Teachers Imperil Language, British Report Maintains

LONDON — In the homeland of the English language, teachers are forsaking instruction of proper English and endangering its future, a report published Thursday said.

The Center for Policy Studies, a conservative think tank, warned that because of modern teaching methods, “when children leave English schools today, few are able to speak and write English correctly.”

The report blamed this on a new teaching “orthodoxy,” backed by official educational policy, that holds “it as a conceptual error to speak of ‘correct’ English.”

The report charged that today’s teachers place little emphasis on “grammatical correctness” and have forsaken stressing “standard English” over Cockney or other regional and ethnic dialects.

At present, the report said, “even among candidates for admission to the best universities . . . only a minority can spell with consistent correctness, use punctuation properly and construct complex sentences grammatically.”

The report warned of dangers posed to Britain’s future by the erosion in language skills, and called for officials to rethink teaching policies.