LL-L "Language politics' 2007.02.24 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 24 February 2007 - Volume 01

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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Language politics' 2007.02.23 (01) [E]

> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com >
> Subject: Language politics
>
> Which reminds me of what I heard about Britain's latest law
> (proposal?) according to which immigrants are to be tested for English
> proficiency.  I thought that the United Kingdom (like the USA) doesn't
> have an official language.  If so, how can such a law be enacted?

I remember reading about this recently. As I understood it it wasn't a
law and wasn't necessarily about immigrants (although as far as I can
see they'd be bound to come under the same umbrella as anyone else).

The proposals were trying to address the problem that too many people,
but particularly those in the Asian communities in the UK (which doesn't
mean immigrants), don't have the necessary English language skills to
compete with those in mainly English-language communities when it comes
to getting a job - ie writing job applications and going for interviews.

It's worth remembering that any Scot or Gael and most Welsh speakers
cope with English very well in professional situations, even if they
don't speak the language outside of the workplace.

This is because in Scottish schools English is taken seriously as
subject, whereas in English schools the language tends to be taken for
granted (I don't really know about Welsh schools). My personal
observation from working in England is that English people from purely
English-speaking backgrounds are very weak on the grammar of the
language beyond whatever they're used to speaking (unless, of course,
they're big readers - this is the sort of thing that doesn't always need
to be taught). Whereas I, as a Scot who never spoke English outside of
school til I actually left school have such a strong theoretical
background in the language that I constantly correct English people's
grammar and expression when reviewing their work (again, such people
will be clueless when it comes to discussing literature!).

Imagine, then, the difficulties faced by someone in the Asian
communities in England, who don't speak English at home and get a
negligent education in it at school. I think this is what's being
addressed, although it would be better if the answer was to teach
everybody English, not just those considered at risk.

Of course there are lots of brilliant Asian doctors, lawyers and so on
in the UK, but it would be a mistake to forget about the average
students just because I was always more used to meeting the star pupils
whenever I needed stitching together again after rugby  :)

I'd be willing to accept that this might be the wrong attitude and that
people shouldn't need one particular language to get the job they want.
But if raising people's English skills isn't the answer then what is?
You have to show how someone who's only really good at Urdu (say) can
compete with someone brought up speaking English. And that's not talking
about the bright sparks, or those who have total determination to
succeed, or manage to find a niche working for the minority community -
the solution really has to include everybody.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

•

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