Back-to-basics English lessons for Australia

[Harold Schiffman]

 Forwarded From: edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu


Guardian



Back-to-basics English lessons for Australia



The teaching of grammar, punctuation and spelling is set to make a
comeback in Australian schools in a bid to reverse falling standards
of literacy.



The proposals, part of government plans to introduce a standardised
national curriculum in core subjects, could bring to an end more than
three decades of English teaching based on a literary approach and
reinstate the teaching of the basic structures of the English
language.



Among the recommendations is a proposal to teach reading and writing
using the phonics method, which helps children to identify
letter-sound combinations.



Full story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/nov/14/tefl-english-australia

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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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