Text Talk in Students’ Formal Writing

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Several decades ago, “Ain’t ain’t a word” was a favorite litany of English teachers everywhere, and they sang it whenever that offending word cropped up in a student’s speech or writing. Today, however, ain’t is a word firmly entrenched in dictionaries, nonstandard, but a word nonetheless. Now, looming on the horizon is something which may make language arts teachers long for the days of ain’t – text talk. Text talk, or text speak, is the language of abbreviations, acronyms, and emoticons people use when communicating through short message service (SMS) on their cell phones, or when instant messaging and emailing each other, and it is beginning to creep into students’ formal writing. Teachers, not just language arts teachers, hate seeing this, and many claim SMS communication is responsible for a decline in overall student writing, so they are trying to come up with ways to fight this disturbing trend. However, with the typical teen sending 80 text messages a day (Hafner, 2009), the problem is not just going to go away, so rather than fighting an uphill, and perhaps unwinnable, battle, teachers can use their students’ language to teach them formal English.

Texting and Literacy

Many teachers believe, as James Billington, Librarian of Congress, suggested, young American’s SMS communication may be damaging “the basic unit of human thought – the sentence.” (Pew Internet, 2009) However, the claim that use of text talk may be damaging children’s literacy is disputed by Clare Wood, Emma Jackson, Beverly Plester, and Lucy Wilde (2009), who claim texting allows children to experiment with language, which may enhance the development of skills used in the acquisition of literacy. They demonstrate understanding of how words can be manipul...

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...he children of the twenty-first century.

Works Cited

Alvermann, D. (2007). Content area literacy: the spotlight shifts to teacher educators. College Reading Association Yearbook, (28), 13-19.

Hafner, K. (2009, May 26). Texting may be taking a toll. The New York Times, D1.

Hawley Turner, K. (2009). Flipping the switch: code-switching from text speak to standard English. English Journal (High School Edition), 98(5), 60-65.

Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2009). Writing, technology, and teens. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Writing-Technology-and-Teens.aspx?r=1

Wood, C., Jackson, Emma, Plester, Beverly, & Lucy, Wilde. (2009, July 24). Children's use of mobile phone text messaging and its impact on literacy development in primary school. Retrieved from http://partners.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=rh&catcode=_re_rp_02&rid=16824

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