JOHN Clunas asks (April 29) what I mean by pseudo-literacy. Someone who is pseudo-literate simply mistakenly believes he or she has a command of language acceptable to an educated reader.
No responsible teacher of English could recommend Jimmy Reid's prose to pupils as representing an acceptable standard of literacy. Mr Reid's column may sell newspapers but it also encourages poor English teaching and the acceptance of debased standards.
I recorded my own experience of the worst seven years ago in the education press after acting as a scribe - ie, reading out questions and writing down answers - for an illiterate pupil entered for SCE Standard Grade exams and subsequently awarded a worthless certificate.
Incidentally, were my granddaughter not having reading lessons at home she would be as retarded as those of her classmates not being similarly helped and whose parents may well be Herald readers.
John McLellan,
44 Terregles Avenue, Glasgow.
May 3.
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