Sponsor's Message

A mis-spelt word, incorrect verb or even misplaced semi-colon can cause the program containing them to fail in a sometimes subtle but often catastrophic manner.

From this it becomes obvious that a thorough understanding of any language and discipline in its use are essential to turning ideas into actions.

Well the same is true of the language we all speak and write here in New Zealand: English.

Unfortunately, it seems that standards have slipped enormously in recent times and, based on simple observation, the levels of literacy are declining quite steeply.

One only has to listen to and watch many of the teenage school pupils around the place to realise that they have a decidedly limited vocabulary, little grasp of correct grammar, and a rather limited ability to spell.

If you watched the documentary on TV last night about the four quads who were farmed out to foster families then you'll probably know what I'm talking about. These 15-year-old boys, and some of their foster parents, displayed a disappointingly low level of literacy, With all the resources we spend on education, that is a massive shame and waste of their potential.

The awful levels of literacy we see today would probably perplex anyone who, just 20 years ago, was able to look a couple of decades into the future.

Now have your say Got something to say about today's column, or want to see what others think?  Visit The Forums While you're here, why not visit the Aardvark Hall of Shame and perhaps make your own nomination.

One of the big promises that the microcomputer offered was that of boosting our ability to educate children.

The dream was that kids could work at their own pace in front of a computer, guided by software that would automatically focus on a child's areas of weakness with infinite patience.

In the 1980s, technology was supposed to be a powerful tool in educating future generations -- but I believe it has become exactly the opposite.

It all started out quite well, with skillful use of the English language being critical to interfacing with most programs, which were text-based at the time.

But move forward to today and you'll find that most kids use computers as a platform for highly graphical games where one only has to point and shoot to play.

And the technology which has had the worst effect on our kids literacy is the SMS text message. The cryptic dialect of English that makes up the average teenager's TXT message is often devoid of vowels, commas, full-stops, apostrophes and any other form of syntactical correctness.

Now in a way this is extremely interesting, for it represents a rapid evolution of the language to maximise the use of new technology and that's a positive thing. However, the downside is that this shorthand-slang version of English seems to be leaking into everyday prose -- and that's a bad thing.

Remember how I began by talking about how essential it is that a language (to be useful) is relatively precise and well structured?

Well English is a language that is already littered with far to many ambiguities and inconsistencies -- gutting it of vowels and punctuation while ignoring most of the rules of grammar only makes the situation worse.

How is the keen young university entrant going to cope with the demands of writing reports or performing research when they lack the skills needed to express their thoughts or results in clear, precise, unambiguous terms?

Perhaps it's time we gave up on English and switched to Te Reo? Or could it be that we've been pouring far to much public money into promoting and teaching Te Reo at the cost of maintaining adequate levels of English literacy?

This shure R a wrryng trnd aint it?

And before I'm castigated for my own errors, remember that I write this column at breakneck pace each morning and have no time for propper proof-reading :-)

Or at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

If you feel that this is a good thing and/or you hold a "geniune affection" for yours truly -- then you are welcome to gift me some money using the buttons provided. In gifting this money you accept that no goods, service or other consideration is offered, provided, accepted or anticipated in return. Just click on the button to gift whatever you can afford. NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally gift more than what you were intending :-)

Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats, bouquets or news tip-offs. If you'd like to contact me directly, please this form. If you're happy for me to republish your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.

Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights are also invited to contact me.

Just add a couple of lines of JavaScript to your pages and you can get a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated each and every week-day.

Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using the RSS format. More details can be found here.

Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and have any problems.

Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's Linking Policy.

Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it now!