The other day at church I had a parent who asked me if I taught spelling anymore. I asked why and he said because when he received a text message from his niece he couldn’t believe all of the misspellings that he saw. So is the English language suffering because of texting?
According to one of England’s linguist, only 10% of the words used in texting are misspelled Linguist. Some of the most typical words misspelled are you (u), are (r), see (c) and to (2). Why are the words misspelled? Cell phones have a limited number of characters per message that you may use. Abbreviating words helps keep the message short Abbreviations.
However, this still does not answer the question of whether or not texting is ruining the English language. This debate is being pursued heavily. One recent poll shows that 62% of the people feel that yes texting is destroying the English language Poll. The claim is there will be a direct transfer into the written language of the academic and business worlds. Also because of the abbreviated style of texting, understanding pieces of literature will suffer as well as there will not be the context of standard English in a person’s repertoire to use. The opposition has some words in rebuttal. Texting language makes it possible to write more in a text than fully spelled out words. This language also allows messages and answers to be received and returned quickly. Does this mean that the English language is suffering because of the shortening of words and phrases? The debate continues.
From an educator’s viewpoint, texting offers some strategies for students such as phonemic awareness Aide. What is really interesting about this study done on 11 year olds is that in text messaging these students were using their skills of phonemes for the abbreviations. These students were better spellers because of their texting skills.
In broadening the educator’s viewpoint, I had an epiphany the other day during my freshman English class. The students were taking notes on literary genres. A student asked if she could use texting language for her notes. I paused and asked if she would understand the notes later. She replied in the affirmative and I agreed. For her the note taking process in class just became doable and something less mundane. I know I use shorthand in my note taking and I figured that as long as she and the other students who use the texting on their notes can understand them for later use, so be it!
Is texting destroying the English language? The question is still being studied. I believe that as a community we need to emphasize when texting is appropriate language to use.
Key words: ruin, English language, texting, phonemes
References:
Al-Homaidi, Colby. (2009). Is text messaging causing the destruction of the
English language? Retrieved from
the-english-language/side_by_side?page=4
E-How contributor. (2011, Sept. 1). How to Abbreviate Words in Text Messages.
Retrieved from
Masnick, M. (2008, Sept. 17). Linguist Explains that Txting Isn't Ruining Spelling
or the English Language. Retrieved from
Smith, A. (2006, Sept. 11). Education Guardian. Texting slang aiding children's
language skill. Retrieved from
Before I actually read your blog (after seeing the title), I instantly said Yes, Yes, Yes. But you raise some very interesting arguments. I am not against texting language, but I have seen the horrors of texting language in formal writing. However, you have gone through to see the benefits. What’s the difference between taking notes on a computer in an easy-to-remember fashion and writing them out in text format? If the student has recall to remember her text-written-notes, then what is the issue? I still feel that texting language is not helping the English language, but you have made me see that it is not completely ruining it either.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post!