Letter: Elegant English needs more time

MAY I add two points to your debate on language (Letters, 6 June). Firstly, England is unique among European countries in allowing students intending to proceed to higher education to stop studying their mother tongue at the age of 16 (GCSE). All broad-based Continental education systems insist on teaching mother tongue - plus maths and a science - to the age of 18. Too often a UK student goes through college - and life - with a low-grade GCSE pass in English Language, just enough to satisfy college entrance requirements.

Also unique is the English examination system, as developed at all levels in English schools, which tests pupils' ability to write 'against the clock' (four essays in three hours for A-level English). Professor Dummett's phrasing - 'students plunder the language as a starving man might plunder a larder' - recalls the frenzy of exam writing, where little time is allowed for the luxury of, for example, recasting a sentence to achieve elegance.

Elsewhere in Europe it is common to find students being allowed from four to seven hours to write one essay. There is time to plan in detail, do a rough draft, sit back and think - and to leave early if one has finished.

J P Foulkes

European School, Luxembourg