What sort of English should Indians learn?

What kind of English should Indians be learning? Purists argue that language skills must meet international standards, but experience tells us that local languages will add flavour to the mix. The result may be fine for the street, but when it comes to the workplace, it is just not good enough.

The Guardian

Sexually explicit dictionary banned in schools

Dictionaries have been removed from classrooms in southern California schools after a parent complained about a child reading the definition for "oral sex".

The Guardian

Haiti earthquake: BBC starts Creole broadcasts

The BBC has started broadcasting radio programmes in Creole to earthquake-stricken Haiti.

The programmes are to provide much-needed information to Haitians struggling to deal with the effects of last week's devastating disaster.

Connexion Haiti is a 20-minute daily show, broadcast from 0910 to 0930 local time (1410 to 1430 GMT) on FM in Haiti's six largest towns and cities.

Foreign languages becoming 'privilege of elite'

Foreign language lessons are becoming the privilege of elite and wealthy children, a Government adviser warns today as figures showed another drop in teenagers studying the subject.

The blame was pinned on the over-cluttered curriculum which offers myriad choices at the age of 14, including the new diploma, and confuses pupils by pulling them in too many directions.

Just two fifths of schools started teaching a modern language GCSE to more than half of their Year 10 pupils this year, down from 45 per cent last year and 78 per cent in 2003.

The Times

More state secondary schools are teaching Spanish than German for the first time

Almost two-thirds – 62% – of state secondary schools are offering Spanish GCSE this year, compared with 55% offering German, a study by Cilt, the national centre for languages, found.

The Guardian

Phone texting 'helps pupils to spell'

Children who regularly use the abbreviated language of text messages are actually improving their ability to spell correctly, research suggests.

A study of eight to 12 year olds found that rather than damaging reading and writing, "text speak" is associated with strong literacy skills.

BBC website

Radio advert banned for implying Germans are tyrants

A radio advertisement has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for implying Germans are tyrants.

Complaints were upheld about a Reed recruitment website commercial, which had an angry boss speaking in German.

The ASA said it could cause serious offence to some listeners and was found to be offensive because it used a negative stereotype.


BBC news