The Editor, Sir:

Please permit me to share with your readers my opinions on the language debate which takes centre stage from time to time. My concern as a language educator is that written English is becoming less and less familiar to some students at the tertiary level. I have grave concerns about the level of proficiency of those who matriculate to tertiary institutions having passed English language in CSEC. It is abundantly clear from the errors that some of these students make, even after spending years at a tertiary institution, that they have never seen some words written, and if they have, they did not learn these words.

The following are examples of the kinds of errors of which I write.

'Sosoecomomic' for 'socioeconomic'; 'omittion' for 'omission'; 'uppersit sex' for 'opposite sex'; 'methopha' for 'metaphor'; 'fustrated' for 'frustrated'; 'who's' for 'whose'; 'layed' for 'laid'; 'a raiser pay' for 'a raise of pay'; 'femail' for 'female'; 'taughts' for 'thoughts'.

Not enough

Students whose written work is riddled with such errors obviously do not spend enough time with the written word. They do not read enough. We do not pay enough attention to the receptive language skills, which are listening and reading. We place emphasis on the productive skills, speaking and writing. The more acceptable Jamaican Creole becomes in the classroom, the less time students will spend listening to and speaking the English language, and the more unfamiliar the English language will become to students.

I recognise Jamaican Creole as a language, although I am well aware that not all Jamaicans subscribe to this view. However, my admonition to students is that they should leave Patois-pushing to those who are so proficient in English that they can defend Jamaican Creole using Standard English. Students need to become avid readers of English and listen to those who speak English and hone their English-language skills so that they can be among the Jamaicans who are bilingual and not continue to be monolingual Jamaican Creole speakers.

I am, etc.,

WINNIE ANDERSON-BROWN

winab@cwjamaica.com