These are spectacular statistics and, to be honest, a bit hopeless. Since 1987, CM2 pupils from four different generations have had to write the same dictation and, with each experiment, the average number of mistakes has increased. 10.7 errors in 1987; 14.7 in 2007; 18 in 2015 and 19.4 in 2021, according to the study just published by the Ministry of National Education. A quasi-doubling, therefore, even though the text in question is relatively short – 67 words – and presents no trap. This does not prevent 27% of pupils from committing… more than 25 errors (against 7% in 1987).
Here is the dictation in question:
“Evening was falling. Dad and mom, worried, wondered why their four boys hadn’t come home.
– The kids must have gotten lost, said mum. If they haven’t found their way home yet, we’ll see them arrive home very tired.
– Why not call Martine? She may have seen them!
No sooner said than done ! At that moment the dog began to bark.”
In detail, the writing of the words seems more or less mastered. “Evening”, “house”, “dog”, “we”, “the”, “don’t”, “not”, are spelled correctly by 90% of children. On the other hand, the adverbs “immediately”, “however” and “perhaps” pose problems for half of them. But it is above all the grammar that sows the trouble. Barely 43% of school children write the verb correctly in the sentence: “Dad and mom were wondering”. The percentage drops to 37% for “We’ll see them” and to 36% for “The kids definitely got lost”. 3 out of 4 students fail to agree “worried” with “mom and dad”.
In short, whatever the criterion used, the trend is the same, and it is alarming. It remains to explain it, starting with an interest in… arithmetic.
– The number of hours spent learning spelling has dropped dramatically over the years. And for good reason: not only have students’ schedules been reduced – the school week has gone from thirty to twenty-four hours – but new subjects have been introduced: IT, foreign languages, moral and civic education, etc. Mechanically, today’s little schoolchildren spend less time studying spelling than their parents and, a fortiori, their grandparents. The level suffers.
– Young people read less. Admittedly, 80% of 15-24 year olds declare themselves “readers” in 2021, according to an Ipsos survey for the National Book Center, but they were 92% in this case in 2019. In addition, the works they consult are above all of a “utilitarian” nature (cooking, decoration, travel, etc.). This must be seen in part as the consequences of the Internet phenomenon. This did not exist in 1987 and young people then turned more frequently to books, if only to avoid boredom. Not so for today’s 7-25 year olds, who spend on average… 3h50 a day on a phone or computer.
– Less effective teaching techniques. By heart, dictation, syllabic method: some of the methods used by old-fashioned teachers have gradually been deemed old-fashioned. Probably wrong, according to specialists. “Obviously, we know that these methods were not always effective, but they have not been replaced by alternative proposals”, underlined Danièle Manesse, co-author ofSpelling: whose fault is it ? (esf editor). In fact, current teachers are probably less well trained in the transmission of spelling than their predecessors.
– A growing gap between the oral and the written. Every living language evolves and, for a long time, written French took into account the changes in oral French. Thus, for example, in 1835, the French Academy agreed to replace the “oi” by “ai” in accordance with the pronunciation: “connoisseur” became “connaisseur” and the “françoise” language is finally become the “French” language, as recalled by Maria Candea and Laélia Véron in French is ours (Editions La Découverte).
But since then the machine has almost stalled. As a result, the number of words that are not spelled as they are pronounced is growing. “Since the 20th century, spoken French has evolved a lot, declared in 2014 to L’Express Alain Rey, the boss of Petit Robert. The past simple has regressed; abbreviations, such as “proprio” or “prof” have multiplied; the distinction between the “a” of patte and paste has become blurred. The problem is that this evolution of oral French, which is natural, has coincided with a quasi-stability of written French.”
These are the main reasons. Conversely, three false tracks are to be avoided:
– Massification of education. Admittedly, all the children of an age group now follow a long schooling, which was not the case before, and this revolution partly explains the multiplication of spelling errors among students in 2022. On the other hand, it does not apply to the statistics in question here, which relate to CM2 pupils.
– The “SMS language”. Obviously, read “Bjr, S kon s’voi 2m1?” (hello, see you tomorrow?) may seem unsettling, but, according to the researchers, this does not play a significant role in the general drop in level. “If a person is able, alongside texting, to use precise and subtle language when needed, texting language is not a problem, underlines linguist Alain Bentolila, specialist in illiteracy. On the contrary, it can even be considered as an additional mode of expression.” Work on the language of social networks shows that students make sense of things perfectly […] between the messages they send to their friends and the homework they give to teachers”, confirms Quebec linguist Benoît Mélançon in The level is dropping! (Delbusso editor).
– This phenomenon is new. No way. only a tiny fraction of the population mastered spelling – and again: the Academy found 300 “mistakes” in the first version ofAndromache, by Racine! It was only at the end of the 19th century, and especially in the first part of the 20th, that the mastery of writing progressed strongly, thanks to the establishment of massive teaching and the colossal number of hours devoted to this subject. “The best level was undoubtedly reached in the 1940s”, specified Danièle Manesse. After a plateau, the downward movement began from the 1960s for the reasons indicated above.
If we must not embellish the past, we still have to find the remedies to be applied. Should we drastically simplify our spelling by taking inspiration from our Italian and Spanish cousins, who have opted for a spelling close to phonetics? Allow students to use computers and their spell checkers during dictations, as they will do throughout their lives, as recommended by spelling historian Bernard Fripiat? Devoting more time to teaching spelling – which, on an equal schedule, means specifying what will be taught less (history? maths?). Or increase overall school time, by reducing holidays and/or restoring school on Saturday mornings. Notice to those who dream of becoming Minister of National Education…