In June, oppositions to secondary school teacher were called, FP or language school. 200,000 people showed up to cover 20,698 places, and yet, 9.6% of them were deserted.
One of the main reasons that is shuffled to explain this collapse it is the large number of spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes that the applicants committed in the official exams.
This has blown up alarms on what kind of education are we giving to young people in charge of teaching teenagers, and what is failing to have reached this point. We ask the language experts If high school students commit spelling mistakes before arriving at the University and why.
In Babies and more, do your children's teachers have misspellings?41% of Spanish youth from 25 to 34 years old in Spain have higher studies, according to the last 2017 OECD study (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). A percentage very similar to the rest of the European countries (43% on average in the OECD and 40% in the European Union).
However, the latest oppositions reflect that their level of communication does not meet the expectations expected of a university degree. What are we doing wrong? Why is your spelling level so low?
It is clear that he cannot generalize and affirm that young aspiring teachers misuse our language, but as the well-known saying goes "If the river makes a noise its because water is running".
Lola Cézar, Professor of Language and Literature at the Valdehierro Secondary Education Institute (Madridejos, Toledo) for 32 years, says it is very difficult to point out the exact reasons that may have led us to this point, since they are a cluster of many circumstances . Still, he explains some that, in his opinion, set a trend.
Reasons that explain the increase in spelling mistakes
1. An educational system which allows young people to access Baccalaureate or pass the course, without passing the language course.
According to the current model, a boy can not repeat more than twice in the ESO so he passes the course even with all subjects suspended. Nor does it have to pass everything to finish the ESO and get to Baccalaureate, a mandatory step to go to the University: it can happen with Language or Mathematics and another subject.
The same EBAU allows that when doing the average between the subjects (without needing to pass them), a student can suspend Language and enter the University.
2. Lack of base from Primary
The language teacher explains that there are children who reach 1º of ESO knowing how to write and express themselves very well, but that is not always the case.
"It is in Primary when you have to insist with the spelling and grammar rules, when you have to make dictations (which are hardly used anymore), strive to learn to write and read correctly."
This explains and adds that "In the institute they can be reinforced, but they have to arrive with a base that unfortunately they don't always bring."
3. The effects of the crisis
This teacher refers to the increase in ratios and the decrease in the number of teachers. If you have 36 students per classroom and more classes you can not do as many practices or jobs as when you had less, because there is no time to correct. And learning suffers. It is one of the conclusions of a teacher with more than 30 years of experience.
4. The discredit of the teachers of Teaching
Lola explains that before teachers were almost gods, with a great vocation to teach:
Today, however, many of those who study this degree do so by not having a note for another career, it is like a sack where everyone enters. In addition, as there are many universities where to study it, there is competition and the requirements to attract students are lowered.
But he also points out that it cannot be generalized, because there are very good teachers and it shows when children arrive well prepared or not.
5. The lack of assessment of Spanish
Teenagers and young people (and even ourselves) have the idea that all English words and expressions sound better than our language, although we can say the same and even more correctly. So anglicisms are a reality.
It is a basic error, says the professor, since we are the only ones who are not aware of the importance of Spanish in the world: "In France, for example, it was fined to write the name of a business badly."
6. Little or no penalty for faults
It's a struggle of the language teachers, explains Lola, "That we all use the same standard, get serious about mistakes, even in all subjects."
He explains that in his center they qualify the same as in the EBAU (Baccalaureate Evaluation for University Access): up to two absences nothing happens and every three, one point remains to the exam. Although he recognizes that in the early years of ESO we are more permissive. Even so:
"I am quite picky about mistakes and I can leave a student with spelling only for September, even if I have passed the knowledge."
7. Excess Internet publications
This teacher explains that the world of our young people is very visual, and that it is very difficult for them to abstract themselves in reading a book, when they have access to all videos at a single click.
It is also sad that they have as a model everything that is published on the Internet by their favorite bloggers, who are the first to write regardless of grammar and spelling rules. And he adds that:
"The editing facilities have also caused anyone to publish a book without any correction, and they are called writers, with works that reach our teenagers."
8. Use of social networks
Nor do they help to be aware of the use of the language, text editing programs with spell checkers or the abbreviations of social networks such as whatsapp. In fact, some qualifiers of the last oppositions reported that the applicants had used abbreviations and expressions of this type.
A study by the University of Alcalá de Henares on the subject showed that 88.5% of young people between 14 and 30 do not take care of their writing when they communicate on social networks or when writing on mobile devices.
In addition, around 20% of ESO students say they write as they speak, a percentage that drops to 9% among university students.
9. Low demand in the oppositions to professor
Lola Cézar explains that the last time he was in an Opposition Court, only spelling mistakes were penalized:
"I do not understand. We should be blunt with those who are going to teach our language, as was the case before in the Philology career: with a foul, suspense."
How to help teenagers with spelling?
Lola Cézar admits that she does not give up, much less, and that she and the rest of the language teachers put all the means at their disposal to help their students write and express themselves correctly.
In 1º of the ESO, he still admits that he makes some dictation or reinforces some norm.
But above all, he works with the Ideovisual Spelling Method, because it is clear that copying the mistakes hundreds of times will not make a young man not commit them again, but he will draw the letter in discord in a coherent way. These are two examples made by his students.
He also encourages reading, with weekly activities in the center's library and reading hours in class.
Penalizes faults, because he believes that to pass his subject it is essential to know how to write and speak correctly.
In Babies and moreOnce songs and tricks for children to learn spelling in a fun way- Also writings and writings to help them with the expression.
Even so, he recognizes that all these initiatives are band aid, and that adolescents have to arrive at the institute without failures.
"I try to understand the importance of expressing well to practice any profession, but it is difficult for them to understand it in a time where they can download anything from the Internet, including contracts, speeches or even text comments on the books we work in class."
This is explained by Lola Cézar, which ends by ensuring that "We are never going to give up. We have to make young people proud of our language."
Conclusion? We have to face the fact that young people write poorly and we must prevent this from becoming an ongoing problem (personal opinion).
Photos | iStock
