Overseas students are better at English than the British

There is now quantitative research to prove the point that students learning English as a second language do it more thoroughly than those who start off with the huge advantage of speaking it at home.

This has been my observation for a number of years in the commercial world I inhabit. I frequently find that the rules of grammar have been very well absorbed by the attendees on my training courses whose second language is English. The attendees who were educated in Britain, on the other hand, often have little idea what I mean by passives, subject and verb matching or when to use ‘I' or ‘me'.

I was therefore very interested to read in yesterday's Independent that Professor Bernard Lamb of Imperial College has done some quantitative research on this subject and has proved the point. He counted the grammatical and spelling errors made by his final year students (his subject is genetics) and compared the performance of British against international students. The result was an average 52.2 per paper for the Brits and 18.8 for the overseas students.

How characteristically Professor Lamb and I reacted to our observations! He measured scientifically to test his hypothesis, and has concluded that the education system does not take grammar and good English seriously enough. I acted on my hunch and developed a website that helps people to learn grammar on the go, test themselves on their grammar and improve their knowledge in short on-line sessions.  Here you are Professor Lamb, send your students this way.

Comments

• I think that grammar simply isn’t taught in British schools these days - kids are expected to pick it up by osmosis! Certainly when I was at school around 25 years ago we were taught almost no grammar. I’ve learned far more as an adult than I ever did at school! We were the despair of the French teacher as none of us had a clue what a past participial etc. was.

  By Anne Hickley on 2009 11 11