What happened to spelling. I'm appalled of the abysmally low standard, they even have a spelling check.?

Question

English is such a wonderful language and even though I realise and encourage it to evolve please teach grammar in schools. We used to have a spelling test every Friday afternoon. It lasted 10 minutes, it was no big deal and we got our results before we went home. The teachers were very helpful and my generation (54 years old, good heavens!) are - on average - good spellers. Mind you there are some, even very intelligent people, who just cannot spell, my sister for example but when she retired she was head of the computer departemnt in the YEB. Please teachers, before you attempt to teach children how to read and write brush up on your own spelling, it is very important and often a first impression is based on (when applying for a job) presentation, spelling and grammar. So simple so why make it sound like such a big deal?

Answer 1

HERE HERE?? or
HEAR HEAR!!



lol

Answer 2

Spell Appalled

Answer 3

It is a great shame that successive governments have not addressed this state of affairs. Some time ago it was deemed that self expression was the greatest thing and that spelling and good English was secondary. Alas we are now reaping the benefits of this stupid edict. Because of the bad spelling and English I find some questions asked on this forum impossible to understand. By the look of many answers a lot of other people find the same difficulty and post up some pretty sarcastic remarks to the questioners. I always use the spell check when I answer and feel a sense of pride when no corrections are necessary.
Happy New Year.

Answer 4

Yes, I agree with you. I am of the same generation, though a couple less years! But I don't think that you can leave it all up to the teachers, parents have to take responsibility but the trouble is that I often find that they can't spell, either.

I think that a lot of the problem is text-messaging - and the symbols available encourage bad spelling. You must also look at a lot of the shop signs! Kwik-Fit for example!

I taught my children to do crosswords - if they couldn't spell they wouldn't be able to finish the puzzle!

I have to say, though, my brother is a brilliant mathematician - and he can't spell to save his life - and we went to the same schools.

I am afraid that while much of it does come down to ability in a particular area such as art or the sciences, a lot of youngsters simply don't want to spell correctly as it isn't fashionable.

Answer 5

It's plain laziness and the fact that there are really a bazillion of bad spellers out there.

Here in the Philippines, internet cafes are still pretty common. So when I type one letter on Google Search to see what other users look for in the internet, I cringe in my seat and laugh out loud at the spelling inanities of these poor, bad spellers. Under AVRIL LAVIGNE, I get these typed keywords: "aubry labin", "april luvin", "avryl levine", and on and on...

This generation is really in for a hard time because Google and other search engines will not bow down to their uniquely infantile spelling.

Imagine the amount of time they waste just trying to find what they want through Google. There's divine justice after all. Read Ray Bradbury's "The Butterfly Effect" and be afraid. Be very afraid.

2 Jan 2007; 2:10pm, Philippines

Answer 6

I agree with Decoy Duck, many of the problem spellers are kids and even adults who are just careless. Foreign speakers, people who have trouble typing, or people with poor spelling skills can use spellcheck if they want to. However, there are lots of people who don't want to bother taking the time to spellcheck their message or even read it through once they've written it. Some teens use a sort of internet dialect involving short words like "g8," "ppl," "ur," "btw," "lol," etc. This not only looks terrible in inappropriate situations like Y!A, it discourages from using spellcheck as it will mark words that they know are "spelled" properly.

I think this is not so much a case of learning to spell as it is a case of there being a certain level of apathy and carelessness in our society. What we should focus on is teaching our children to take pride in every little thing they do, and see each of their actions as something that expresses and represents themselves. They need to learn the value of doing the littlest things to the best of their ability. They need to learn to have right mindfulness.

Sadly, this is much more difficult to teach than grammar and spelling.

Answer 7

For the life of me, I cannot understand why you are placing the lack of good spelling on the teachers. If you are referring to this forum, you need to understand that people from all over the world pose questions here and English is less than a secondary language to them. A great deal of the posers are pre-teen and teenagers who either don't take the time to spell correctly or do not have the grammatical experience to do so as of yet. Spell check is a wonderful tool to utilize but it is not infallible; words can be corrected in spelling only if used in the proper aspect.
Tolerance, my friend - tolerance. We are all still in the learning process.

Answer 8

I agree with what you say but, with the greatest of respect the grammar in your title is, itself, appalling:-

'What happened to spelling. I'm appalled BY (not of) the abysmally low standard. EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE A SPELL CHECK (not as you put it)

'and even though I realise and encourage it to evolve' This phrase doesn't really make any sense

'Mind you there are some, even very intelligent people, who just cannot spell, my sister for example but when she retired she was head of the computer departemnt in the'

You have not used commas correctly - should be ..there are some, even very intelligent, people.

Sould be (IMHO) a . (full stop, period) after 'example', delete 'but' and start a new sentence.

You have misspelled department.

YEB - what does this mean?

Next sentence needs a comma after 'read and write' End the sentence after 'own spelling'

Really, the parable of motes and beams comes to mind.

Sorry to be picky.

Answer 9

When I Took An Exam,(Many Moons Ago)
If You Spelt Something Wrong You Were Marked Down, Or Fail The Question.

Answer 10

The problem with the spell check is that it does not take a word in context and whilst a word may be spelt correctly it can make no sense in the context of the sentence!

For example:
Their, there, they're
You're, your
Hear, here
Two, too, to
Sail, sale
etc etc etc

And for the young chap, presumably from America, who says that you have spelt realise wrongly....that is how it is spelt in the UK...we use "ise" not "ize"...and yes, spelt is a word as is whilst!

Answer 11

I must say I am frequently shocked by the abysmal spelling (even of simple words) exhibited on yahoo answers. Even if people cannot spell, they might at least use the spell checking facility before they submit their question or answer. It only takes a moment and it might save them from looking silly.