Literacy standards are under threat ...
Discussion
Girl baffles teacher with SMS essay
LONDON (Reuters) - An English essay written by a teenager in text messaging short-hand has reignited concern among teachers that literacy standards are under threat.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday that the 13-year-old's teacher could not decipher what the youngster had written.
"I could not believe what I was seeing. The page was riddled with hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate," the teacher told the newspaper.
The teenager's essay which caused the problem began:
"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc."
In translation:
"My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place."
Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, told the newspaper a decline in grammar and written English was partly linked to the text messaging craze.
"Pupils think orally and write phonetically," she said.
LONDON (Reuters) - An English essay written by a teenager in text messaging short-hand has reignited concern among teachers that literacy standards are under threat.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday that the 13-year-old's teacher could not decipher what the youngster had written.
"I could not believe what I was seeing. The page was riddled with hieroglyphics, many of which I simply could not translate," the teacher told the newspaper.
The teenager's essay which caused the problem began:
"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc."
In translation:
"My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place."
Judith Gillespie, of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council, told the newspaper a decline in grammar and written English was partly linked to the text messaging craze.
"Pupils think orally and write phonetically," she said.
htheshame: Writing - the greatest step mankind made in the march of civilastion. Why? Because it AIDS and IMPROVES communication. Writing a "language" that only a few "in the know" understand seems to me to be a retrograde step. Unless of course, that's the intention. Then it becomes a Code rather than a Language.
It's a fecking disgrace and high time schools became the places of fear, respect and potential violent retribution which in ages past churned out heroes rather than armies of unproductive societal sappers.
Biggest cock up ever was the removal of the right of teachers to beat the living sh1t out of errant urchins.
To requote the utterly apt Bladder IV* classic, "Give 'em an inch and they'll take a foot; pretty much more and you won't have a leg to stand on. Bah!"
* Edited to apologise for that oversight - it was of course Bladder III, although I'm sure Stephen Fry's characters' sentiments in each series are broadly concurrent.
>> Edited by derestrictor on Monday 3rd March 17:22
Biggest cock up ever was the removal of the right of teachers to beat the living sh1t out of errant urchins.
To requote the utterly apt Bladder IV* classic, "Give 'em an inch and they'll take a foot; pretty much more and you won't have a leg to stand on. Bah!"
* Edited to apologise for that oversight - it was of course Bladder III, although I'm sure Stephen Fry's characters' sentiments in each series are broadly concurrent.
>> Edited by derestrictor on Monday 3rd March 17:22
I've got a mobile phone that has predicive text. However I'm still getting used to it cos its a new phone.
On my old phone I didn't have predictive text so had to do it the long way. Despite this I made a point to compose ALL my messages in plain english, complete with correctly spelled words.
I personally hate text language as I find it very annoying. Basically people are too damned lazy to get it right.
Perhaps once upon a time when the amount of characters you could send was limited it may have made sense. But I can hardly ever run out these days despite doing it the long way. Of course its much faster these days with predictive text.
Andy
On my old phone I didn't have predictive text so had to do it the long way. Despite this I made a point to compose ALL my messages in plain english, complete with correctly spelled words.
I personally hate text language as I find it very annoying. Basically people are too damned lazy to get it right.
Perhaps once upon a time when the amount of characters you could send was limited it may have made sense. But I can hardly ever run out these days despite doing it the long way. Of course its much faster these days with predictive text.
Andy
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