QCA are proposing to expand the number of GCSE’s children can take in English from 2 to 3, by adding a new exam, English in the Daily World. I found myself immediately asking the question, whose daily world? I have watched with increasing dismay over the past few years the rise of a really pernicious idea which I wrote about here some months ago, and which I suspect is at the heart of this new exam. It started a long time ago in English with teachers getting pupils to write newspaper articles based on Rome and Juliet or Macbeth, that sort of thing, and has ended up suggesting we shouldn’t really exam them at all, because after all, we’re all just digital immigrants and the natives are so far ahead of us. This agenda has always been to disarm difficulty through giving it some kind of spurious relevance, and is usually advocated by teachers who haven’t quite grown up yet. So I had a look at the QCA consultation papers and I will leave readers to decide if the following extracts from them suggest I’m right or not. I've italicised the bits that give it away.

The aim is to develop students’ understanding of language use in the real world through engaging with and evaluating material that is relevant to their own development as speakers, listeners, readers and writers.

reading and responding to a range of non-fiction texts that present information, events and ideas, including media, digital and multimodal forms; analysing and evaluating words, images and structures, exploring how they are adapted to create meaning and effect for specific purposes.

The assessment of non-fiction reading will have an emphasis on evaluating writers’ linguistic choices and the effects achieved in texts by different presentational devices. Subtleties of impact on the reader/viewer brought about by using digital or multimodal forms are a significant aspect of this component.

I feel sorry for the poor examiners of this new exam who will have to cope with evaluating material that is relevant to many of the candidates. Having sat on numerous trains being forced to listen to passengers on their mobiles, using the same stock phrases literally dozens of times in a single, short conversation (I actually counted once!) I have come to the conclusion that these phrases are all serving the same practical function. The speakers use them because they are operating so on the edge of inarticulacy, that they really do have to check with the other person that they are being understood. Try a little experiment for yourself the next time you find yourself having to listen. Listen carefully to the phrases they keep repeating, and you will see that they have exactly the same “are you understanding me?” function.