Research-free language education policy in England
In “Children will learn to recite poems by heart from age of 5,” (June 10), we are told that schools in England will put greater emphasis on spelling, grammar and phonics instruction in order to insure that children “leave primary school with a strong command of both written and spoken English, with high standards of literacy”.
Education Secretary Gove and his staff are clearly unaware of some very well-established results: (1) studies done over the last 100 years show that spelling instruction has very little effect on spelling accuracy; (2) studies done over the last 100 years show that the formal study of grammar does not improve students’ reading and