A leading British educationalist has warned of the dangers of "back to basics" campaigns which reduce the teaching of language to "abstract formulae and sterile exercises".
Prof Brian Cox, the former chairman of the National Curriculum English Working Group, said he approved of the British government's emphasis on literacy, "but I am deeply critical of the reduction of literacy to the learning of rules. Children must want to express themselves, to enjoy communication; otherwise they will never develop their true potential."
Dr Cox, who was professor of English at Manchester University for 17 years, said he had no sympathy with those "who believe children should be left to speak their own dialects and not introduced to Standard English. Standard English is the language of higher education and politics. To leave children without this ability is to condemn them to the ghetto".
Dr Cox was delivering the opening paper at an Irish Times-sponsored conference in UCD on the teaching of English organised by the Educational Studies Association of Ireland.
