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ESL forum >
Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > Italics or not italics?
Italics or not italics?
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Julygrace
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Italics or not italics?
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I�ve recently been rebuked (by some colleagues)  for letting my students write English words or sentences in �italics� or cursive. Considering children in Italy regularly use this �font� in their work, I let they write as they feel confident. Some colleagues claimed that it�s forbidden to write English in Italics because English people don�t use to write in this way! Is it true? God knows what sort offense I gave!!!  |
8 Dec 2009
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douglas
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I usually use italics to indicate a foreign word:
"Having a mug of Gl�hwein at a German Christmas market is one of the highlights of my Christmas season." |
8 Dec 2009
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natalli
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As far as I am concerned I think it �s ridiculous to forbid using italics! How can it spoil the process of learning?! In no way!!! Let them write how they want!!! This just must deal with education! |
8 Dec 2009
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Lana.
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July,
are you talking about writing with pen on paper or about typing in a Word doc on pc??
Please, answer, as it is important to understand. |
8 Dec 2009
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alien boy
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Cursive script is typical for adults whereas printing is standard for young children. So cursive script is certainly good & applicable for students (as long as it �s legible). It is also known as �running writing� to children because the letters are linked or �run� together.
Italics are another thing entirely. They are used to emphasise or differentiate text from the surrounding text.
Using Italics and Underlining
An article about the current state of cursive writing in American primary/elementary schools
So, italics would be the wrong thing to teach a child as correct (Edit: as general writing format), but cursive script would be ok. Back when I learned cursive script we would use a card with angled lines on it. This card would be placed behind the paper we were writing n so that we would learn cursive script with the correct slant/angle on our characters. This is very different to italics.
Regards,
AB
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9 Dec 2009
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Julygrace
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First of all a very big thank� you to all those who have kindly answered at my �question�- which is not a little thing!- Well, I was talking about a hot topic for Italian primary students because In this country children learn quite soon writing cursive in their notebook � since the 2nd grade- . They use cursive in every subject even writing a math problem� So considering that English is a subject as others � and they have it only three hours a week- children write English in cursive as they write an Italian essay. It�s normal for them! It isn�t usual writing in different way.
So� Lana, I was talking about writing whit pen on paper. They use a fountain pen to write!
To Alien Boy I intended cursive script � that kind of writing whit letters all linked together � - Sorry I can�t explain it better.
At the end � I think the most terrible thing is saying what you must  do without giving any proper explanation! I think it�s my duty to explain the difference in writing in cursive or �print� but letting children be free to write as they are confident. This can�t be a crime!!!
By the way thank� you for all what you have explained me� I can sleep better ! I won�t change my job!!!!
I love you! (In cursive!!!)   |
9 Dec 2009
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Lana.
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Good girl July, don �t you leave that job, 
I knew you were talking about writing with pen on paper rather than typing.
And if this is the case, I think what you can do is get the children to try various styles of writing and maybe do a small discussion on how different children of the world write differently.
In Ireland people write "straight", while for instance in Russia all children are taught from an early age to write "with a bend to the right". So whatever makes your little guys comfortable, really...  |
9 Dec 2009
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RabbitWho
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Hi I �m Irish, lots of people here write in italics, I read a psychology paper about handwriting analysis and apparently it has something to do with your personality. We are taught in primary school to write straight of course, but now that I think about it most of my students write in italics and it never once stuck me as odd.
The Czech T isn �t crossed, so to me it looks like an L, but I don �t tell them to cross it because i know in an exam they will always forget to cross a few Ts and then they �ll loose points because the person reading it will think it �s a spelling mistake, but if the examiner realizes that �s just how they write their Ts then they �ll never loose any marks for spelling.
I agree that it �s important just to write how you feel comfortable, unless of course that means writing a different alphabet!
And of course English-speaking people write cursive. It �s just most of us choose to write in print as adults because by the time we get to this age our handwriting is illegible!
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9 Dec 2009
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carinaluc
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Dear JulyGrace and RabbitWho,
As a certified graphologist I can assure you that every single choice people make concerning the way they write has to do with their personality, so forget about the "apparently"! Preferring cursive to print or viceversa is not necessarily connected with illegibility, and even though the way people are taught to write changes from country to country, people will always produce their own personal signs, with their own personal marks whenever they write. Handwriting is as personal as our fingerprints, and even though shape is the most "visible" feature for the layman, there are other things that make our handwriting unique (that �s why handwriting experts are able to compare two samples and say whether they were written by the same person or not). The same rules of analysis are applied to every kind of sample, and using a different alphabet does not change a thing. Even shorthand can be analysed!
Anyway, my point is there is nothing like "good", "bad", "beautiful", "ugly", "forbidden", "national" handwriting, people will always write the way their brains command them to, regardless of their education, age, sex, nationality, mother tongue ... or regulations!!
Warm regards
Carina |
9 Dec 2009
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