scribbings
先日英検を受けたばかりなので、この記事はとても興味深く思います。
Is the Eiken doing Japan’s English learners more harm than good？
‘English as scribblings on paper’
I spoke to an English teacher who has been involved in preparing Japanese children for the Eiken at a cram school. He asked to use a pseudonym — let’s call him John — due to worries about repercussions at work if he were identified. The training is good business for the school, he says, as it takes a huge amount of time to prepare students and the hourly fees are substantial.
“I began to have serious doubts about whether the Eiken is useful to English learners,” he explains. “Not only are there many head-scratchers among the test items, but I think there is something flawed about the whole idea of promoting English proficiency by the means of paper-based examinations. After all, the origin of any language is oral — that’s the natural mode of human communication. But with the Eiken’s heavy emphasis on grammar and reading comprehension, the language comes over to students as a formula to be solved on paper.”
（一部抜粋）
今回取り上げる単語は、scribbingsです。
Oxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)によると、scribbleで”write or draw (something) carelessly or hurriedly”とのことでした。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）で調べたところ、「…を（急いで）なぐり[走り書き]する」などの意味がありました。名詞の意味として「落書き」という意味もあるようです。
以上をふまえ‘English as scribblings on paper’を訳すと、「紙になぐり書きしたような英語」のようになるかと思います。（Gomez）
