reason for problem with english among student?

Answer 1

There are several reasons why there might be a perception - which I think is mostly false - that standards in English have slipped inthe USA over the last few years.

First, there are far more immigrants in the USA today than 25 years ago. Currently the USA has the largest proportion of people who are not native English speakers since the great immigration periods of 100 years ago. So, of course there are many people whose English skills are not the best.

Second, during the 1970s and 1980s the standards for teachers were very low and a lot of people entered teaching who were poorly qualified. I think this has reversed in recent years but there are still many of these marginally capable people in place in schools all over the country.

Third, when making comparisons, it is grossly unfair to compare today's students agains the students of 40 years ago. In my day, back in the 1960s, only about 10 -20% of HS kids ever attended college. Now it is closer to 60-70%. So we are comparing college kids in the 4th or 5th decile today against kids in the 1st decile 40 years ago. Of course, the old kids look better when you make that kind of comparison.

I was involved in a history project where we went to the museum and edited old diaries and letters from soldiers in the CIvil War, WW I and WWII - believe me, there were plenty of really bad writers in the old days! Some of them were so bad, you could hardly tell what they meant. Jane Austen has a couple comments in her novels where she makes fun of the poor writing skills of women in particular.

We've come a long way since those days!

Answer 2

America has allowed its young people to be "dumbed down" through popular culture. Whenever we allow misspellings, slang, and abbreviations to substitute for actual words, our students develop the an inability to distinguish and utilize proper English. I teach and am amazed at the number of college students who have poor spelling and grammatical skills. There is also the belief that as Americans, we need not know how to do anything other than "play the game" of success, rather than strive for true intelligence.