Will ‘native speakers’ of English have to change some of their most cherished and least examined assumptions as the language approaches the 21st century?

The histoty of the words ‘grammar’ and ‘grammarian’ tells us a great deal about attitudes to grammar and grammarians.

In the following pages, we provide extracts from the Reports of the Committee of Inquiry into the Teaching of English Language (‘The Kingman Report’) of March 1988, relating to the teaching of English in England and Wales, and published by Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London.

The committee of 19 scholars, writers, and educators was chaired by Sir John Kingman, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol. The four professors of English on the committee were Gillian Brown (Applied Linguistics, Essex), Brian Cox (English Literature, Manchester), Peter Levi (Poetry, Oxford), and Henry Widdowson (Education; English for Speakers of Other Languages, London).

The 100-page report (ISBN 0 11 270650 9)has six chapters and eight appendices. The chapters set the scene (1), discuss the importance of knowledge about the language (2), present a model for teaching English (3), discuss the use of the model (4), cover attainment and assessment (5), look at the education and training of teachers (6), and provide a summary of recommendations. The appendices cover terms of reference (1), membership of the committee (2), a note of reservation by Professor Widdowson regarding the need for a more searching initial discussion of why English should be a school subject at all (3), sources of evidence submitted to the committee (4), visits made by committee members (5), a glossary of specialist terms used in the report (6), a bibliography (7), and a pull-out summary of the model.

Our extracts relate to the 5-part model and the attainment targets suggested. We reproduce both in full, as being of particular international interest and in Angles of Vision provide a range of excerpts from the British press when the report appeared.

Following the excerpts from the Kingman Report on English teaching in England and Wales, we reproduce below extracts from comments made in editorials and by education correspondents in some of England's leading newspapers.

A wide range of newsletters, clippings and cuttings, catalogues and correspondence arrives (and is welcomed) on ET's editorial desk. From the mass that goes into our files comes this mix of quirky humour, special usages, neologisms and nonce usages.

American English, used in the Philippines since the turn of the century, may have reached crisis point in its complex relationship with Pilipino/Tagalog and other local languages.

The debate continues over whether the primacy of English should be enshrined in the U.S. constitution. Here, it takes the form of ‘language restrictionism’ versus ‘English plus at least one other language’ for every citizen who so chooses.

When a word like ‘abortion’ is in the dictionaries as well as the news, the definitions on offer can cast light on areas of change and uncertainty in the language.

JOHN SIMPSON, co-editor of the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’, investigates some of the questions raised by readers om ET 14, April 1988.