Words: 2158
“It’s kind of funny because ‘LOL’ now means ‘laugh out loud. ‘ But when I was a kid, we would write ‘LOL’ on notes and stuff to our friends and it would mean ‘Lot’s of Love. ‘ Whenever I read that, I still find myself thinking ‘Lot’s of Love’ and then I’m like ‘No, Laugh out Loud! ‘ It’s kind of funny,” said Lane laughing (Lane 2010). By shortening words are we working faster or just being bone idle? The online communications through social networking sites such as Yahoo messenger, Msn messenger, Skype, Facebook and IM chat have revolutionized the way communicate and causing rapid change in linguistics.
The use of these sites threatens the education system and the appropriate prescriptive grammar. This essay will inquire whether text abbreviations and emoticons should be accepted in student writing for assessments. Should use of prescriptive writing to be taught in schools. Does traditional grammar and spelling have a different status? I will also discuss the possible death of the English language. And should we make marking of exams and assignments reflect traditional conventions.
Lastly I will discuss whether or not teachers are required to keep up to speed with information surrounding the change in trends of online activity and language change. The world of texting and online talk, which has been referred to as nettalk, includes abbreviations and emoticons. Text talk is believed to be very creative but yet causing a lot of issues, especially when dealing with students writing assessments. Exam markers and schools have expressed their concern over the use of text messaging language in exam answers. An example of this is verified in March 6th 2003.
When a 13-year-old schoolgirl from Scotland handed in her paper, which was written in text message format, leaving the teacher confused. Frank Costello of Boston Home Technology has done some research that shows 1 billion text messages were sent in America from 253 million from the year before. Costello (2010) suggests the increase due to game shows reality television shows such as American Idol and Big brother. However accepting the text language in terms of student writing in educational purposes harms the spelling of the youth.
Texting to friends and family the type of language used is not essential providing the person reading the text understands the message. There is some good in shorting the wording as long as it sounds the same when read out loud. The bad of texting language is hindering the spelling of the youth as I mentioned above. Words such as because becomes “cuz. ” See you becomes “CU. ” The terms such as laugh out loud which in text language is translated to “LOL. ” 30 years ago that would be translated as love you lots.
On the other hand some people believe that to say that the English language is being ruined by text as ludicrous. As English as a language has evolved and through time changed from Shakespeare’s time which in that time other forms of slang was used. The point of a language is to be easy to understand, consistent and easy to learn. Thus should words be shortened and words are missing in a text or writing assessment paper then let the expansion by the people dictate the expansion of the language.
In spite of everything we as humans did invent language, so why is it such a crime to change it. The belief that prescriptive grammar should be taught in schools, as far as learning teachers loved the fact traditional grammar being brought back into the education system. Grammar was taught as a separate set of rules, which were to be memorized, practiced, and followed. As the language movement continued, when the grammar was taught in isolation it became a taboo, and teachers were often frustrated and puzzled by the lack of grammar instructions in the classroom.
Teachers of the English language of the later generations alternatively became part of a line of work taking on the idea’s of descriptive, otherwise known as “transformational” grammar. The teachers of this generation thought that’s grammar commands should be corresponding to the purpose of the user. The teachers believed that descriptive grammar to be more flexible, reflecting actual practice and self-expression over “correct” arrangement. Scholars deem descriptive method with a general bending of rules in terms of the grammatical structures that were once seen to be improper, such as split infinitives.
The importance of grammar sets the standards and high quality tests, as students are anticipated to be familiar with the use of the right grammar. And for that reason educators can ill afford to believe that students acquire a perfect perception of formal language structures through writing, reading, and speaking. In addition institutions cannot presume that’s the prescriptive or descriptive approaches, in segregation are singularly effective. Grammar teaching should be specially made to meet the requirements of students and to some extent should both intertwine prescriptive and descriptive practices into relevant, meaningful instruction.
To sum up with the information above about whether prescriptive grammar should be taught in schools is fifty-fifty, for the reason that grammar set the standards of colloquial and prescriptive writing with the ability to write and speak in the right manner. For example foreign students not learning prescriptive grammar will never know how to write in the appropriate means, and to some extent de-valuing the English language. The traditional grammar and spelling have a different status because of the progress of modern times.
Some writers and scholars have identified traditional grammar to be old fashioned as it started in the early 1950’s. Technology and nettalk have transformed they way in which we write and express ourselves through text and online chat sites. Moreover the marking of exams and assignments should reflect traditional conventions in some cases. For example students have found traditional grammar to be boring and has caused rebellious behavior in classrooms in recent times. So the status of grammar and spelling has been more innovative in forms of languages.
It is worth noting that the status of grammar and spelling is forever changing process as more words and phrases and deemed to be accepted in society. As a result of this marking of exams and assessments cannot reflect on traditional conventions, seeing that times have changed, adapted and are not as popular as descriptive and other forms of grammar. However should the marking of exams and assignments reflect on traditional conventions would see a huge drop in the standard of writing of students and this would follow in lower grades in schools and Universities.
I believe many students would not meet the high standards unless they were born in the early 1950’s, and would struggle to achieve a decent grade. The idea of teachers being required to keep up with the modern day knowledge, in regards to online activity and the associated language, change would be seen as a clever and informative way of understanding students mistakes in reading and writing. This could not only increase the train of thought of some students, but also help teachers to teach and yet understand why words are being shortened and use this as a form of teaching.
The stories circulating about students handing in essays written in text format mixed with online talk, children of a young age loosing the ability to spell and not using the appropriate grammar, most noticeable and worrying in this case is losing the ability to discern among situations when is the most suitable time to write abbreviated English and those when it isn’t. However linguistics expert David Crystal believes that they are not creating any of these problems but doing the opposite, and is in favour of texting.
Crystal (2008) believes that texting as a force for, and signifier of, linguistics ability. Joni Lane a teacher at Harrison High School has had personal experiences with learning to keep up to date with modern forms of languages including SMS lingo. Lane (2010) “the texting language appears a lot on quizzes and tests. Answers such as “IDK” for I don’t know are common. ” Lane (2010) went on to say that sometimes she doesn’t even understand what they students are trying to say, because the texting language has seemed to have changed even more as its from an even younger generation.
Lane (2010) tries to address the issue of texting and online talk whenever students are getting to write an assessment or essays, to write formally and in standardized English language. But still the texting and online chat still creeps into the papers the students write. Lane (2010) worries grew as figures started to show that in a class of 28 kids 3 to 4 students try to use texting language all the time. In the class that she takes remedial reading she estimates 75% to 80% try to use texting and online talk language.
To sum up, Lane (2010) mentions she handles the problem pretty well and is learning her way around the problem but is still fighting to put it right. But what she finds most frustrating and is re-occurring problem, is receiving emails from students sending an essay formally when she see’s small case “I”. Lane (2010) You know, “I’m sending you this” and it’s a small ‘i’ apostrophe ‘m’, it’s very frustrating because my generation, we didn’t write informally like that. Computer mediated communications otherwise known as (CMC) is “Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is defined as any communicative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more networked computers”, McQuail, Denis. (2005). The question that revolves around (CMC) is whether it proves to be beneficial to the educational system and teaching of students. The majority of research has been centered on the use of text, email and chat sites in higher education.
This is taken from the general words and type of change in words so the accuracy is not exactly spot on, as most people conducting this type of research were not able to find anyone who was willing to let the personal details to be used for research purposes. The brilliance of (CMC) is obvious simple and proves to be efficient for those who use it. For example, to be able to communicate with a group of people without being in the same place to communicate at any given time is a huge boost to all forms of communication and keeping contact.
The standards of writing have been affected, but been beneficial at the same time. As students who struggle to write and express themselves in classrooms still manage to send emails and get involved with forms of (CMC) such as chat rooms, Facebook and twitter. (McGinley, 1992; Zinsser, 1988) believes writing to learn has been proposed as a general technique to encourage active and self-regulated learning, and (CMC) is a good way to stimulate writing in multiple area’s of the curriculum.
Teachers in the education system should be wary that (CMC) could be misinterpreted. For example the students that take part in text talk and chat room talk, as forms of exchanges when expressing themselves verbally and in their written work, struggle and can be sensitized to these limitations. Learning to become more careful in the construction of messages they send. In conclusion the words are forever going to be changing, and us as part of society are evolving and globalization plays a huge part in the change of the English language.
Accepting the change and increase in text and online talk is only modifying but not ruining the language on a whole. However the English language purists would argue that it is the beginning of the end as we seek an easier way to write and talk. But if anything it can only open new ways of learning for the younger generation, that would prove more exciting and them willing to learn. Everybody is comfortable when they all know what they are writing or doing and if text talk and online talk is still around in the future we will be seeing more smiling faces.
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