No offence, but I have noticed that many native English speakers don't know some basic rules of their language, can't spell common words and make a lot of mistakes. Why is that?
Responses (1)
Non native speakers are taught & examined by professionally from the begining, rely on the rules to ensure that the correct intended meaning is conveyed.
The native speakers are taught initially by their mothers, as such they can inherit their bad habits & dialect. Now add to this, the cultural, class & media influence, being freely engrained for four years, until primary school.
During schooling, the taught English now has to compete with that which is practised in the outside world.
True, there is an element of falling standards in English, through complacency & lazyness, but it could be argued that the rules defining the accepted use of English, have always been subject to continual change and redefined by the native speakers. This enables the language to evolve, as it always has, to improve efficiency in meet future needs & remain relevant in all aspects of verbal communication.
Another question you could ask, is the English spoken in the USA the definitive standard, or that as used in England?
That's the usual explanation I hear - non-native speakers are taught correct grammar whereas native speakers pick up bad habits. I don't think that's an excuse; native speakers should be taught all the rules of their language. I understand there is a difference between the formal language and the way people speak in informal everyday situations, but they should learn how to speak and write properly when it matters.
It's true that languages are very much alive and they evolve over time, but I really hope English will not change into the way many people use it nowadays... haha. That would be terrible.
Native speakers in the UK have and are being taught the rules at school, they need to apply them appropriately in order to pass their GSCE & A level examinations (& degrees?!). I do believe that these examinations have been dumbed down as some Politicians & employers claim, but believe there are other new, more powerful factors that have come into play.
The UK has been undergoing deeper cultural intergration with the 2nd & 3rd home born generations of our ethnic communitities. These are gaining in confidence & introducing their unique qualities into the English language.
The introduction of the internet with its social networking & blogs, the Queens language, enforced by the establishment in the form of editors of national papers, publishers, the BBC, royality, Cambridge & Oxford can be bypassed.
So prehaps the internet brings you into contact with a greater variety of native speakers, rather than a small well connected & spoken elite.
I can also add the decline in book reading, writing of letters and the rise of texting, emails as being powerful influences in changing the linguistic rules of the English language.
Over 1000 years change is the norm in English, and reflects the colourful multicultural roots of the national make up. I think it would be far sadder if it did not change, and lost its innate ability to survive misuse, absorb, adapt to new influences & yet retain its original identity.
Is not the exposure of a few grammatically challenge, or abuse by those people who choose to change the rules, a small price to pay for the greater prize of enriching the langauge we love?
Appologies for by spelling & grammar in advance!