We all know that many of our students spend hours upon hours of time chatting with friends on the Internet. This new form of communication has brought with it a wealth of abbreviations and modified spellings to make online chatting quicker and easier. Well, what happens when our students’ papers and essays are riddled with the same “2 b’s” and “4’s” instead of correct standard English spellings “to be” and “for”?
I think the first step is to maintain a perspective that rejoices in the fact that our students are spending so much time writing in that mode of communication. Rather than simply marking their abbreviations and misspellings as incorrect and moving on, we need to encouragingly teach and remind our students that they must consider the audience and the purpose of the writing. Often the abbreviations and modified spellings are so familiar and commonplace to students that they don’t even realize they are inappropriate in academic writing. Thus, as technology and the field of English Language Arts continues to change and evolve, we must take on the new responsibility of teaching our students the differences between Internet-speak and academic writing rather than scorning their occasional misspellings. Hey, they are writing aren’t they!?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jim // Nov 7, 2006 at 11:57 pm
I like that you’re looking on the positive side. And I agree–if students are willingly writing without someone making them do it, maybe half the battle’s won. Sorting out when and when not to use the IM-spk is a form of code-switching, and it’s not unlike learning to use slang/standard English or home language/standard English in different situations where it’s appropriate to use one or the other. Most of us have already accepted that thoughtful communicators are perfectly capable of handling multiple modes, and I think that the IM-spk is just another example of that.
2 cmcclelland // Nov 8, 2006 at 1:02 am
I think that you have made a very intersting point here. In one of my undergrad classes, we talked about the importance of teaching code-switching to students who might use a more casual form of language at home than they do at school. I have never thought about teaching student to code-switch with Internet speak, but the more I think about it, I believe that it is an important skill to learn. Students need to be aware that the language that they use to write an email or talk on IM is different from the language that they use to write a formal paper.
As long as we teach the approapriate time and place for this kind of writing, I am all for allowing students to use Internet speak. For so many teachers, I think that our first hurdle is getting student to enjoy writing, no matter the case. I agree with your perspective here, first encourage student to enjoy writing no matter the form, and the rest will follow.
3 Anne Davis // Nov 8, 2006 at 7:51 pm
Here’s an interesting article about IM - friend or foe of student writing?
http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/literacy/oconnor.htm
I do think it is something we need to directly teach to students - when and where certain types of writing are approriate. Many of our students don’t think about this and we need to have those conversations with them.
Good thinking on your posts and comments!
4 Bobbie // Nov 29, 2006 at 11:14 am
I think that this is a very important topic of discussion. We have to acknowledge that our students do have a various ways of communicating with each other. However, I do not think that this is limited just to IM or Text Message speak. All too often, our students incorporate their slang into their classroom work. This is why it is so important to give students lessons on “informal language” and “formal language” so that they know that both forms of communication are perfectly acceptable and even useful, but should be used for separate purposes.
I presented this to my students last week, actually. On the board, I wrote some differences between informal and formal language (including bits about slang, contractions, and point of view). Then, I had them write a note to a friend just like they would write any note to a friend on any given day. They could use as much informal language as they wanted (provided that it was appropriate to share in the classroom!). Then, they had to write a letter to a teacher or a potential employer. These writings went into their classroom portfolios so that they could always have examples of what was appropriate language for school versus language that is acceptable to use with friends. It was an effective activity for my kids.