On the other hand, you might prefer to address this problem at a theoretical level, by examining and critiquing the ideas and assumptions that underpin it. You could, for instance, argue that the whole debate about whether standards of grammar are slipping or not is fundamentally misconceived. This is precisely the line taken by Australian academic Gunther Kress in an interesting debate with the British journalist and broadcaster John Humphrys, published in The Guardian newspaper in 2004! While Humphrys took the traditional (and very traditionalist) line that standards are indeed slipping , and that schools need to spend more time teaching ' standard English grammar' Kress argued against the idea that there is such a thing as ' standard' grammar at all. In his view, what school need to do is help learners to understand grammar not as a set of rigid rules, but as a flexible syst of approximate regularities that varies according to situational context. 'Should you need to write a sign for the green grocer, ok, use apostrophe's like this. But should you be asked to design a website for a government department, your clients are bound to prefer this.'