While the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye decreed that the exercise of dictation would be daily for students in CM1 and CM2, Brigitte Macron told the
Parisian
his advice to compensate for the fall in the spelling level of French people, regardless of their age.
The first lady also recommended doing
“a little dictation every day”
, but also
“writing your diary every evening”
.
Bruno Dewaele, aggregate of letters and world champion of spelling, reacts to this statement.
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LE FIGARO.
- What do you think of Brigitte Macron's recommendations?
Bruno DEWAELE.
-
The situation regarding the drop in the level in French is such that little advice will not solve everything!
I am only delighted that we are no longer in denial and that we realize the problems that national education has presented for several decades.
Because it is at the root that the evil must be cut.
It is good that dictation, which has been said to be worse than hanging, is now strongly recommended to teachers.
How to progress in spelling once out of school?
It is above all a state of mind.
We live in such an “unsorted” world that wanting to progress is a good start.
Dictation allows you to devote time to spelling and fill in gaps, regardless of the method you follow.
You have to connect, it's very important.
Then there is no better place to encounter a word than in the texts.
And dictation has the advantage of confronting us with literature.
This is all the more important as the decline in the number of hours that the French dedicate to reading is growing.
Read also “Dictation no longer makes sense”: does exercise still have a place in college?
Brigitte Macron said:
“Some make zero mistakes without really knowing the rules of spelling.
The important thing is to practice spelling as much as possible.”
Is she right?
I think here it refers to lexical spelling.
Certainly, as a competitor, I was able to progress by reading the dictionary thirteen hours a day, for example.
But it is better to know the rules of the past simple agreement to know how to spell your sentence correctly.
The less one confronts grammar, the less one applies its rules.
If we don't go through it, we will never get out of it.