ChangeWaves links to a new Pew report:

The survey revealed that in school assignments:
64% of teens have used “informal” chat-style writing
50% of teens don’t use proper capitalization and punctuation
38% use common Internet-speak abbreviations such as “LOL” and “OMG”
25% have used emoticons–yes, emoticons, those annoying symbols to denote mood :(
Link

For a long time spoken language has been forked - with slang and “verlan” (the art of inverting syllabus in French) being obvious examples. People would simply adapt their language to the social context, switching back and forth depending on their interlocutor. This is now happening with writing which of course worries parents and educators.

But are we really seeing the disappearance of good writing? Aren’t kids simply considering schools more informal places where you don’t have to behave in a special way, and therefore allow themselves to use “Internet-speak”.

They get junk food and TV shows in their classrooms, so why should they act differently than at home?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.