argument is faulty. No correlation appears between academic achievement and
the difficulty of a language.  Although there is very little quantification
of the concept of difficulty of a language, it would not be hard to agree
that Chinese is more difficult than Bahasa Indonesian, yet the academic
achievements of the Chinese dwarf those of the Indonesians. German is harder
than Spanish, yet the academic achievements of the Germans towered over that
of the Spanish-speaking world before the war, and remains stronger even
today.  The examples of the Chinese and the Germans help to illustrate that
the article?s argument of the difference between the home dialect and the
language of instruction in the case of Arabic is a red herring: the same is
true for most of the Chinese and German populations.



?It's not by chance that not one Arab university is among the world's best
500 universities.?



This is correct, it is not by chance. However, the article simplifies the
many socio-political factors behind this problem down to a single one. The
author?s simplistic approach forgets that the Arab world?s academic
achievements have risen and fallen in different historical epochs as the
socio-political factors changed. There were times during which Arabic
academic institutions were among the world?s tops, and Arabic was being used
as a language of instruction during these peaks.



?The Arabic-language media, especially radio and television, ?. perpetuate
linguistic superficiality that leads to intellectual superficiality.?



Since the article is comparing the academic achievements of different
language groups, this is a strange argument.  Regard the linguistic
superficiality of the American media with the academic achievements of the
American universities. The Italians are much more careful with their
language than are the Americans, but this has not led to an Italian
superiority in over-all academic achievement even at the secondary level.
(See PISA statistics). Analyses in both countries of the problems find a lot
of other factors for the fact that both of these countries underperform than
the influence of the media.



?Arab students had the lowest average grade in Hebrew language.?



This result appears to be extrapolated in the article to the general
academic achievement of the students. However, it did not cite the results
of the average grades of the subjects tested in Arabic. The implication that
the language difficulties leads to other academic difficulties is unfounded
by the information cited in this article. By the way, how did the Hebrew
students do in Arabic?



?Despite all this, an educational revolution is possible here.?



Yes, but not the one that the author proposes. The schools with Hebrew as
the language of instruction have been declining in quality. Apparently there
is a need to concentrate efforts on investigating the reasons for this
decline, and from there instigate a revolution for all schools in Israel,
whatever the language of instruction. One would hope that such an analysis
would use a logic which is less superficial than that used in this article.



David Reid

----------------------------------------------- 
** Etni homepage - http://www.etni.org 
** for help - ask@xxxxxxxx **
** to post to this list - etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **
-----------------------------------------------
[etni] faulty logic

Other related posts:
