Multiliteracies in ELA Classrooms

IM as the Future of Language

July 17th, 2014 · 2 Comments

 Instant Messaging and the Future of Language

This article accurately and poignantly addresses a growing concern in our society caused by the astounding prevalence of instant messaging among youth. The concern is that the constant use of IM—which, in its essence, has many users employing an excess of shorthand, incorrect spelling, grammatical errors, and the incorporation of numbers in their messages. The fear is that this shorthand will, and in some cases has, bled into the arena of academic writing.

I feel that this fear is an irrational one, and that we ought to give students more credit than they are being given. This article addresses this fear as though it is impending, but the article was written in 2005, and nine years later this isn’t as big of a problem as the author has forecast. Beyond this, it is far more important to teach students the importance of different registers, and when it is important to use each one. Seeking to shut down this new language of the youth of today will ultimately stifle their own creativity; it is more reasonable to educate them on the different situation to use these different registers.

There can actually be benefits to embracing students continuing to text in this fashion. One example of this is that most smartphones today come equipped with an auto-correct feature. With students persisting to use this new form of literacy, they would at least see the correct version of the word they are spelling on their phone, and the correct spelling will be engrained in their mind for when they have to complete a writing assignment in class, obviously with the appropriate register.

Another benefit is that we as educators can harness this emerging form of literacy to use for motivational purposes. Constructing a writing assignment where students create a conversation between two characters texting each other is a great example of this, and students would react well to being able to write in this style. We can then reinforce the more traditional style of writing by having students translate a partners assignment into proper, grammatically correct prose with the right spelling.

Something else to consider is the priority we are placing on these students’ written outputs. We ought to be more concerned with the content that students are writing, with less of an emphasis on syntax, grammar and spelling. While it is obviously of importance to teach the correct rules of grammar and correct spelling, we should be paying more close attention to the content of what our students are writing, given that the poor grammar and spelling doesn’t detract from the meaning of the written output.

References:

Baron, N.S. (2005). Instant messaging and the future of language. Communications of the ACM, 46(7), 30-31.

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2 responses so far ↓

  • robertacoleman // Jul 18th 2014 at 2:53 pm

    I completely agree with the fact that this paper is exaggerating to quite a degree.

    I think that your points are well made and I agree with the fact that students deserve more credit. Texting is one platform in which they are able to talk to their friends without having any overbearing fear of people judging their writing. They’re allowed to express themselves through whichever means they would like.

    I agree that with smart phone technology, students will be using, for the most part, the correct spelling of the word, however, will they learn the correct spelling or do they just assume that their phone (or laptop/computer) will catch their mistakes and so they don’t have to pay attention to what the actual spelling is and just have to be near it.

    The next point that you address is one that is completely true. Trying to use technology that is completely relevant and literally in their hands is extremely beneficial for the class. Students’ engagement increases when they are doing something that they are familiar with and already enjoy doing.

    Lastly, your emphasis on the content of our students writing, rather than the grammar, syntax and spelling is something that I can see where you’re coming from, however I do not necessarily agree. Yes, content is very important but if their usage of the language is not adequate, it can take away from the meaning of their message for at times it can be confusing to get through.

    All in all, I think that your opinion of the article is an interesting one and I like the various approaches you would take in your classroom, or at least try to take, when dealing with technology and students’ ability to decipher between texting and in class writing.

  • slowen // Jul 18th 2014 at 8:47 pm

    I agree with the ideas that both of you present on the relevancy of this article and the lack of credit that it gives students regarding their ability to differentiate between occasions when it is okay to text and when they are expected to use standard, written English.

    More important than that, however, is the fact that I think this conversation should be more about register than it is about how texting is ruining out students’ ability to write. Texting is a “casual” social register that they use to communicate on a regular basis with their families and friends and likely one of the registers that they will learn first (long before we start asking them to write essays).

    I think this is why we need to explicitly teach our students how to write (and speak) in these formal registers; they just simply do not have as much practice with them. When we ask them to write in these genres, we are not only asking them to think of abstract, complex ideas, but we are asking them to express these difficult concepts in a form that they are not necessarily familiar with.

    That being said, this has been our job for a long time, years before the texting monster became such a concern for so many people.

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