DepEd TV goes viral over grammar error

A communications skills trainer on Wednesday took exception to the english television lessons offered by the Department of Education (DepEd) after finding a grammatical error.

According to Mariz Umali’s report on “24 Oras,” the Facebook post of Citas Aquino pointing out a portion of the lessons for 8th grade students quickly went viral.

“Checked out the English TV Lessons offered by DepEd. This is Grade 8 English. I cringed at the choices and that was just the start,” Aquino said in her post.

The post contained a picture of a question which read “Tagaytay City is known for wonderful picturesque of the majestic Mount Taal. What does picturesque mean?”

“‘Tagaytay City is known for wonderful picturesque; That is grammatically incorrect, okay?” Aquino said.

She also criticized the word choices on the supposed definition of picturesque.

“What does picturesque mean? Charming, running, ruined, perhaps. Even the choices of words do not even have any kind of connection with each other,” she said.

Aquino said that she was disturbed over the lesson due to her 20 years of experience as a communications trainer.

“One of the things that I have always been advocating when it comes to learning english is what we call communicative competence,” Aquino said.

“Meaning to say… you understand the grammar of the language and then at the same time you’re using the rights words and using it in the right situation,” she added.

Though DepEd was grateful for the feedback, it explained that it was focusing on the technicalities.

“Tutok namin ngayon talaga ay ‘yung technicality kung papaano mag-broadcast,” DepEd said.

Aquino said she had no intention to bash and only wanted to help.

From August 11 to 21, DepEd will conduct a test run for the broadcast modality in teaching to ensure preparedness and that all lessons will be correct. —Joahna Lei Casilao/LDF, GMA News