Looking at Writing 'Wan has an mstinctive tendency to speak, as we see in the babble of our young children; whele vo child has an instanctive tendency to bake, brew, or write. 'More than a century ape Charks Danvin got it right: language is a human instinct, but written language is not. Language is found in all societies, present and past. Although languages change, they do not inprove: English is no more complex than the languages of Stone Age tribes; modem English is not an advance of Old English. All healthy chidren master their languge without lessuns or corrections. When children are thrown together without a uuble language, they invent one of their own. Compare all this with writing. Wriong systems have been invented only infrequently in history. They originated only in a few complex civilisations and they started off crude and slowly improved over the millennia. Until recently, most children never learned to read or write; even with today's univeral education, many children struggle and fail. A group of children is no more bikely to invent an alphabet than it is to invent the internal combustion engine. Children are wired for sound, but print is an optional accessory that must be painstakingly bolted on. We need to understand how the contraption called writing works, how the minds of the children work, how to get the two to mesh. - Mey mirent are ae 25 What point does the writer make about children? thal oun. A. They have no real need for formal leaming. (B) They are able to create new forms of language. C They are able to communicate in the absence of language. 1 . Their minds are sharper than we think. 26 What point is made about the process of learning to write? A It is facilitated by machinery. B It is best done collaboratively. C It prepares us for other concepts. D It requires a conscious effort.