Should English be compulsory?? (3 Viewers)

[HJKim]

English shouldbe compulsory but shouldnt count towards the ATAR - thats my opinion

 

[Garygaz]

was my best performing subject but still it's so subjective and useless. teaching people grammar and spelling is what's important. course should be remade.

 

[stillthinkin]

yes, yes, yes....it's the only thing that i can do

 

[exiled]

In addition to English's subjective nature, it's also a cointoss because there is no possible way to prepare for all the variations in the questions you could be asked.

 

[Absolutezero]

I think you guys are all overstating how subjective it is.

 

[cem]

English shouldbe compulsory but shouldnt count towards the ATAR - thats my opinion

Just a bit of history here - when English didn't have to count there were many students getting into courses like Law and Medicine etc who were virtually illiterate as they were getting ATARs (actually called TERs at the time) of 99.9 or even 100 based on 4Unit Maths, Physics, Chemistry and some other Maths based course.

I was doing my MA at that time at Macquarie and they were even considering making Modern History mandatory for Law to ensure that students could actually communicate in English as they felt it was stupid that they had students in many courses who simply couldn't write a sentence.

First they made 1 unit of English count + you had to do 2 Units of a humanities based subject and 2 Units of a Maths Science based subject (you still had to to 2 units of English but only 1 had to count).

Surely the language of the land should be compulsory for entry to a university in this country?

 

[funnytomato]

Surely the language of the land should be compulsory for entry to a university in this country?

of course it should be, but the point many people are trying to make(which may not be clear enough, since there's a great chance that more than half of them are virtually illiterate) is that the syllabus and/or the ways of assessment should be improved

 

[powlmao]

Yes, the english Syllabus is poor

 

[Riproot]

yes, yes, yes....it's the only thing that i can do

You could pick it if it wasn't mandatory! Just like any other subject! DERP!

of course it should be, but the point many people are trying to make(which may not be clear enough, since there's a great chance that more than half of them are virtually illiterate) is that the syllabus and/or the ways of assessment should be improved

Yes, shit subject shouldn't be mandatory.
If English is mandatory then why not... What else has a shit syllabus?

 

[meilz92]

yes because it strengthens your reasoning skills and helps develop a sophisticated understanding of various concepts in life, it teaches you how to think deeply.
basically it makes you more intelligent.

 

[meilz92]

Analysing texts is like reading tea leaves.

exactly, its completely subjective. There is no right or wrong answer. Some have better reasoning and thinking skills than others, and these people tend to analyse more deeply than others.

 

[michaeljennings]

yeahh at my school its so frustrating how subjective it is. We had a speaking task before and instead of marking the way we were speaking they just marked out transcripts. This one guy in my group got full marks even though no one could hear what he was saying because he was so quiet. Whats the point of a speaking task if they dont assess you on how well you speak!

 

[meilz92]

well then your school is dumb lol

 

[michaeljennings]

theres a 99% chance mine is better than yours lol

 

[meilz92]

better than the university of sydney?

 

[michaeljennings]

yeah i go to hogwarts.....SHUT DOWN DAWGGG

 

[meilz92]

oh okay then

 

[iRuler]

yeah i go to hogwarts.....SHUT DOWN DAWGGG

m8 nothing beats the ancient-ness of USYD

 

[michaeljennings]

yeah i recently went to syd uni for a pdhpe seminar thing and i was intimidated by how much it reminded me of hogwarts hahaha i felt like voldemort was just gonna jump out from behind a wall and kill me.
What course do you do Meilz and would you say studying english in high school has helped you in your course?

 

[fiesycal]

exactly, its completely subjective. There is no right or wrong answer. Some have better reasoning and thinking skills than others, and these people tend to analyse more deeply than others.

The problem I see is that such a subjective subject is so important to your ATAR. How exactly do you judge more depth in the analysis. 'Analysing' Shakespeare, speeches, poems can you honestly say this is useful? Beyond the basic grammar, spelling and general english skills necessary to function in society how is english, the subject, useful to students. Make it compulsory definitely but it shouldn't have to contribute towards your ATAR. Also just imo I think speaking should be 50% of standard/advanced/ESL. To me being able to speak english is much more important than picking out and analysing Shakespeare's soliloquies.