The way things are written is beginning to resemble little the way everyone actually speaks. So teaching it is not too dissimilar to teaching a foreign language. New words and phrases are being introduced so quickly now, that not many of us can keep up.

The Shetland Islands, where I lived and my children were largely educated, is a good example. For the dialect spoken is a mixture of Scots and English with a very strong Scandinavian influence. It is very much alive and bears little or no resemblance to the written English, that is taught in the (now very good) schools.

Some of the stories from the older people and their school experiences, if they should 'slip-in' to their natural way of speaking, whilst at school, was pretty harrowing. Despite this, they do generally and surprisingly have a pretty good standard of written English. They have maintained also the living dialect.

My children however, were in a sort of in-between stage. They understood the dialect and spoke a kind of pigeon English, Scots and dialect, whilst writing English to a good standard. They don't really fit in either camp when it comes to verbal language. My youngest daughter (now living in England), will quite naturally, in conversation, make-up her own words, which are easily understood but do demonstrate the problem.