According to the latest national study conducted by the cantons, half of the French -speaking students arrive at the end of the compulsory school without mastering written French. This test was offered to students on tablet and it was necessary to answer 60 questions in 10 minutes. In Switzerland, there are many allophone students; This insufficient level of spelling affects the students who speak French, but less those who speak German or Italian. The study mentions the importance of the disadvantaged socio-economic milieu as one of the factors that can pretext children in their learning.
Spelling today. For various reasons linked, among other things, to the evolution of society and communication techniques, the place of spelling has lost importance. At least, this is what students and certain teachers say: who is still interested in spelling at a time when the Internet is available to everyone? Even purist teachers cannot detect AI in the copies of their students, to whom they attribute excellent notes! So why take the lead?
But does spelling really no longer matter? In the school or professional framework, the one who writes “badly” is however often stigmatized as not controlling the codes of cultivated society, well high, high.
Spelling remains a strong brand of belonging to a social class. And that, even if, paradoxically, the children of “good” society do not all master French spelling!
The fault of the spelling. The book entitled The fault of the spelling reviews the difficulties of our language, making us laugh, cry, hacked. Disturbing, this book, for those who love the beautiful French language and knows how to write it “correctly”. The love of etymology and the detestation of Anglicisms, for example, feel shaken by the points of view documented in linguistic and sociological levels. LIGHTING ALSO, this book which affects several delicate questions, such as: the opacity of French which arrives so often to “1 sound = 1 letter” and “1 letter = 1 sound”, the language as a social selection tool, the teachers using this discrimination tool too freely.
The two authors observe that, often, while their grandmothers had to leave school at 14 to go to work, they were not “bad” in spelling. Probably because we studied spelling a lot. But many subjects taught today were not in the 1950s. So should we teach spelling more insistently, even if it means reducing the time dedicated to scientific materials, for example?
What remedy to treat spelling? Before thinking about the remedy against the spelling in a collapse, it is necessary to stop for a moment on the role of the school. We still think today that the school should allow everyone to access a minimum of knowledge and skills. In a word, it should be the place where you learn to think, discuss, read and write, in order to be useful to society once adults.
This implies training and a selection of teachers who are transparent. The charter of their commitment should be known to the public, especially children. And this charter should at least ensure all children access to speech, reading, writing.
A very different remedy, much more complex, much more exciting than what the President of the Conference of Cantonal Public Instruction (CDIP), Christophe Darbellay, which prescribes … the dictation.
