English of foreign students better than their UK counterparts

A noted British academic has claimed that foreign students have a better grasp of English than British undergraduates.

London, Aug.13 : A noted British academic has claimed that foreign students have a better grasp of English than British undergraduates.

The Daily Mail quoted Dr. Bernard Lamb, a reader in genetics at Imperial College London, as saying that students from Singapore and Brunei make fewer mistakes in their work, despite English being their second language.

UK-born students are more likely to produce essays littered with errors, such as "there" instead of "their", and "bean" instead of "been", he said, adding that many appear to have gone through school without mastering the basic rules of grammar and punctuation, or having their errors corrected.

Even undergraduates with top A-level grades who go on to get first-class degrees made frequent elementary slips, Dr. Lamb said.

Dr. Lamb is now publishing a diary of student howlers in an attempt to shame "complacent" education ministers into raising the standard of written English.

A summary of the list - which originally ran to 24 sheets of A-4-sized paper - will be published in the next issue of the Queen's English Society journal, Quest.

Foreign students were more disciplined than their British counterparts.

The list, called Errors In The English Of Highly-selected Undergraduates, is due to be published today.

Dr. Lamb, who is chairman of the London branch of the Queen's English Society, said: "There is not enough emphasis on teaching children how to speak and write properly. Public schools are the only ones still pretty good at this.

"The rot thus extends from top to bottom in education, from bureaucrats to schools," he added.

ANI