Re: OT-ish: txt - Could it replace Standard Written English?

En réponse à John Cowan <cowan@...>:

>
> Learning writing top-down, content before form, is a very powerful
> technique with all human beings.
>
"Top-down" looks suspiciously like the French "méthode globale" which has been
used since my generation to teach writing to children. If it's the same, then I
really can't agree with you. The method which was used before was really
a "bottom-up" method and worked extremely well: my mother for instance,
although she stopped going to school at the age of 12, can read and write
better than most of my former fellow students of university level! And she is
not afraid to read or write at all, on the contrary! On the other hand, in my
generation I'm an exception as being someone who can write correctly and
clearly and who loves to read (and an exception as one who managed to learn a
foreign language). The "méthode globale" has already ruined a generation of
children who hardly have any idea how to read and write French, and it's on its
way to ruin a second generation. Attempts to reintroduce the former method have
all proven successful, but were blocked by political choice (this is a very
sensitive issue in French education, hence our important experience in it which
allows me to give a definite conclusion about it). Tens of studies about the
results of a "bottom-up" and a "top-down" way of teaching writing have been
carried on in France, and have all shown without exception that the "top-down"
method produces many more functionally illiterate people than the "bottom-up"
method, while the "bottom-up" method always succeeds *without hindering
people's creativity or will to read and write*.

And if you want another proof, here it is: the level of functional illiteracy
among people of my parents' generation in France (those who followed the
previous method to learn to write) is less than 5%. On the other hand, the
level of illiteracy in people of my generation is about 15% and the same level
is found currently among children who arrive in High School. The level is only
slightly higher in poor suburbs, showing that it is *not* a social problem. It
is really a problem linked to the method of learning.

Sorry for ranting, but I just find it hard to believe that there are still
people advocating a top-down method for learning writing for children, when so
many studies and years of experience have proven that it's not successful and
actually creates more functional illiteracy.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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