I was interviewed a couple of weeks ago by the Associated Press about students’ use of IM-speak in their class assignments. To some degree, it made me sound like the lone quack out there who is “celebrating” our children’s invention of this new grammar. I’m comfortable with that characterization.
University of British Columbia student, Philip Jeffery, wrote a blog article yesterday (How texting may be affecting writing behavior?) about this issue along with our children’s willingness to expose themselves online by revealing personal information. It was a very balanced piece of writing, as Jeffery is a Masters student in the area of Interdisciplinary Studies, concentrating on computer supported cooperative work, with a broader interest in…
..pervasive games, CSCW, cultural anthropology (ethnography), digital environments (e.g. del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube), and mixed realities (using mobile techologies in physical spaces).
A commenter of that blog, by the name of Beth, wrote.
Call me an old fogey, but I think that in the context of a college or university paper, standard English spelling should be used. IM-speak is fine for IMing and text messaging, where time/characters are limited, but it isn’t necessary in a university paper.
I respectfully disagreed with Beth, who describes herself in her blog as “..a freelance scientist, educator, artist, model and social engineer”. We tend to give writing assignments with the assumption that the pinnacle goal of all children is to become a college professor. We seem to want to train our children to grow up to be scholars. There is history to this, where there was a time when you went to college to become a scholar. Most other occupations were achieved through apprenticeships.
When Beth writes to her scientist friends, she will write in a style and with a vocabulary that is different than what and how she will write to her model friends. In writing about social engineering she will speak from the same creative energy as with art, but the voice will still be different.
My point is that we should be teaching students to communicate with audiences in order to accomplish goals. The style of communication, the vocabulary, and even the spelling will depend on the audience and the goal, and that’s what we should teach.
What I was trying to express in the AP interview, that resulted in the Seattle PI article (and others) is that we should respect todays children for the trails they are blazing through this new frontier of information and communication. We should be paying a lot of attention to them.
2¢ Worth
Image Citation:
mayan, kareem. “Myspace-IM-2.” Reemer’s Photostream. 9 May 2006. 9 Feb 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/reemer/143600294/>.
Applause, Applause, Applause for the creativity and and expressive nature of IM text! But I’m not 100% sold on its classroom value just yet (could possibly be persuaded!). As educators, we help children learn to make distinctions, that is part of our job.
I’m tempted to use the same argument on IM speak that was made for not using ebonics? There is this thing in our nation called the language of power (admittedly some people call this “money”) and those people who speak, or type, grammatically correct, well articulated English typically hold intellectual power or at the very least have acces to opportunities to have their ideas considered based on their level of articulateness.
I don’t want my student’s creative thought, or well reasoned opinions to be discounted because of the format of their language. Now with that being said, I fully realize that the English language changes, so as English-speakers, if we decided to change the language, then lets do it! But until then, we are seemingly bound to certain societal rules or norms. Are these rules made to be broken???
I don’t know, like I said before I could be persuaded.
Excellent points, Rob, nothing there that I disagree with. My feeling is that IM-speak (or what ever it evolves into) will be a part of our children’s future. Our job as teachers is to help children decide when formal language is appropriate and when casual IM-speak is appropriate. We’re on the same wavelength. We communicate to accomplish goals. So being able to communicate in a voice that is appropriate to the goal becomes a critical communication skill.
Thanks for your comment!
Wow, I wholeheartedly have to disagree here. While I don’t think students need to learn to write like a college professor, they do need to have a solid understanding of context, when IM speak is appropriate and when it isn’t. From my limited experiences in the business world this past year, I do most of my daily communication via IM. Yes, casual language, abbreviations, and IM speak in general dominates the casual interactions. However, once you get into a meeting, doing a presentation, or trying to write up a plan, IM speak goes right out the window. You need to look, sound and write in a professional manner. I’m sure that there are businesses like YouTube where it may not matter much, but in the vast majority of the workplaces in the world, professionalism still plays a role.
As I said though, the majority of my daily communication is via IM, and it is definitely a skill that students do need to learn. So I’m not saying that we should be telling students to avoid IM speak, or saying that it doesn’t have a place in school or work environment, rather that there’s a time and a place for it. Just as there’s a time and place for learning to write in a professional manner.
I have to disagree, too. School *IS* one place where they need to know their audience and know when to turn it off. It has nothing to do with training them to grow up to be scholars. It has everything to do with teaching them – for perhaps the last time in their life – the proper way to write. Teach them the beauty in words. Teach them grammar and punctuation and similes and metaphors and when it’s appropriate and NOT appropriate to use chat speak.
It’s also our job to get them to speak without saying “like” every third word. It makes them sound stupid. I sat in front of two ladies on a two hour plane ride and between them they had to have said “like” AT LEAST 5000 times. One was a teacher, she said. It made them both sound stupid. I mean, they were like…
Just because kids do things doesn’t mean that they are inherently right to do so and that we should allow them to be themselves and do what comes naturally. It’s our job to TEACH, and this is one thing that I will ALWAYS teach them to do. Use chat speak when chatting, but you’d BETTER know how and when (and school is one of the when’s) to turn it off.
Isn’t this pretty much the same as slang? I allow certain slang phrases in my classroom. But it is up to me to ensure that my students know that is not appropriate during a formal presentation or in a formal paper. Isn’t the first rule of all of this to know your audience and address it appropriately? I am an educated person who knows the rules of grammar and I don’t speek or write formally all of the time. How I speak during a job interview or school borad meeting is much differnt than during a football game – even when some of the same people are present.
I think some of the previous comments are missing the point. Of COURSE we want students to learn to read and write (and speak) obeying all the grammar rules and appropriate conventions. However, what I think Dave is discussing here is that we shouldn’t discount the inventions (in this case, language) of our students.
Yes, we need to teach them when and where it’s appropriate, but dismissing IM-speak as “wrong” or not worth our attention sends a very arrogant and consdescending message to kids. Maybe an assignment in which they’re asked to communicate to someone in IM-speak would be worthwhile- for a variety of reasons. I think too many educators fight the battle every day of trying to pull students back into OUR world… when we really need to be jumping into theirs.
I have to agree with Michelle, although I do not believe Dave made it clear enough in his blog, his comment later did clarify what his point was. Many people believe that the English language has set rules and regulations. In fact, many of you stated that you wanted your students to know the rules of grammar. But to be frank, there is no such thing as rules…grammar was developed by the way people tended to speak. “Rules” are only an end result of what the general population found to be acceptable. There are many rules that are broken (i.e. Never end a sentence with a preposition) and yet the meaning of the sentences, and the acceptance of those sentences are still in tact. Be careful the way you represent the English language to your students- rules scare them and the English language is really to wonderful to be feared!
When you are in front of your class you have a duty to extend their curiosity- without it they can not possibly grow to understand or appreciate the value of knowledge. Introducing that curiosity about EVERYTHING is important, and although it may not be suited for a formal paper, students should be aware of the way in which language works with other technologies. When we had DOS pcs- you had to type in code- same concept here. Dave, I do think you fell short a bit when you said we are not preparing scholars. Maybe not every student wants to be a scholar, but YOU have no right to take that option away from THEM. You are supposed to give your students options so that they can find a place where they fit. You can’t discriminate when you have thirty different individuals in front of you. Good comments all.
It sound like to me, they are being lazy in teaching and learning. Its “the” not “da” period. Well thats why Japan turns out scientists and engineers and what do we turn out – hey High School kids who can say “Im dn wit dat”. Isnt america just turning out to be a wonderful place…
I really liked reading what teacher’s think about the “IM” language people are using today. As a future English teacher who has been asked to study things like linguistics and grammar and have come to realize that they are rhetorical tools more than regulations and guildelines I found it interesting to hear a teacher to give some respect to this new dialect. I think it is important to realize that language is always changing, and adapting, just like everything else in our lives. It is important that we teach our students not to feel that this type of communication is wrong, but that it is situational. Our students need to realize that different situations call for different registers and that the registers they choose to communicate with shape the way in which they communication is interpreted. Also we must understand how this IM speak is working for them. What kind of role is it playing in their communications with their peers? Is it a communication designed to disguise conversation from the eyes of peeping parents, or is a communciation of immediacy that seeks to communicate faster and easier. I believe this IM speak is going to be important in my future as an English teacher and I really felt that this blog gave me some ideas to work with when thinking about how I will approach students who use IM speak in their academic work. Hopefully I will be able to use this IM speak to teach my students a little bit about rhetoric, purpose, and registers in speaking. This will give me a way to show them that while all communication is in a sense “right” or acceptable, being able to know when and how to use those types of communication will help you to create the type of reaction you desire from your audience.
Rob makes such an interesting observation when he relates the current IM “dilemma” with the ebonics discussions we were having a few years ago. If we believe that one of our jobs as educators is to ensure that our students can communicate with each other, I don’t see any other way than to stick to a common form of language IE standard English. I field emails all day long from college students, and I am having an increasingly hard time of understanding what some of my students are saying. Many students assume it is appropriate to use IM speak when communicating with anyone on the web. I have actually made a cheat sheet of some of the acronyms, so I can understand what students are saying. I take the opportunity of modeling standard English in my return emails, and ask them to please use it in any further correspondence with me. Does that make me an “old fogey” or a teacher sticking to what I believe in?
Thanks for the insight, but you yourself do not know how to use apostrophes. You addressed the subject of audience and voice. Well—- isn’t the school audience one which deserves standard English? If students are taught to discriminate between audiences, then they will understand that “IM-Speak” is great for certain audiences and not for others.
[URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/testo-di] testo di [/URL] testo di [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/macerata] macerata [/URL] macerata [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/rele] rele [/URL] rele [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/legislazione] legislazione [/URL] legislazione [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/memory] memory [/URL] memory [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/community] community [/URL] community [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/amici] amici [/URL] amici [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/penale] penale [/URL] penale [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/country] country [/URL] country [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/titolo] titolo [/URL] titolo [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/elettronico] elettronico [/URL] elettronico [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/arte] arte [/URL] arte [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/fumetti] fumetti [/URL] fumetti [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/mamma] mamma [/URL] mamma [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/novembre] novembre [/URL] novembre [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/colore] colore [/URL] colore [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/romani] romani [/URL] romani [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/york] york [/URL] york [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/caschi] caschi [/URL] caschi [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/bears] bears [/URL] bears [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/secrets] secrets [/URL] secrets [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/hobbies] hobbies [/URL] hobbies [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/filme-porn-gratis] filme porn gratis [/URL] filme porn gratis [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/log] log [/URL] log [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/elettrodomestici] elettrodomestici [/URL] elettrodomestici
[URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/genova] genova [/URL] genova [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/riproduzione] riproduzione [/URL] riproduzione [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/banks] banks [/URL] banks [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/testi-canzoni] testi canzoni [/URL] testi canzoni [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/verga] verga [/URL] verga [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/freeware] freeware [/URL] freeware [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/cartes] cartes [/URL] cartes [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/elisabetta-canalis] elisabetta canalis [/URL] elisabetta canalis [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/fiesta] fiesta [/URL] fiesta [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/valutazione] valutazione [/URL] valutazione [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/spegnimento] spegnimento [/URL] spegnimento [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/terapia] terapia [/URL] terapia [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/2006-calendario] 2006 calendario [/URL] 2006 calendario [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/visite] visite [/URL] visite [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/microsoft] microsoft [/URL] microsoft [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/dante] dante [/URL] dante [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/worm] worm [/URL] worm [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/hacker] hacker [/URL] hacker [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/giorno] giorno [/URL] giorno [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/market] market [/URL] market [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/inverno] inverno [/URL] inverno [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/christian] christian [/URL] christian [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/html] html [/URL] html [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/ramazzotti] ramazzotti [/URL] ramazzotti [URL=http://www.tatuaggi1.info/bmw-san-antonio] bmw san antonio [/URL] bmw san antonio
[URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/consumo] consumo [/URL] consumo [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/tgcom] tgcom [/URL] tgcom [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/restaurant] restaurant [/URL] restaurant [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/market] market [/URL] market [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/costiera] costiera [/URL] costiera [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/english] english [/URL] english [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/aree] aree [/URL] aree [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/amministratore] amministratore [/URL] amministratore [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/francesco] francesco [/URL] francesco [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/massa] massa [/URL] massa [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/le-nozze-di-figaro] le nozze di figaro [/URL] le nozze di figaro [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/windows-xp] windows xp [/URL] windows xp [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/bilancio] bilancio [/URL] bilancio [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/i-you] i you [/URL] i you [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/alpi] alpi [/URL] alpi [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/hostel] hostel [/URL] hostel [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/nota] nota [/URL] nota [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/baia] baia [/URL] baia [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/verso] verso [/URL] verso [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/dark] dark [/URL] dark [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/motogp] motogp [/URL] motogp [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/armani] armani [/URL] armani [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/beta] beta [/URL] beta [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/amico] amico [/URL] amico [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/gemelli] gemelli [/URL] gemelli
[URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/wars] wars [/URL] wars [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/blues] blues [/URL] blues [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/leopardi] leopardi [/URL] leopardi [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/fantasia] fantasia [/URL] fantasia [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/sotto] sotto [/URL] sotto [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/economia] economia [/URL] economia [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/data] data [/URL] data [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/madrid] madrid [/URL] madrid [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/telefonica] telefonica [/URL] telefonica [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/roma-di] roma di [/URL] roma di [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/avatar] avatar [/URL] avatar [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/psx] psx [/URL] psx [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/puglia] puglia [/URL] puglia [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/colorare] colorare [/URL] colorare [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/bros] bros [/URL] bros [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/wine] wine [/URL] wine [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/mania] mania [/URL] mania [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/origine] origine [/URL] origine [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/figc] figc [/URL] figc [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/letto] letto [/URL] letto [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/musica-romantica] musica romantica [/URL] musica romantica [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/styles] styles [/URL] styles [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/cremona] cremona [/URL] cremona [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/empoli] empoli [/URL] empoli [URL=http://www.mkilitari.info/emorroidi] emorroidi [/URL] emorroidi