Students know the difference between text-talk and standard English usage and rarely confuse the two. Today’s San Diego Union-Tribune ran a story citing information garnered from a research study released Thursday involving a survey of 700 teens and parents. The significant finding was that, “65 percent of youngsters ages 12 to 17 have used emoticons (combinations of symbols that reveal facial expressions), text shortcuts and informal language in school assignments.” Big surprise, students know and use text lingo; it does not follow that they use it in serious assignments. If anything, they now have a type of shorthand they use for note taking and for the first draft of more formal assignments. The problem arises when the draft(s) haven’t been thoroughly proofed and the shortcuts and symbols slink through. Text-talk is another language and one that students have a lot of fun with and display their creativity. One parent said, “at least they’re writing.”
Have an opinion? Email cchristopher@studydepot.com
Colleen Christopher
Proud owner of Study Depot Learning Center
Blog Archive
About Me
- Colleen Christopher
- Carlsbad, California
- I am the owner of Study Depot Learning Center, a tutoring service helping students in the San Diego North Coastal communities for over 8 years. I have been an educator for 25 years and, prior to that, a marriage and family counselor for 15 years. My husband, David, and I have two great children, Phillip, who is a graduate student at the University of Michigan and Alexandra in her first year at UCSB. Our family has lived in Carlsbad for over 20 years.
