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Comment on ‘The policy and policing of language in schools’ by Ian Cushing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2020

Richard Hudson Open the ORCID record for Richard Hudson [Opens in a new window]
Richard Hudson*
Affiliation:
University College London, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Richard Hudson UCL Linguistics Department Gower Street LondonWC1 6BT, UKr.hudson@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

Cushing argues that government policy in the UK is prescriptive and encourages similar policies at school level (as reported in the press), which in turn encourage the ‘policing’ of language by school teachers. I offer an alternative reading of the evidence in which government policy, as stated in official documents, generally avoids prescriptivism, as do an unknown number of schools and school teachers; where prescriptivism persists it reflects a prescriptive culture in society, not government policy. The conclusion is that government policy is only one influence on teachers’ behaviour, so if government wants to eliminate prescriptivism it needs to take a stronger position than simply avoiding prescriptivism in its own documents. (Education, prescriptivism, policy, Britain)

Type
Discussion
Information
Language in Society , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , June 2020 , pp. 451 - 460
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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