With the advent of cell phones and instant messaging, one could have had concerns with how young children and teens began using a lot of shorthand abbreviations and slang in their messages. Parents and educators alike could see that this not only could make children and teens lazy, but could also affect their literacy skills in the future, writing papers and long essays. Not only has this cyber language become a part of social media, but some has even become a part of the English language, such as the word “selfie.” With the merging of cyber and English language, it could become a detriment to teen literacy in coming years and possibly is even now.
One might think that the use of text language harming literacy is a foolish idea, but let …show more content…
Dorlea Rikard, Florence High School language teacher, said she understands that texting is becoming the norm for communication, but excusing bad writing by saying it’s just how the world is now “… [I]gnoring the fact that formal communication is still important and necessary," (Singleton-Rickman, 2009). Rikard teaches 11th-graders in Advanced Placement Language and Composition and she often assigns handwritten assignments for her students, which shows her that they do struggle with the formal writing process. Rikard says, in regard to her own students, "They slip into the informal voice often, and that 's really a tightrope because you want them to find their own voice, but the writing must be appropriate.” Rikard also tells us that “I 've realized they very often write the way they speak and they speak the way they text. And yes, I 've had a few students turn in papers with numbers instead of words and letters used inappropriately. It 's definitely the texting influence," (Singleton-Rickman, 2009). Among a staggering 64% of students who admit to incorporating text language into their writing, 25% say they did so to “convey emotion” and 38% said they have used text shortcuts in their writing as well. Florence High School senior McKay Cleveland said she doesn 't text so often that it has affected her writing, but she knows plenty of students who are well versed in text …show more content…
Therefore, the habits from one can carry from another; some might use this as a counter argument to the previous points made by educators and literary experts, but the fact of the matter is that text messaging has become more common than formal writing, and that is true not only for young students, but for adults as well. This would mean that the behavior of text language, grammar and spelling errors, and abbreviations or acronyms has more time to manifest itself and engrain itself into your mind, cementing the use of these devices almost as a second nature. Text messaging is proven to harm literacy of students, whether they just become lazy or start to make grammar or spelling errors due to relying on digital spelling and grammar checkers. This will continue until we learn to disconnect the two entirely, or learn to write in a more formal way while messaging each other; the latter may take more time to get a message sent, but it will reinforce better habits with grammar and spelling. Until teens learn that school is school and playtime is playtime, this literacy problem will continue to spread until these “textisms” become usable in formal writing, which would perhaps be the worst travesty to hit the literary
One might think that the use of text language harming literacy is a foolish idea, but let …show more content…
Dorlea Rikard, Florence High School language teacher, said she understands that texting is becoming the norm for communication, but excusing bad writing by saying it’s just how the world is now “… [I]gnoring the fact that formal communication is still important and necessary," (Singleton-Rickman, 2009). Rikard teaches 11th-graders in Advanced Placement Language and Composition and she often assigns handwritten assignments for her students, which shows her that they do struggle with the formal writing process. Rikard says, in regard to her own students, "They slip into the informal voice often, and that 's really a tightrope because you want them to find their own voice, but the writing must be appropriate.” Rikard also tells us that “I 've realized they very often write the way they speak and they speak the way they text. And yes, I 've had a few students turn in papers with numbers instead of words and letters used inappropriately. It 's definitely the texting influence," (Singleton-Rickman, 2009). Among a staggering 64% of students who admit to incorporating text language into their writing, 25% say they did so to “convey emotion” and 38% said they have used text shortcuts in their writing as well. Florence High School senior McKay Cleveland said she doesn 't text so often that it has affected her writing, but she knows plenty of students who are well versed in text …show more content…
Therefore, the habits from one can carry from another; some might use this as a counter argument to the previous points made by educators and literary experts, but the fact of the matter is that text messaging has become more common than formal writing, and that is true not only for young students, but for adults as well. This would mean that the behavior of text language, grammar and spelling errors, and abbreviations or acronyms has more time to manifest itself and engrain itself into your mind, cementing the use of these devices almost as a second nature. Text messaging is proven to harm literacy of students, whether they just become lazy or start to make grammar or spelling errors due to relying on digital spelling and grammar checkers. This will continue until we learn to disconnect the two entirely, or learn to write in a more formal way while messaging each other; the latter may take more time to get a message sent, but it will reinforce better habits with grammar and spelling. Until teens learn that school is school and playtime is playtime, this literacy problem will continue to spread until these “textisms” become usable in formal writing, which would perhaps be the worst travesty to hit the literary