Robert Yates wrote:

>Yvonne,
>
>The formatting of your post with examples confused me.
>
>I would very much like to read your analysis of why you consider these
>examples of a language deficit.
>  
>
I expect the problem is with the term "language deficit". I understood 
that Yvonne meant some deviation from the standardized usage and grammar 
reflected in most of teaching material currently used. Teachers, and 
especially English teachers, are the primary models students have for 
correct English, and if teachers don't present reliable models for 
students then the English that they teach must been seen as an abstract 
academic language. Some students will master it but most will regard it 
as useless and irrelevant.

I live in the Arab world. The problem here is more visible, perhaps 
because of the legendary "diglossia" of the Arabs. Most K-12 Arabic 
instructors, and also many at university level, are not skilled speakers 
of the standard Arabic dialect that they teach, so written Arabic has in 
most places become an exclusively literary language. This obviously gets 
in the way of reading and is probably one of the major factors behind 
the rise in functional illiteracy among otherwise well-educated 
people.The difficulties begin in primary school where pupils who are 
only just learning to read and write are confronted with words and 
structures that are, for them, completely foreign and incomprehensible. 
Highly negative attitudes toward local dialects as "corrupt" prevent any 
attempt at translation.

These are the kinds of problems that English speaking people probably 
want to avoid, and if the Arabs could not avoid them simply by teaching 
"grammar" to children, you will not succeed in this way either. The 
fossilized grammar of Arabic does not reflect the way people speak, or 
indeed think. Academic Arabic is elitist and incomprehensible to most 
people, who, being set adrift with no literary life of their own, must 
themelves suffer from a certain "language deficit", being now unable to 
express their thoughts or feelings effectively. They do not understand 
one another and cannot communicate with others, and this effects every 
sphere of public life, causing great problems in politics in particular.

Yvonne's term, "language deficit" is probably an unfortunate choice, but 
this failure to understand what she means is illustrative of what will 
happen if people fail to get a grip on their language and how it is 
taught and used.

Omar

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