Page 5 - ELG1706 Jun Issue 448

WELCOME .
EDITOR’S LETTER

Harnessing the glee of ‘covfefe’.

Schools need to devote time if they start languages early theteam

Humans love to take glee in language – its sounds, curious spellings and IRENA
quirks. And from this seemingly inborn playfulness, we have created BARKER, editor,
everything from silly puns in Christmas cracker jokes to the most studied French
highbrow poetry. and linguistics at
Durham, UK and
The universality of this was illustrated recently when the Twitter social taught English
media site melted into amusement when Donald Trump used the curious in France for
word ‘covfefe’ in a tweet. two years. Her
Did it have a secret meaning or was it just one glorious typo? (We subsequent 15-year career in UK
think he meant to write the word ‘coverage’.) news journalism includes reporting
Whatever he was trying to say, it kept the wits of Twitter busy, spawning cartoons, made-up for local and regional newspapers, a
news agency and a 10 year stint at
definitions and spoof accounts. Google Translate rather unhelpfully insisted it was a Samoan the Times Educational Supplement
word that meant ‘covfefe’. Cue endless online chuckles. magazine.
This joy at language – or in this case accidentally invented language – is evident in
children, who love to hear silly words repeated again and again. Try ‘covfefe’ on your two- MELANIE
year-old a few times and you will see what I mean. BUTLER,
It is generally understood that it is best to tap into children’s interest and sensitivity to editor-at-large,
started teaching
sounds and language as early as possible if you want to teach them a second tongue. EFL in Iran in 1975,
she worked for the
BBC World Service,
We aim to highlight Pearson/Longman
GAGE SKIDMORE the good, the bad and English teacher magazine before
and Modern
taking over at the Gazette in
the ugly in the world
1987 and also launching Study
Travel magazine. Educated in
of English language
ten schools in seven countries
she speaks uent French and
teaching, linguistics and Spanish and rather rusty Italian.
international education CLAUDIA
CIVININI, chief
reporter,
won a scholarship
to teach Italian in
But German research we feature on page 10 suggests that efforts to harness this in the Australia in 2009,
early years of school could be in vain. Children who started younger did not do as well as where she quali ed
children who started later in their school careers. One of the reasons pupils did not make the as a state school
desired progress early on is because they did not spend enough time learning the language, it teacher in 2010. Bilingual in
English and Italian, she joined the
suggested. Gazette as head of research in
This raises the possibility that schools could be wasting their time crowbarring languages 2014 after teaching for ve years.
into a crowded curriculum from the earliest possible moment, and that a more nuanced and She specialises in data journalism
evidence-based approach is required. and research news.
One thing is clear, as ever: more research is needed to help governments finesse their
policies and come up with efficient approaches that help children to progress. ANDREA PÉREZ
Also this month, we have introduced two new columns – ‘Teacher’s Pet’ and ‘Naughty EGIDO, online and
Corner’. Here, on page 12, we aim to highlight the good, the bad and the ugly in the world of production manager,
has a BA in
English language teaching, linguistics and international education. Journalism from
The Canton of Zurich scoops the swots’ spot this month for voting to keep teaching two Complutense
languages in primary, a move that officials hope will mean Swiss national languages continue University, Madrid
to be taught alongside English. and a Masters in
Corporate Communications from
UK Prime Minister Theresa May feels the cold draft of the Naughty Corner for continuing the Kingston University, London.
to insist that international students should be included in overall immigration figures. She previously worked on the
We look forward to hearing your submissions for next month – from the sublime to the international desk at the Spanish
ridiculous. Contact us by email or on Twitter with the hashtags newspaper La Razón. She joined
the Gazette as online and social
#ELGnaughty or #ELGpet. IRENA BARKER, media editor in 2015.
Just don’t accidentally write ‘covfefe’. EDITOR

editorial@elgazette.com 5

p04-05.indd 3 6/6/2017 2:38:06 PM