[kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint

Thu Oct 6 02:15:31 EAT 2011

Dear Harry, 

You certainly have your first classmate in me when the centre opens:-)

I wish to add my voice to this thread.I have taught English in high school and in a teacher training college in Kenya.I do agree with those of us who argue that there may be a problem with the 'teaching'. In the typically 'instructivist' system that our curriculum propagates, one might easily deduce that if a teacher is bad, then the student can only be bad. If a teacher cannot score 350 points in an exam, then a student can only score lower. We know that typically, many students do better than their teachers would, and that a bad teacher of any subject is least helpful to a weak student. 

With the multiple sources of information increasingly becoming available through ICT, and with the right information literacy skills imparted, students can be expected do better than their teachers in a number of tasks.  If we must keep the teacher as the 'fountain of knowledge', then we must raise the cut-off and get only the best candidates into teaching positions. This has its challenges.  If it is the case that ICTs are gradually changing  the role of the teacher to being what I call 'the learner in charge', then we will need to dedicate our attention and resources to preparing pre-service and 're-tooling' in-service teachers for this new and extremely demanding role.

This calls for  an understanding of the place of ICT in teaching and teacher education in the first instance, and resource allocation for sustained teacher professional development programmes.

That's my take! 

Betty Obura Ogange, PhD  
Director,  eLearning Centre 
Maseno University

----- Original Message -----
From: Harry Delano <harry at comtelsys.co.ke>
To: ogange at yahoo.com
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 9:50 PM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint

On a lighter note, we probably will need to be a little more considerate
with our 
brothers and sisters - indeed all of us who subscribe to 'Her Majesty's
language'
as our second, Third , Fourth language etcetra. Let alone that each one had
to go
through some compulsory language take up as part of their curriculum in High
School. 
And yes 'English' was a 'must take'.

You see, it is always stated that this great language was visited upon us on
Her 
Majesty's ship from a foreign land, hence from the word go, it has been
alien to 
some of us, if not most.

Indeed, we also will be pleased about the giant strides we have made in
embedding 
it on our national landscape, and in the process raising amongst us many of
those
who have a remarkable mastery and flowing command of this strange dialect.

Maybe, it is time to have a spoken and written English Language empowerment
centre,
I would wish to enrol.

Just on a light note.

Harry

-----Original Message-----
From: kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+harry=comtelsys.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On
Behalf Of godera at skyweb.co.ke
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:02 PM
To: harry at comtelsys.co.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Declining English grammar in our Newsprint

Listers,

In my view this is but a reflection of how standards across the board have
fallen. There is simply no pride in a good job done- casualness is the order
of the day.'It can pass' - so it is said.
We need to get back to the thoroughness that once was- ACROSS THE BOARD.

Gilda

Quoting James Kagwe <kagwejg at gmail.com>:

> I have also noted lots of typing errors on the scrolling text 
> especially during 9.00 PM news on most of them.
> 
> On 10/4/2011 11:11 PM, bitange at jambo.co.ke wrote:
> > All of today's newspapers had several grammatical errors.  At this 
> > time and
> age of ICT, is it not too embarrasing to have such errors?  We have 
> thousands of English majors without jobs.  It is time for media to be 
> thorough in what they do by utilizing our many graduates without jobs.  
> As a Kenyan I get embarrased to see such errors.
> >
> > Ndemo.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Sent from my BlackBerryR
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Grace Githaiga<ggithaiga at hotmail.com>
> > Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> > Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2011 13:32:57
> > To:<bitange at jambo.co.ke>
> > Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> > Subject: [kictanet] GSMA: Calls will remain high between African 
> > countries
> >
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> platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy
and regulation.
> The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in 
> support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
> 
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors 
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regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.

KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.

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